Sidekick–Auralee Wallace

Sidekick - Auralee Wallace
Release Date: 1st June 2014

Bremy St James, daughter of billionaire Atticus St James, has been cut off from the family fortune and is struggling to survive in a world that no longer holds its breath every time she buys a new outfit. To make matters worse, her twin sister is keeping secrets, loan sharks are circling, and the man of her dreams — a newspaper reporter — is on assignment to bring down everyone with the last name St James.

Things are certainly looking bleak for the down-and-out socialite until a good deed throws her into the path of the city’s top crime-fighter, Dark Ryder. Suddenly, Bremy has a new goal: apprentice to a superhero, and start her own crime-fighting career.

Ryder has no need for a sidekick, but it turns out the city needs Bremy’s help. Atticus St James is planning the crime of the century, and Bremy may be the only one able to get close enough to her father to stop him.

Now all she needs to do is figure out this superhero thing in less than a month, keep her identity secret from the man who could very well be The One, and save the city from total annihilation.

Well, no one ever said being a superhero would be easy...

This is not an easy book for me to review. It is a bit like a cross between Kickass and Spiderman. Kickass for the incompetence, and Spiderman for the witticism and one-liners that feature throughout the book. It’s a one of a kind premise, and it is funny, just like it promises to be. I did find it a bit difficult to gel with though, because of the witty speech and all the hilarious one-liners.

Let’s start off with what I didn’t like. Get it out of the way so we can get on to what I enjoyed. I did not like the speech in this book. Everyone speaks like an ultra cool witty genius, which is not realistic. They all seem to have the same voice, regardless of who is speaking. I know this is definitely not a book to take to seriously, and I mostly wasn’t when reading, but when you see every character speaking in the same way it’s difficult to read. I don’t find believable that Bremy can somehow banter with every person she meets. That is what the speech is in this book, it is banter, the kind you see happening when you’re with your friends. That is not how a person speaks to a stranger they see on the street.

I also did not like how abrupt the story seemed. There was no set up for Bremy and the city she was in or any general set up really. You’re thrown in the deep end with no clue what exactly is happening Don’t get me wrong, I love a book that doesn’t mess around with too much set up, but you do need something. There is nothing worse than starting a book and to immediately be thinking have I missed something? If you’re having to keep flicking back to remember who someone is or what is happening you’re know something has gone wrong somewhere. Now, this book wasn’t that extreme, I just felt a bit lost throughout reading it.

Okay, now the bad stuff is out of the way let’s get to what I liked. I think the story was genius. Genuinely, it is such an original storyline. And the humour is good, even if the speech let’s it down a bit. To have a story about a rich girl living in the real world is not all that unique. To have a story about a rich girl struggling to make money as she has no real world skills to make money is also not that original. Story where the family are bad guys, not too original either. So what makes this story so unique? It’s the fact that it has all three of these things and it is done in a way that I have not read before.

So, what did I think overall? The premise is amazing, original and it really is something you want to read. The execution leaves something to be desired. I think it is probably a book you need to form your own opinion on. My opinion is that this would have made a decent comic book or a spoof film, it was not so great a book. I think if you liked comic books like Kick-Ass and The Runaways this book might interest you, but I would recommend them over this book any day.

It’s a solid three and a half rating from me, but please, form your own opinion.