Hello! On October 15, besides attending the signing
of Maggie Stiefvater, I stayed for the C.B Lee signing, author of the Sidekick Squad series.
Her signing was part of
the tour she is doing commemorating the release of her novel Not Your Villain, second book in the Sidekick Squad series. The first book in
the series is titled Not Your Sidekick, and
it’s contemplated that the series will be four books, each book is focused in a
different character with a common goal. Below I’ll leave a brief synopsis of
both books that have been published until now.
Not Your Sidekick: Welcome to Andover… where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship—only it turns out to be for the town’s most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby, who Jess thinks may have a secret of her own. Then there’s the budding attraction to her fellow intern, the mysterious
Not
Your Villain: Bells Broussard thought he had it made
when his superpowers manifested early. Being a shapeshifter is awesome. He can
change his hair whenever he wants, and if putting on a binder for the day is
too much, he’s got it covered. But that was before he became the country’s
most-wanted villain. After
discovering a massive cover-up by the Heroes’ League of Heroes, Bells and his friends
Jess, Emma, and Abby set off on a secret mission to find the Resistance.
Meanwhile, power-hungry former hero Captain Orion is on the loose with a
dangerous serum that renders meta-humans powerless, and a new militarized
robotic threat emerges. Everyone is in danger. Between college applications and
crushing on his best friend, will Bells have time to take down a corrupt
government?
Only few people
attended the event, but still it was pretty fun and had a more intimate vibe. The
author brought cupcakes (they were delicious!!), there was a space to take
pictures with props and there was a small board where we could post post it saying "Not Your _____", filling the blank.
C.B Lee shared with us
some of her background. She loves stories and used to visit a library all the
time and read tons of books when she was younger, but as a bisexual Chinese - Vietnamese
girl, she could never identify herself with the main characters.
She saw herself as a
scientist, writing papers or teaching, but over time she discovered that
After some time she
decided to write stories that give voice to minorities, like the LGTB
community. Stories where members of those communities could find themselves and
that were open and proud about being gay, unlike most YA novels where LGTB
relationships are more subtle or vague.
C.B Lee’s first novel
came out in 2014, is titled Seven Tears at High Tide. It’s about a Kevin, a boy
who wishes to the sea a one summer to be
happy and in love. Later, a boy names Morgan shows up on his doorstep
professing his love. What he doesn’t know is that Morgan is a selkie, drawn to
answer Kevin’s wish. Their love will only last that summer, so they must find a
way to be together past that time.
As you may know,
writing about gay characters can make harder to be published, but she
During the talk, she made
pauses to read excerpts of Not Your Sidekick
and Not Your Villain. After that
finished, the signing started. The author gave me recommendations of good books
with LGTB content… but I forgot the names. And she gave everyone swag! A tote
bag, pins, stickers and a set of characters profiles cards, also there was a
raffle and I won a t-shirt!
I haven’t started the Sidekick Squad series yet, but I can’t
wait to start it, seems like a refreshing, fun and original read.
Have you heard of these
books before?
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