H. L. Burke’s Reformed, the first in a superhero series, imagines a world of super enabled people, called sables, mixing with normal people, named normies, where superheroes are monitored by the government agency called the Department of Super-Abled (DOSA). In the first installment, sable Prism is revitalizing the supervillain reformation project, a project her father invented. The first villain she wants to reform is Fade, a former villain-turned-superhero-turned-villain-again. Fade has some blood on his hands for his last act of treachery. Will Prism be able to reform Fade, or is it his destiny to be a criminal?
Most of the novel takes place in the community of Oceanside, California and involves Prism’s superhero team. The group has a list of super-abilities that compliment each other, but they need someone with Fade’s powers to give them an extra edge. The early part of the novel, told from both Prism and Fade’s perspectives, detail whether Fade will be able to overcome his past and become the hero Prism believes him to be.
Reformed focuses on its villain redemption theme which differs from other superhero storylines. The novel has some of the tension of a villain in a superhero group ala Marissa Meyer’s Renegades series, but the heroes here know Fade’s past. Reformed uses a tragic backstory for its primary heroes (Fade’s past and Prism’s parents) that Marvel superheroes have capitalized on for years. But Reformed is its own novel. The idea of whether or not a person who did unforgivable acts can be redeemed has a spiritual aspect to it normally not explored in cape-and-tights narratives. While not a religious novel, the book isn’t afraid to shy away from the subject.
After reading Renegades, Vicious, and some indie-published novels like the Arca series, the cover of Reformed led me to believe it would end up in the YA world. However the novel deals head-on with quite a few adult topics. While the characters have super powers, this book has a contemporary feel to it. A number of times I was surprised where the novel went to make its point. It wasn’t afraid to take chances.
The plot is fast-moving, leaving the reader wanting more at the end of each chapter making it hard to put down. The action scenes are described with enough detail to view the comic panels in the reader’s head. I enjoyed the humor too. Any book that succeeds in making the word squicky work not once but twice has a lot going for it.
While the action and the humor propel it in the second and third acts, I did struggle connecting with the characters at the beginning. The superhero genre is loaded with stories right now from the movies to television to graphic novels and now to books. It’s a real challenge to come up with super-powered people that are unique and harder still to name them. Reformed struggles a bit here at the starting line, however, the use of the name Fade and the fact that memory plays a big role in his arc (i.e. memory fades), was an inspired moniker for this character. In addition, in the middle of the novel, two characters engage in a “battle of the mind” of sorts. This has never worked visually in my opinion. Squiggly lines coming out of a superhero’s head only goes so far. The choice to put this in a novel which can describe abstract concepts like a mind battle is very clever.
Reformed has heart, faith, humor, and action. Effective little moments weave around larger scenes in a consistently gripping narrative. So when I finished this book, I checked out the next novel in the series and plopped it into my TBR list.
Postscript: The novel is dedicated to the Marines. As a son of a Marine, this glowing review wasn’t influenced in any way by the dedication or the honorable depiction of the Marines in this novel…mostly.
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085X8N8FL