This was...definitely a mixed bag for me.

On the one hand, I thought the concept was really fascinating. A Tinder-like app for superheroes to meet supervillains so they can become nemeses? I love it. It's funny, it's quirky, it sounds like a wild ride. And I really did love the uniqueness of the format, being told in text messages. It was a nice break from the usual novel format. Though unfortunately, I feel like the story suffered a little because of this format. It didn't feel entirely coherent a lot of the time, at least for me. Things were rushed when I feel like they shouldn't have been while some things dragged on for too long. And the characters using earpieces almost felt like cheating? In a way? It felt kinda weird and sometimes really out of place for the characters to be using their speech-to-text in certain situations. I understand it was needed for the story to progress, but it still just felt a little off to me.

But I think the thing that unsettled me the most was how flippantly death is treated throughout the entire novel. Now, I understand that these are superheroes and supervillains we're talking about here. I watch Marvel. I get it. But also...I mean, they're literal teenagers? That seem totally chill with maiming, seriously hurting, and killing each other? A lot? And a lot of the characters seem totally chill with joking about being killed, but they actually believe that they could be killed? And they still joke about it? All the time? One of the characters even flaunts the fact that they have an extremely high body count. This is not supposed to be the main "actual" villain of the story (air quotes because technically they are a villain, but...they're a main character?) This is a character that I'm supposed to like and relate to.

I just really didn't.

With the way death is treated, it also made the target audience for this novel a bit of a mystery. At times, the writing style reads almost like a middle grade novel. But the things the characters talk about seem much more mature than that, and mixed in with the carefree attitude toward death?

I don't know man.

The whole tone of the novel felt a bit off to me, honestly. The villain was severely underdeveloped and I saw the big twist coming from a mile away, which made it frustrating when the characters couldn't figure it out sooner. This could just be a personal preference, as I love villains that have a deep and meaningful backstory that a reader can sympathize with (or at least understand). This just wasn't it, chief. The villain isn't revealed until over halfway through the book (even though I knew who it was going to be right from the beginning). Why? Why not build up their villainy and make them a really threat? Why only throw it in towards the end?

The two-dimensionality of some of the side characters was also frustrating. Going into this novel, I felt like the whole of point of the book was to turn campy superhero tropes on their heads and put a unique spin on stereotypes in the genre. But the side characters especially felt really cliche and underdeveloped to me, which was disappointing. I still liked them, but it felt like a very surface-level type of enjoyment, you know?

I hadn't realized how much I had to say about this book haha, and it feels like I'm bashing it quite a bit when in actuality it was an interesting read. The characters had good banter—if a little corny and off the wall sometimes—their dynamics were good, the whole concept was really interesting, and the unique format did really create a neat reading experience. But I just wasn't entirely sold with the story and a lot of the morals of the characters. It wasn't a bad read, but I'm not entirely sure if I enjoyed it either.

But that's just me. If this sounds like an interesting story to you, go for it! Don't let me stop you. It doesn't take long to read, because of the text message format, so if you're curious, give it a try! Maybe you'll be able to enjoy it more than I did. :)