Dull Boy, by Sarah Cross

Originally I'd intended for this book to be a very light read, but I went ahead and sped through it just like I'm usually prone to do. Once again, I dug up another little treasure. ^_^ Mostly the book reminded me of the movie Sky High, because it's about kids with super-powers and the main guy has super-strength and flight. But there are a lot of things that makes this book stand out in my mind as unique, and I really enjoyed myself. The characters "performed" quite well and the humor was pretty clever. A bit of bad language pops up occasionally, but I didn't mind it.

So the first thing that separates Dull Boy from Sky High is that there's no high school busting with super-kids. It's about a few rare teens who discover they have powers (who knows how or where they got them. It's not genetic) and strive to keep them a secret from their parents and society in general, while also trying to figure out how to use their powers for good. The boy, Avery, knows that he has to be very careful with how he uses his power. While strength is great for rescuing a kid from under a heavy car, it's not so cool to break your wrestling opponent's arm. Besides, you can only pass these incidents off as extreme adrenaline for so long. He also has to hide from his parents the fact that most every night he goes out and flies on patrol, on the lookout for crime, or some way he can do good and make himself useful, just like he imagines a real super-hero would. I mean, why would he have those powers if he wasn't meant to use them in some way?

This is where the story really picks up. He discovers that there are others just like him. There's Catherine, a moody cafe waitress with incredibly sharp nails, perfect balance and an affinity with cats, Darla, the proud genius who is the brains behind a modest club of super-friends, Sophie, who can will her body to stick to any flat service (yeah, a little weird, but useful) and Nicholas, whose power seems to be a bit more on the dark side, though he desperately wants to control his power and be good and not just cause destruction. Then there's this icy woman named Cherchette (saying it reminds me of Georgette) who offers to take Avery somewhere where he doesn't have to hide what he is. Better keep your eye on her. Also look out for Jacque, Cherchette's somewhat equally cold son, who seems to infiltrate Darla's super-group by being Sophie's boyfriend. Who knows what he's all about...

And that's pretty much all you need to know. Oh, except for the fact that as Dull Boy draws to a close, it suddenly turns out that the ending is very open-ended, so it very much appears that there will be a sequel. Awesome. Well, it'll probably take a while for the next book to come out, since this one came out just last year, but if I'm looking for another quick entertaining read sometime in the future, and the sequel is available, I'll have my eye on it. In the meantime, enjoy Dull Boy.