Erica Hayes’s Scorched, published May 2014, is an addictive, gripping and well written superhero story with echoes of Batman and The X-Men.
Verity Fortune, Seeker, escapes from captivity where doctors have kept her special abilities suppressed and attempted to destroy her memories. One thing she knows for sure is that the supervillain Razorfire killed her father, and she is determined to hunt him down and get revenge. However, she has been gone a long time, and someone in her family is her enemy. Soon she is a fugitive, desperate for allies, and hooks up with Glimmer, who has his own reasons for hunting down Razorfire.
It’s great to have a female superhero tale like this. There are elements of romance, and some of the principal males are a little too super, but ultimately and primarily the story is about Verity and is narrated by her. In many ways she is both hero and villain, her mind and memories abused, beset by grief and guilt and disfigurement. And being a superhero, she is faced with a number of scenarios that test her moral principles.
The contrast between the volatility of Verity and the rationality of Glimmer is my main point of frustration, in that she is a little too volatile and he is a little too rational, but it’s a minor complaint. I devoured this book, and the ending was clever. I don’t know whether a series is planned, but it’s a brilliant setup for one…
Francis James Franklin (Alina Meridon) 