#thom creed

[silver-stargazing]

Epilepsy Awareness Month: 30 Days of Representation

Thomas "Thom" Creed from Hero has an unspecified seizure disorder.

[whyrish]

I am BEGGING y’all to read the novel Hero by Perry Moore. The story is about a Thom Creed, a boy who has had to deal with being the child of a hated former hero, his mom leaving when he was a kid, seisures, and growing up gay in a very unaccepting town. He realizes he has powers and joins up with the league, a superhero organization, which he has to hide behind his dads back. He joints a ragtag group of wannabe heroes who are all equally deep and interesting and have stories that make you sob. The whole book shows such and interesting father-son dynamic and has the classic found family trope and just makes me so EMOTIONAL every time I read it.

The book was written by queer author Perry Moore after he compiled a list of 60+ LGBT heroes who were died, castrated, hidden, tortured etc. and became angry. He wrote the book to show a messy queer hero with a story as interesting as every other straight hero and I am AMAZED it isn’t as huge as it could be. This is the kind of book that I genuinely believe deserves a fan base and I hope anybody who sees this checks it out

[canonlgbtcharacters]

The canon LGBT+ character of the day is

Thom Creed from Hero, who is gay!

[mister-antonio]

I'd love Hero to get some kind of filmed adaptation and I'd need Dacre Montgomery to play Thom

[tccnagedirtbagarchive]

anyone want to help me come up with a url for thom?

[mountfandom]

Hero by Perry Moore

I'll be honest I wanted this book to be mindblowing. And it wasn't but it was very good. We follow Thom who is a son of a disgraced superhero, he's gay and he's got powers two things his dad hates. But there is so much more to navigate than that.

The writing itself is very average, it's not beautiful or intense it's just good. It told the story with some humour and a lot seriousness which I think sets it apart from other superhero based fiction. The ones I've read don't generally dwell on the darker subject matters. But as this dealt with a difficult situation for Thom Moore did a good job of navigating the complex relationships Thom had.

The plot itself was another problem for me as it the build up didn't really seem to lead to where it was. The first half deals with one thing and the second half felt a little disconnected from it. The climax just didn't feel like it was grown from the story. It was a good climax and possibly the most intense moment in the book but without that grounding the villain reveal didn't work for me. Which is a shame because the rest of the scene displays some absolutely brilliant moments.

Spoilers. Thom is essentially brilliant. He is struggling with being gay and having his powers and tries to really keep it under wraps. It blows up when his face is on the news and when someone calls him out for it at a basketball game and when he outs himself publicly. But he kept going. He wanted to help people and that was such an integral part of the character it makes the end so much worse. As a healer he really has an affinity for coming to peoples aid, which happens right at the beginning when we meet Goran. His two most important relationships in my eyes are with his dad and Ruth. Not Goran but I did enjoy the romantic subplot. His dad and him don't see eye to eye so we get a lot of tension between them. A lot of tension. But it's the moments that aren't tense that mean a lot. The moments where Thom is undercover at the factory and the ending where Hal gives his parting advice. That moment was honestly horrible because it had to happen. Thom deserved better at the end than having both his parents dead. His mum was missing for most of the book and then shows up whenever. She was useful but I didn't enjoy her parts. Now Ruth was honestly amazing. She was a lovely old lady with the ability to see the future. On the rag tag team though she was really quite stunning. Because she was so clever and knew what to say. She was the only one who really accepted Thom at the beginning and that was great. She stood by him and stood up for him until the very end. Her death was horrible because of how much it tore Thom up really. You could see it kinda devastated him. She was a guiding path in his superhero journey so the only way he could stand on his own two feet was if she died. Sad but true in this case. Goran was not without his merits. I loved the basketball scenes and the obvious intensity between the two. The only problem for me was that it was sooooooo obvious he was Dark Hero. Anyone else? It wasn't a big reveal and all it really means is that you've been shipping Thom with the same person the whole time. Which is helpful. The one poignant conversation they really have is Goran's past but I did really like the end scene. I mean actually the very last scene was simultaneously hilarious and brilliant and poignant. But it gives hope for a future for Thom and Goran. Plus bonus points for including an Armenian character? I think he was Armenian, that side of the world at least. His other team mates were fun Scarlett and her cancer was heartwrenching. But it was okay by the end because miracles of healing powers. She was really self assured in front of everyone but that truth was not what I was expecting. I'm glad though more representation in fiction please. Larry was amusing his power the perfect opposite to Thom's and though he doesn't really die you are lead to believe he does for one moment. And then we have Kevin who could be so much more than what he was. So much unexplored potential in my opinion. His past is much murkier than the others and I'd loved to somehow have explored that more.

Now Justice being the villain I've already kind of said why it annoyed me. But also the fact he was all powerful was irritating. He was the Superman basically if Superman was a villain, down the weakness to a shiny stone. Then you had Warrior Woman who was basically Wonder Woman. And that just felt a little odd to me. Either as homage or rip off I didn't like that.

But still I gave it 4 stars. I can't really explain it but the character of Thom was just such a good lead. And his personal journey and relationships keep the book afloat among the other stuff. Definitely one people should read but may be not top priority.

[pa2roc1us]

"There's someone out there who will one day find me and fall in love with me and prove that all this waiting actually meant something...." — Thom Creed, Hero

[pa2roc1us]

Just finished reading Hero by Perry Moore... just found out Perry Moore died a few years back. Fuck. This book might just be the nudge I've been waiting for to come out. Fuck. FUCK. Everyone needs to read this book.