Red Eye Reviews - Change of Heart
The next book in this series just debuted at Anthrocon, so I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the sequel. In the meantime, check out my review for Change of Heart, available at Bad Dog Books
I love that the protagonist to Change of Heart, a Korps Universe novel by Grace Reed, is fat.
Let me explain.
Madison Oakes, who prefers Maddy, is starting her career as a Hero (with the capital H) in Ontario, Canada. Their father was a Hero who went by Heartwood, and he died tragically in the line of duty. When Maddy's powers manifested, she was quickly pushed into taming and training those powers so they could take up the mantle of their departed father, and since she's also non-binary and trans, act as a public face for Ontario's Heroes, the local government sponsored superhero team. Maddy is… maybe less than enthused about that.
To return to that opening statement, Maddy is a sheep-bear hybrid, and as such, is fat. They have a significant appetite, and there are various portions of scenes where Maddy is eating, and is no less capable a hero for that. And perhaps this makes me, someone who is also fat, like this story a bit more than I might otherwise. To have a fat protagonist that is fat, and have that not be a plot point in any respect, is kinda gratifying. This is not to yuck anyone's yum or anything, but often fatness is seen through either a fetish lens (Let's get that person FATTER) or as some kind of moral failing (they really let themselves go and just cannot stop) and it's nice to have Maddy… exist, fat, in her own skin and fur (and wool?) and it's just something about them, not anything else.
It also helps that Maddy certainly fucks in the story.
On the downside, I really wish that the author, Grace Reed, had the confidence that the reader would have read the chapter immediately preceding. The book is unfortunately rife with recaps and betrays the story's origins as a serialized narrative prior to being assembled for publication.
Having said that, I really like this book and also where it interacts with other characters in the Korps Universe, or at least the one that exists in novels. Due to the wandering nature of the second half of the book, Maddy ends up criss-crossing both Canada and the US, searching for somewhere to feel productive when she happens to play a minor role in a huge event that is happening in other books. To quote the author in the acknowledgments: "It's always fascinating to come up with a character, and then work out how to figuratively mash their action figure together with all the others—accompanied by "pew pew" or making-out noises, of course, as the case may be."
In short, I really enjoyed spending more time in the Korps Universe. I like Maddy as a character, and since this is book 1, I'm looking forward to seeing more of her adventures! And if you like superhero stuff, I think you'll enjoy this book, too.