Publisher:
Dreamspinner
Press
Published: June
9, 2014
ISBN: 978 1 62798 726 4
Genre: Romance, M/M
Book
Format: E-book
Obtained
via: Publisher
Reviewed
by: Helena Stone, helenastone63@gmail.com
Rating:
3
Back
in 1975 Douglas “King” Fisher is a young man on a quest. He and his three
friends have made it their mission to keep their high school bully free. On the
last day of school, just before King will leave forever, he answers one last
call for help. He doesn’t know it but saving the never seen before beautiful
teenage boy from the bullies will have long lasting consequences.
In
2010 King lives a quiet and in his own eyes completely unremarkable life in the
town where he grew up. The destiny he thought he was bound for when he finished
school disappeared before his eyes due to an accident. Instead of moving away
he stayed where he was, looking after everybody except himself and never
realising what he means to those around him.
For
about twenty years King has had a hero. Rex Rodman, action star from a
television series, is everything King would have loved to be and more. King has
dreamed about Rex; dreams that became more vivid when Rex came out while at the
height of his fame. But dreams are just that, aren’t they? With King’s
fifty-seventh birthday fast approaching he is about to learn a few lessons from
the most unexpected of teachers.
I’m not looking forward to writing this review.
This is another case of a fabulous story-idea let down – in my opinion at least
– by the way it has been told.
I
loved the idea of the Knights of Right we are introduced to in the prologue. A
group of kids protecting everybody in their school from bullies is something I
would love to see in real life. But even that early in the story the
self-deprecating tone the main character ‘King’ uses to describe himself, his
friends and the work they do put me off. I wanted to like him, had a feeling he
really was likeable but had to read too far between the lines to get to that
part of his personality.
I
hoped the tone of voice was the result of the character being a teenager at the
time and that it would become more balanced as the story progressed.
Unfortunately the opposite was true. If anything King became more cynical and
down on himself as the story continued.
“There
was a ‘King’ once. A long time ago. He’s gone. I let him go when I let him down
and turned him into me.”
The
more King put himself down, the less I liked him. And, while it was funny the
first few times, I got a bit tired of reading the following line time and
again.
“I
could say it all right, but I’d be lying.”
I
can’t escape the feeling that the author tried to outsmart herself here. It
reads as if she intended for this to be a snarky, somewhat cynical but
ultimately funny story. For me the author didn’t succeed in that quest. While
there certainly were a few occasions on which I smiled and even laughed out
loud I have to admit that overall King came across as a self-pitying and
self-indulgent moan.
And
that is a shame because this story had so much going for it.
It
is great to read a story in which the main characters are in their fifties and
no longer quite at their best. It would have been even better if King hadn’t
sounded like a sulking teenager rather than a grown-up man.
And
I really liked the idea of redefining what exactly constitutes a hero. We may
look up to someone for whatever reason; it is quite possible others look up to
us for reasons we can’t begin to recognise or understand. And the author did
succeed in getting the message that heroes are rarely what we perceive them to
be and that we can never know how we affect other people, across very well and
eloquently.
“...living
the life of a real man, where it really counts, slugging it out on a day-to-day
basis in the trenches of everyday life, that’s the mark of a real hero.”
So
while this may not have been the right read for me, I hope it won’t put anyone
off trying ‘Hero Worship’ for themselves. Like I said, it was the tone in which
the story was told rather than the story itself that didn’t work for me. If you
like your main character cynical and self-deprecating, you are in for a treat.
This is an objective review
and not an endorsement of this book.
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