All Those Explosions Were Someone Else's Fault, by James Alan Gardner

I picked this book up not because the premise intrigued me (it really didn't) but because it is a NEW NOVEL BY JAMES ALAN GARDNER. I've been a fan of Gardner's works since I was a teen, and he hasn't put a book out in twelve years, and his old books are all out of print and available only as ebooks these days, and I was half-convinced he was never going to publish another book again, but HEY. NEW BOOK BY JAMES ALAN GARDNER. Obviously I was going to be there.

I always particularly admired Gardner's writing for his excellent characterization work. He is great at writing characters you care about and who seem like real and complicated people, and his first-person POV does the best I've ever seen of making the POV matter, with the characterization of the POV character really affecting the way the story is being told and what the narrative is paying attention to.

So I grumbled to myself about this new book being about superheroes vs vampires/werewolves/etc (I don't particularly care about superheroes OR monsters or for that matter fights) but I knew that if I picked it up I would care about the characters.

And having read this book....yep, I definitely care about the characters! You got me again, James Alan Gardner.

PLUS. The main character is GENDERQUEER oh dang and I really relate. ( cut for spoilers )