Collateral Damage by Taylor Simonds
Rating: 5/5
Publication Date: June 25, 2019
Power. Courage. Invincibility. The marks of a true hero.
Meg Sawyer has none of these things.
Meg has never stopped a moving bus with her bare hands, been bitten by a radioactive insect, or done anything moderately resembling saving the world. She doesn’t have to. She’s a background citizen, a nobody, one of the swarms of faceless civilians of Lunar City–where genetically enhanced superhumans straight out of the comics have thwarted evil for years.
For as long as the Supers have existed, Meg has had one goal: to not become a casualty in their near-daily battles for justice. And for the last seventeen years, she’s managed to do just that. Sure, her minimum-wage job at the local coffee shop isn’t great, she can’t even leave her apartment without loading herself up with protective gear, and her car was just hijacked to throw at a supervillain (again), but she’s not dead yet.
But when Meg accidentally finds one of the city’s perfect, invincible protectors murdered under extremely suspicious circumstances, her whole “innocent bystander” strategy falls apart. After being coerced by his determined girlfriend into a mission to help prevent the deaths of the remaining Supers, Meg finds herself forced into the foreground of a story she never wanted to be part of—one that challenges everything she thought she knew about both her city and herself.
I’m just going to start off by saying that this book saved me from a huge slump because it was just absolutely PERFECT, especially after reading so many fantasy in a row this was exactly the kind of pick me up I needed!
Right off the bat this book started off with a bang because I was already laughing? Like first paragraph and I was like, waiT A MINUTE THIS SARCASM IS BEAUTIFUL. Meg Sawyer had the PERFECT vibe for this kind of story. I mean, being annoyed by the constant “collateral damage” by the superheroes in her city? If I lived in that kind of place, I would also be constantly annoyed by this and I LOVED IT.
I have like a full twitter thread about how funny this book is which I’ll drop at the end because honestly I’ll be thinking about just how genuinely hilarious this book was even when it got a bit dark. Dark humor? YES. Sarcasm, fun, just everything you want.
Meg’s voice and teh style this was written really hooked me and kept the book that perfect mix of light and dark! I haven’t laughed this much while reading in like EVER. Overall, just the best experience.
AND THEN it took a turn that I didn’t expect and I WAS TOTALLY HERE FOR IT. You know that trope about reluctant hero being sucked into something they really didn’t want to be a part of? YEAH. THIS BOOK DOES THAT PERFECTLY.
Also, I’m just going to take a second to shout-out the rat Trashface because honestly, greatest introduction of a pet ever. (Though I’m still very concerned that meg didn’t get tested for Rabies EXCUSE ME).
I also just loved the friendship that Meg and Oliver had. There was no forced tension between the best friends and it’s just been so long since I’ve read a book that just had nice platonic best friends that joke around with each other and clearly just care for each other so much I’M SOFT.
I will definitely be recommending this book to basically everyone because I had such a blast reading this. I read this in three hours and it was one of the best reading experiences I’ve had this year!
If you enjoy being annoyed at superheroes for being show offs, finding a superhero murdered and getting sucked into an adventure that you’ve been strictly trying to avoid your entire life, best friends that communicate through the huge hole in the wall of their local coffee shop/pizza place, and making puns while being attacked by supervillains then definitely pick this book up! I would recommend this to anyone who likes a good twist to a superhero story, the power of friendship, and a dash of dark humor!
Star is All Booked Up 
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