Review Me Twice: Super Boys by Brad Ricca

It's not that this wasn't an interesting book.  It was, I think, just too close to home for Ricca.  He basically spent ten years researching this book about the men who CREATED Superman.  I mean, that must be an interesting story, right?

But I was three fourths of the way through and only then getting to the things that really made the book interesting.  Things like, the battle for the rights to Superman or what actually happened to Jerry's father.  These are the things that you really wanted to know.  And while, yes, the book is going to be about Superman to a certain extent, it should have been MORE about Jerry & Joe.  Specifically Joe because I felt like I learned next to nothing about him.  It was very much the Jerry Show.

There were some interesting things in the book.  You got to see where characters like Lois Lane came from, the similarities between Clark Kent and Jerry (and Joe, to some extent.)  You see all the influences they had during the creation of Superman.  There are strong men, and athletes and all sorts of other things inspiring them.

While an informative book, it was kind of a disappointing one.

My Bottom Line 2 out of 5.

As I feel is demonstrated in the author photo we used on Monday, Brad Ricca is so dramatic. I understand that he is really into this story. He spent a decade researching it; he better be into it. And after a while, either the dramatic flair died down a little, or I got used to it.

The tone aside, I liked the story. But I disagree with Cassy on which part was interesting. I preferred the first part, about the young boys meeting each other and testing their abilities with their amateur projects in high school. Some of the later stuff caught my interest too, but the first hundred pages or so were my favorite.

I've never liked Superman ("classic superhero" is definitely not my genre) but knowing more about where he came from makes him a little more interesting.