5 Reasons We Love Sarah Kuhn’s Offbeat Superhero Saga Heroine Complex

Heroine Worship continues the story of Aveda and Evie’s friendship, but with a couple of significant twists: Aveda takes over the mic to narrate the story from her perspective, and Evie is now a full-fledged hero. Demon cupcakes vanquished (more on that in a minute), things are quiet in San Francisco. Much too quiet for Aveda’s taste; she’s spent her entire adult life crafting herself into a perfect demon-fighting machine and social media superstar. The defeat of the demons that plagued the city has left her with a major identity crisis. On the flip side, it has also given her time to realize she’s ready to move forward with her long-time crush, Scott Cameron. Except that the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual.
Luckily, there’s another marriage in the offing—between Evie and science-guy Nate—and Aveda throws herself into wedding planning with the same intensity that she brings to every single other thing. Needless to say, her insecurities come to the fore and the old fault lines between her and Evie threaten to reopen. When a mysterious force starts attacking brides-to-be in the bay area, things go from bad to worse. Fans of the first book, don’t worry: there’s more big drama on a karaoke stage. Only this time the battle is between Evie and Aveda, with an explosion of a ridiculously large bag of sex toys to complicate things.
If you have yet to spend time battling demons with Evie, Aveda, and the gang, we’ll happily offer up 5 reasons these books are so clever, and so much fun. (Stick around for sex at the end.)
Represent!
“Representation” is a word that gets tossed around a lot lately, but with reason: it took the monolithic “they” far too long to realize that it’s inspiring and exciting when characters in pop culture to whom we can relate, whatever our backgrounds—especially when we’re talking superheroes. And that doesn’t just stop being a thing when you grow up. Plus, not for nothing: those of us who don’t fit into a majority demographic are more likely to give something a second look if we see ourselves a little better reflected on the page.
In the Heroine books, the main character, Evie Tanaka, is Hapa—half-Japanese—and Annie Chang/Aveda Jupiter is Chinese-American. Lucy, the team’s bodyguard/trainer is very openly gay, with a chipper personality that belies stereotypes about tough lesbians. There are a few Asian or Asian-American superheroes out there, but what’s particularly rare about Evie and Annie is that they’re headliners. Their backgrounds aren’t merely incidental, either: Kuhn’s version of their superhero origin story stretches back to when the two were young, and bonded over being the only two Asian kids in kindergarten, with all of the challenges that implies. It’s not a tragic story, exactly, but Annie sticks up for Evie against a steady stream of bullies, and the two inspire each other with their strength…which is a bit of a metaphor for how representation can work. They also take a trip to the movies together to see The Heroic Trio, a Michelle Yeoh action movie from the ’90s about three butt-kicking female vigilantes who battle “The Evil Master.” It’s maybe not the greatest movie ever made, but as a vision of three asian, female superheroes, it inspired Evie and Annie in their own superhero careers. Representation, yo.
Delicious Cupcakes of Death!
In San Francisco, a portal from some sort of demon dimension opened up a while back, granting select citizens some (typically) pretty useless superpowers. Aveda herself gets a barely noticeable facility for telekinesis, while Evie gets a control of fire that eventually develops into something a bit stronger. But the portal also leads to smaller incursions that occur periodically, with demonic energy that imprints on the first thing it comes into contact with. The result in the first book is an epic battle in a cupcake shop. There’s a scene in the second with some particularly threatening breakfast cereal. The antagonists can be just about anything but, fortunately, they tend to be things that are pretty fun, and frequently a bit messy. There’s even that epic karaoke showdown, which could have been silly but, in execution, is just plain cool. In a landscape of superhero stories in which the villains are always playing a larger game (i.e., blowing up the city! No, the world! No, the universe!), it’s refreshing when the stakes are a bit smaller, more personal, and a lot more fun.
Heroic Duo!
Sarah Kuhn balances the (often) light and (frequently) funny superhero action tone with two very believable, complicated main characters. Heroine Complex is told from Evelyn’s point of view: she’s a girl who grew up without a ton of friends, a demanding family, and no small bit of anger about all of it. She learned to control herself to the point of micromanaging her life and relationships. Having gained fire powers from the demon portal, she’s even more determined to maintain a firm grip, leaving her deeply out of touch with her own emotions. Admittedly, that makes her a pretty amazing personal assistant; she and Aveda are lifelong friends, but the latter is challenging, to say the least—preening, and overbearing, and downright obnoxious. She’s obsessed with her “brand,” and anything that takes the spotlight off of her leaves her fuming.  As Evie’s facade begins to crack, she loses control in the ways she’s always feared, but ultimately develops into a more fully realized version of herself. When Aveda takes the mic in the second book, we get a different picture of both women. Kuhn puts us inside Aveda’s head to show us what it feels like to be the hero that everyone loves, but a person who’s hard to like. There are very few true jerks in Kuhn’s big-hearted (if snarky) universe.

Bad Bloggers!
Social media is an inescapable reality for anyone in (or out) of the public spotlight, but superhero stories rarely deal with it head on. The fact is, if we had super-powered heroes running around, they’d be celebrities on the level of, at minimum, the Real Housewives. Kuhn intersperses the books with hilariously obnoxious social media posts from bloggers Shasta and Maisy, who may or may not be literally evil, but with the subtext that they’re two sides of the same coin. Maisy and Shasta will do or say anything to up their hit counts, but Aveda feeds what they’re doing with her own love of attention. I think most of us can relate.
Sex!
This series isn’t “adult,” not in that way, but its sex-positive vibe is refreshing, especially given the generally light, funny tone. Evelyn’s relationship with hawt uber-nerd Nate begins as something almost entirely sexual, and even though it’s clear that there’s more going on than either is willing to admit, they are entirely comfortable with appropriately safe casual sex. Book two sees Aveda making the moves on her old flame Scott Cameron. Evie is very confident and practical, while Aveda is more awkward and a bit insecure, and there’s never a moment when the books suggest anyone is doing anything wrong. That extends to gay bodyguard Lucy, who is more than happy to share details of her own love life while cheerleading the rest of the gang.
Bonus Reason: The books have super-cute covers from artist Jason Chan.
Heroine Worship is available now.