Realy Good and Really Bad: A Superhero Fiction Review of Beacon: Hero of Heartland by Matthew Kreke
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Sometimes you read a book that is “meh”. That isn’t really good and isn’t really bad. That doesn’t really make you feel anything at all.
And sometimes you read a book that is of both extremes to the point where it’s stunning. You have things about it that are really good and really bad. It’s always one of the two, never in the middle.
Beacon: Hero of Heartland by Matthew Kreke is one of those books.
As a YA superhero novella, it was a short and easy read. It was also a painful, cringe-inducing read. It was also an engaging read and I wish a sequel existed at the time of this writing. I would buy and devour it immediately.
But why? What is up with this short YA novella that could be so good and so bad at once? What is the fatal flaw that kneecapped what could have been such a good piece of superhero fiction?
Let’s figure it out together. Put on your tights and capes and let’s look at Beacon: Hero of Heartland by Matthew Kreke!
STYLE
Okay, I’m going to spoil the review for you: This is the part where the story completely breaks down from a solid work into a puddle of non-super goop.
I know this is a novella, but Kreke writes the book like he’s really pressed for time. Few things are expounded upon or dived into, things just happen. We’re told of things in passing and just accept that something is the way it is, without any time to build up to it or let a scene breathe.
For example, before an incident at a hospital, the stakes are raised when the narrator tells us that Beacon’s father was admitted to the hospital after a trip and fall incident. We never see any event that leads to him being hospitalized, we’re not told that he works in a dangerous line of work or that he has health issues (perhaps foreshadowing a stay at the hospital due to illness at the worst time instead), and we don’t even see him at the hospital. We had no idea up until that very moment that the character was hospitalized.
Other characters appear in the story without warning and are treated as if they will be important, but aren’t. A named cop that works directly with the police commissioner and Beacon has personal stakes in the supervillain threat at hand, and it’s never spoken about again. She’s just there.
Plot developments just appear out of nowhere. Character relationships just pop in as if the author had forgotten about them earlier. There is nothing leading up to the motivation of the first half’s main villain. We see no real backstory for Beacon, other than her getting her powers out of nowhere.
We know that most of what makes a good superhero origin story is the event that drives them to be a hero, not the event that gives them their powers. By focusing on the latter and never giving Grace (Beacon’s civilian identity) any meaningful interactions or beliefs, we don’t really get that great backstory because there isn’t really a story to be had.
Kreke’s entire writing style is like this, right down to the word flow. Rather than any descriptions of the characters’ experiences or feelings, their fears or pains, their sensations and perceptions of their surroundings, the text is just that; text. A description of one action and then another and the another.
This book sometimes reads more like a summary of the book rather than the actual book itself.
It feels like a first draft was rushed through and published. I’d say the book was in desperate need of an editor, but according to its Amazon page it did have an editor!
What editor Becky Wallace was editing is a mystery to me.
And all this is a mystery because….
STORY
The story is good.
I mean, really good.
I mean the plot. The actual sequence of events of what happens, why things happen, and how they happen. Really good.
This is what kept me from dropping the story early on. While the story was being told poorly, the actual story being told wasn’t poor.
The story is roughly segmented into two major parts. In the first half, Grace Grey is the superhero Beacon, the defender of the crime-riddled city of Heartland, Illinois. She is the only superhero in the city, and in the world for that matter, and she works hand-in-hand with the authorities and has the love and goodwill of the people. She works to stop the mad plot of a villain named Arson who threatens the city with bombs.
In the second half of the novella, Grace comes out of retirement when an imposter Beacon with the same powers as her goes on a rampage throughout the city, causing people to fear and hate her and bringing in the full might of the military on her. But it turns out that the imposter isn’t even the largest threat she must face.
I don’t want to give out too many spoilers. I feel like there may be one or two too many in there already. All I’ll say is that I certainly approve of the things that happen in this book. Kreke knows what story beats to hit to keep you in suspense, to make you feel shock at a twist or an emotional gut punch at someone’s plight.
I was hooked. No, I am hooked. The story kept me anticipating the final conflict, Beacon’s escape from her dire situations, and the resolution of it all kept me wanting more. And the setup on the final page for the next book? Damn, I can’t wait!
I wish the story was better told. It’s like when a friend of yours tries to tell you about a really great TV show that they watched, but they don’t explain it particularly well and they keep leaving parts out until it becomes relevant.
But I went over those issues in the previous section.
To be clear, I’m not saying that the story in Beacon is revolutionary or anything like that. And I will even admit that, given the terrible writing style of the author, I may be favoring it just because I’m pleasantly surprised it’s not atrocious in and of itself.
Maybe I’ll think differently about it looking back on it at some future date, but standing here now and writing this review, I don’t feel that way. I feel like this plot is really good and deserves to be recognized as such. It accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish and absolutely delivers on it.
It’s a simple superhero story, but a well crafted one.
CHARACTERS
And so we go right back into negative territory.
I think, at least.
See, the issue with the characters in this book isn’t that they’re bad. On the contrary, I think Beacon is a good character with a strong moral compass. And I think the villains are quite masterfully done in their complex motivations and desires. Arson seems grand and petty at the same time, in a way seems to indicate a mental health issue called erotomania, and the Beacon imposter’s rage and grief feels so real that you can’t help that small part of you that is actually rooting for her.
The issue is that, for the most part, everyone is pretty underdeveloped. We’re told in narrative text over a couple paragraphs about a villain’s past history with Beacon and none of this is ever developed.
But, again, all the issues with this are the fault of Kreke’s writing style, not his actual characters. There’s nothing else I can really say. For the most part, they’re simple characters. Beacon is a straight by-the-books hero in the vein of my own Blue Eagle in The Adventures of BLUE EAGLE. Most of the supporting cast are just there. The villains are far more complicated affairs and have a really good character arc to them.
It’s just that all the issues I talked about in the Style section are like an iron chain around the story’s neck. His characters are fine, but the execution due to the story’s incredibly fast pace doesn’t really allow those characters to become good characters.
It’s more like reading about really good characters on a Wikipedia page.
But that doesn’t make the characters any less good.
My Final Thoughts
When it comes to Beacon: Hero of Heartland, I have a very polarized reaction to it.
On paper, everything works. The plot and characters are both very well done and I have no major complaints.
But his writing style doesn’t allow his story to breathe or his characters to really stand out.
If I could be honest, I feel like this YA superhero novella should not have been a novella at all. It shouldn’t have even been a novel. I think there’s enough material in here for two novels.
I believe that’s honestly what hurt this story. This could have gotten extended to two novels if some skill and imagination were applied to expanding on the various villain plots and examining a bit more the lead up to the events and their aftermaths. To say nothing of not just running through the story like it’s a detailed plot summary. But, in the end, it feels like a far larger project condensed down into a novella.
And, yet, despite all that, I would still recommend Beacon: Hero of Heartland by Matthew Kreke. Because, after everything, I still could not pull myself away from this one, still enjoyed every minute of reading it, and still hope to see a sequel soon. We left on quite the compelling hook.
For exciting superhero fiction written by me, be sure to check out the BLUE EAGLE Universe!