Blaze (or love in the time of supervillains) by Laurie Boyle Crompton

book cover of Blaze by Laurie Boyle Crompton

Title: Blaze (or love in the time of supervillains)
Author: Laurie Boyle Crompton
Release date: February 1, 2013
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Pages: 320
Source: Netgalley/Publisher
Reading level: YA

Blaze is tired of spending her life on the sidelines.

All she wants is for Mark the Soccer Stud to notice her. Not as Josh’s weird sister who drives a turd-brown minivan. And not as that nerdy girl who draws comics.

What she gets is her very own arch-nemesis.

Name: Mark Deninger, aka Mark the Shark
Occupation: Soccer star and all-around lady killer
Relationship Status: Serial dater
Group Affiliation: No loyalty
Known Superpowers: Anti-girlfriend force field, breaking hearts

Mark may have humiliated Blaze supervillian-style, but what he doesn’t know is how geek girls always get revenge.

#GeekGrlzRevenge

Blaze caught my eye with that awesome cover and title.  I had a lot of hopes for it and I’m sad to say that I was majorly let down.  In this case there were way more things I dislike about this book than things I liked.
I’ll start with the good stuff since like I said, there’s less of it.  First off, I found the comic book references really fun.  I’m a huge fan of comic books and I definitely understood Blaze’s love for them.  Also, with all the Marvel comic movies coming out, a lot of the other comics have been overlooked but Laurie Boyle Crompton didn’t leave any out.  There was a great mix of lesser known comics and the super popular ones that everyone knows about.
I also really loved the gang of soccer cretins as Blaze called them.  The group consisted of Blaze’s little brother Josh and a few of his friends.  Admittedly they were a little pervy but their good qualities definitely outweighed their flaws.  They were funny, kind, and really, Blaze’s only true friends.  They cracked me up with their antics but I definitely wouldn’t have minded having them around more.
The rest of the book just flopped, at least for me.  The characters were all pretty bad but Blaze was by far the worst.  She was very immature and naive.  She did so many stupid things (like sex without a condom?) and she blamed others for her own mistakes.  She did not have any redeeming qualities and I just wanted to reach into the book and slap some sense into her.  As for her friends, who needs enemies when your supposed friends act like Blaze’s?  They were catty and stupid and just plain mean in some cases.  And what’s worse is that nothing was ever resolved between them.  And then there’s Mark.  There was nothing cute about Mark.  He was dumb, cruel, and a major playboy.  Sure he may have been attractive but Blaze just completely overlooked every one of his flaws because of his hotness.
The content was very mature.  I really didn’t expect that when I started Blaze but be warned.  There is tons of talk of sex, as well as the act of it.  There was also cursing and just tons of other stuff that’s not really appropriate for younger YA readers.  And what’s worse is that a lot of the time I felt like it was thrown in for the shock factor rather than out of necessity.
Overall, I wouldn’t recommend Blaze but if you do still feel like picking it up, check it out from the library.  Don’t waste your money on this one.

Looking for more reviews of Blaze by Laurie Boyle Crompton?
Maji Bookshelf’s review
The YA Kitten’s review
Waiting for Wentworth’s review

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17 comments

  1. That sucks. I was really expecting this one to be a fun book, but not having likeable characters makes me want to steer clear of this one. Sorry you didn’t enjoy this one; thanks for the honest review 🙂

  2. Uh oh! I always know to pay attention to negative ratings from you! Blaze definitely does not sound like my type of character. Sometimes, even if a character learns from her mistakes, it’s too much for me. It seems like this book would be one of those times.

  3. Oh wow.. I don’t remember the last time you have rated a book two. You must have really disliked it. My younger sister reviewed it and I didn’t know it had a ton of mature content… it looks so cute :

    great and honest review,
    – Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf

  4. I usually don’t like too much mature content in books, so I’m glad I read your review before buying it. It also sounds like I wouldn’t like Blaze, since I really don’t like immature or naive characters . Thanks for the honest review! 🙂

  5. This didn’t sound very original — there’s so many geeks that want the stud athlete. I’m very glad to find a sincere review on it. Now I know not to go out of my way to make time for this book. Thanks 🙂

  6. Thank you so much for this amazing review! I admit I had been planning on checking out more about this book, because I think the cover and title sounds amazing. But yeah. Now I read the summary for the first time, never ever reading this book. And your review is perfect. This sounds like such a bad book. I will never read it. Thank you for sharing 😀
    Love, Carina @ Carina’s Books

  7. Blaze sounds frustrating. I hate it when people blame others for their mistakes in real life, so I think I’d find Blaze and this story to be annoying.

    Thank you for your honest thoughts!

  8. I truly loved this book!! 🙂 I found it fun and real (and the sex without a condom happened so often in my school, it was terrible). I think the issues with the sex and the sexting and then the slut shaming were well done, very like what happens in reality.

    I loved the romance too, and the soccer boys!