Meet Megaera, Meg for short. She’s like Deadpool, except for funner.
For a girl with the power of fear the recruitment attempts from both sides are never-ending. A self-described not-a-hero, villain-leaning humanoid, Meg just wants to live her life, work her dead-end job and have everyone else (especially the heroes) leave her alone. But when a bigger fish who can turn superpowers back on their users enters the picture and threatens the person Meg loves the most (herself), she must turn to the last group of people she would admit she needs help from.
Forced to team up with the heroes she despises (but won’t murder, because let’s face it, orange is not the new black), Meg will have to face the choices from her past that she won’t get therapy for. Self-centered, snarky, sarcastic and a little bit dramatic, she’s going to have to save the world, even if that wasn’t her intention. And try not to get shot in the process. Because that shit hurts.
Fear and Fury is an interesting book, especially in claiming to be like Deadpool, but funner. In the style of Deadpool, the story takes place in a version of our world in which there are superheroes and supervillains just… around. Superheroes all seem to work for the government, except one, while the supervillains, well, we don’t really see a lot of them but they seem to generally supervillain about the place being villains. Our main character, Meg, doesn’t want to be either a villain or hero, she just wants to be left alone. Unfortunately, both groups continuously try to recruit her to their side. She prefers the safety of her dull retail job, yet despite constant refusals to join them, everyone, especially the heroes, keep tabs on her at all times as she has a particularly devastating power that would cause much grief were she to turn villain.
Apart from her grey moral core, the likeness to Deadpool has more to do with the narrative style than anything else. The story is told in first person and in the immediate style of someone telling you the story over the phone or writing it down in their diary, even to the point that Meg will occasionally, upon making a pop culture reference, berate the reader for not getting it and wonder how they can be so boring. As someone who rarely gets pop culture references, this particular narrative tic got dull quickly. In fact, everything about Meg and her commentary style of storytelling was polarising. Going into this book, I was looking forward to the idea of a snarky female Deadpool, but where most snarky characters put off the people around them (in fact, distancing themselves from people is often the reason for their snark in the first place—looking of you Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy) it doesn’t seem to matter how often Meg is snarky to the point of nastiness with our hero Greg, he just keeps coming back for more like a puppy really keen on being kicked. Which brings me to the romance…
I love romance, and I like it to have some place, however big or small, in most books that I read whether just for fun or part of a deep exploration of character—so no, this is not a complaint about romance in books. There was nothing bad about the relationship between Meg and Greg, except for the fact that their names rhyme, but it made very little sense, especially on his side. At no point was the reason for his early interest in her made clear and it didn’t seem to matter how often she was nasty, attacked him, mistrusted him or ran out into danger, he came adoringly to her rescue. He was steadfast in his determination to go on liking her no matter how awful she was, even though they’d only just met. For a truly enjoyable romance, it’s important to me to be able to see what’s in it for each of them, even if what they are getting out of a particular relationship may not be something positive. Meg’s reason for liking Greg is clear in that he provides a calm, steady rock to the tumult of her emotions, but alas, unless he is masochistic, feeling the need to be punished for past transgressions, his reason for being devoted to Meg is unclear, especially, as I kept wanting to shout at them, when they had only just met.
How about the plot? Well, Meg’s desire to be left alone collapses in a heap when a particularly disturbing supervillain takes an interest in her and seems to be able to turn her superpower back on her, leaving her defenceless—something she’s very not used to. This supervillain is never really given a name, only being referred to as Red Eyes, but despite a few hints that he has been around for a while, his background and motivations are completely ignored in favour of clichés to elicit a creepy vibe. He leaves messages in blood, stalks Meg, and likes to torture people, and despite everyone’s attempts to protect Meg, he gets plenty of opportunity to be creepy to her because she is the master of the bad decision. Don’t get me wrong, characters sometimes make bad decisions, we all do, but on more than one occasion, Meg, speaking directly to the reader in her narrative voice, makes it clear she knows what she is doing is a bad idea, and why, yet does it anyway. The provocation provided is almost always her temper. Disagreements with Greg (often over ridiculously tiny things) cause her to storm directly into danger, and while on multiple occasions she makes it clear she wants an equal not a protector out of their relationship and is quite capable of saving herself, she continuously puts herself into situations where she has to be saved. This leaves Meg hovering somewhere between damaged damsel in distress and spoiled child, rather than the strong-willed and superpowered fighter I feel she is meant to be.
All in all, Fear and Fury was a fast paced read with an enjoyable enough plot despite the romance and Meg’s terrible decisions leaving something to be desired. The characters themselves were all interesting enough to keep me reading, in particular Meg’s relationship to the spirits that make up her superpower. It is something that gives her comfort while at the same time bringing fear to everyone around her, which is an interesting balance and I enjoyed watching her grapple both with this and with aspects of her past. As I said earlier, the prose is heavy on voice with many pop culture references and direct appeals to the reader. This is very difficult to pull off well, and on some occasions was definitely more miss than hit. I did, however, particularly enjoy a moment in which Meg is attempting to escape from a very large tower and, given her dislike of being trapped, chooses not to take the elevator. In explaining this to the reader, she ends with ‘don’t @ me about elevators’ which was quick and snappy and suited the moment of action well.
While, unfortunately, I am cutting Fear and Fury from the competition, I did enjoy reading it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick fun read with some interesting characters and intriguing, if underexplored elements of worldbuilding.
Verdict: Cut
This review was provided by Devin Madson as part of The Fantasy Inn’s SPFBO 8 contest judging.
