Bremy St-James is the daughter of billionaire Atticus St James, but cut off from her family fortune, she has ended up living next to a toilet, with no way to pay for her next meal, let alone the $1200 she owes in rent. Bremy might be down on her luck, but she certainly isn’t lacking in courage and attitude. So, she decides that the only way to turn things around is to become her town’s local superhero’s sidekick.
But Dark Ryder isn’t exactly warm to the idea, after all, she doesn’t need help… that is until Bremy’s father is planning a huge crime, and Bremy is the only one able to get close enough to stop him.
Auralee Wallace’s Sidekick never takes itself to seriously, and reminded me a lot of Kick-Ass, in that it is a ‘realistic’ portrayal of how someone wanting to do good, doesn’t necessarily have the power to do so. Bremy is both hilarious and endearing. She has spent most of her life as a socialite, so is very naive in the ways of the world. Despite this, she has incredible resilience, and as a reader you really root for her. She makes a pretty terrible superhero at first, but really, when faced with it, who wouldn’t unless they had been trained for years?
It is a fun ride, and easy to get swept along as Bremy fights clowns, falls from buildings, and attempts to detonate a bombs. She’s the kind of person you want to be friends with in real life, because you’d know that no matter what you were doing you’d have a blast!
Sidekick doesn’t stall too much on the relationships of the novel, keeping it lighthearted, although it would have provided a little more clarity for the reason behind Bremy’s father’s actions had they explored her relationship with him, and with her twin sister. Fortunately though, there is the possibility of a sequel according to Wallace’s blog, which will hopefully allow for a little more in-depth understanding. And I think that understanding is needed… at the end of the novel I felt like there was just so much possibility for more. I wasn’t done with that world, and by the sounds of it, neither is Wallace. If Sidekick #2 does get published, I’ll want be among the first to get my hands on a copy!
REVIEWER: JJ McConnachie
TITLE: Sidekick
AUTHOR(S): Auralee Wallace
PUBLISHER: Harlequin