Law Students

Having never participated in a book club, I have no idea what I?m supposed to write about right now, but frankly, I?m just so proud of myself for actually reading the book this month that I?m going to keep hitting keys until something intelligible-esque comes out. Or you know, literate-ish. Maybe.

Soon I will be Invincible was not my standard read. I am a lover of suspense in the way that James Patterson writes them. Where every moment a different plot twist happens and it reveals that someone?s butler?s step-mom?s half-sister was the real murderer, not the stable-boy as we originally thought. Admittedly Patterson?s type of suspense is almost always at the expense of genuine character development, and perhaps that?s why this book was such a change for me. I will admit it took me a while to read (if you haven?t read it, here?s a heads up, there are 2 narrators, it switches each chapter, this, if you are as oblivious as I am, will save you some time between chapters 1 and 2 and again between chapters 2 and 3. You?re welcome), almost the whole month. I could play the headache card, but I won?t.

One of the things I loved about SIWBI (that?s right, I made an acronym) was that it subtly for me turned the idea of standard protagonists, antagonists, heroes and villains on its head. Because, yes, Dr. Impossible (who, I absolutely always envisioned as Dr. Horrible from Dr. Horrible?s Sing Along Blog, by the way) was a villain, but there were times where I genuinely wanted him to succeed. Times where I empathized with his wanting to have a measure of control, or infamy, even at the cost of someone else. I mean, sure, moving the earth away from the sun might not be the way I?d go about it, but I think the point is that he wasn?t really all that villainous, but maybe, just, well, normal.

And frankly, there were like 2 or 3 times where I wanted the Champions to fail. I?m not sure what that says about me, or my respect for authority, but I did. Maybe it?s because I was never the fastest, or the smartest or the best at anything, but in life the gifted kids just shouldn?t always win. I?m sorry, they shouldn?t. Clearly this author never made the track team or left the bench often in sports.

Maybe I read too much into the book, but I loved the idea that no matter what special abilities or disabilities we might have, that we all still have faults, weaknesses, aspirations and dreams. Some of us may wish to fight evil, others may wish to create a new ice age. But we all want love, we all want control (okay, so maybe that?s just me) and we all want success, though we may measure it differently.

And most importantly, this book helped me realize that if I ever accidentally created a super-hero, I sure as hell wouldn?t want them to be stronger than me because seriously, that?s just not right. It just isn?t.