Rush and the Grey Fox

Jon Klement
Coscom Entertainment (2005)
ISBN 1897217293
Reviewed by Kristina Patton for Reader Views (4/06)

Mary Woods is a teenager who just lost three of her best friends in a car accident and has recently awaken to find herself eighty pounds lighter than when she fell and hit her head. All of a sudden she craves nothing but soda and discovers a superhuman ability.

Mary’s best friend, Alex, is kidnapped for something he knows nothing about. Mr. Chen, hiding out as an Asian art collector, realizes his old student, Black Lotus, is back in town and she’s up to something very wrong. He stumbles upon Mary and becomes something of a father figure to her as he trains and helps her to develop and hone her powers. Mary wants her name to be known to the public as Rush. Rush and the Grey Fox, as Mr. Chen is known, join forces against the Black Lotus to try to help Alex. After that ordeal is over, Rush and the Grey Fox are up against alien invaders who are more powerful than they expect. Along the way, she meets others like herself who also use their powers for the good of the world.

I really enjoyed this book. It took me back to a place where I could hide in my room and just read all day long. My favorite part is that Mary craves soda….a lot. It adds an element of weird to a fascinating tale. At first I thought this would just be another sci-fi super hero book for teenage boys who have run out of comic books. But, Mr. Klement brings an exciting twist to an old subject. He brings back the reason that we all read comics as children. Instead of the same old ‘superhero saves the day routine’, he just brings better material. Instead of one super hero out to save the world, there are a group of super heroes. Instead of a character who is always considered popular in school and comes from the perfect family, Mr. Klement chooses a character that has very low self esteem, knows what it’s like to be an overweight teenager, and comes from a family who doesn’t always get along.

The theme of family comes alive through Mary’s stepfather. At first they don’t get along and he seems to try to hard, but then she comes to realize that he truly loves her. Mr. Klement has a very descriptive and quirky writing style. His descriptive fight scenes make you feel as though you are fighting alongside of the characters. The image of the villain Titan hooking himself into the prosthetic limbs stands out, and the names of the aliens, Null and Void, are definitely quirky.

Overall, this is a great book for anyone who grew up reading comic books, boy or girl, young or old. An underlying theme of positive self esteem and an idea that you can be anything you want to be can be appreciated by any young adult.

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