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Dear Hero: Every Hero Needs a Villain, Every Villain Needs a Hero

by Alyssa Roat

A superhero romance built around a nemesis-matching app

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A superhero romance built around a nemesis-matching app

Cortex needs a new opponent to restore his reputation; Vortex needs an enemy who can last more than one fight. A nemesis-pairing site brings the rising hero and villain together, first for staged clashes and publicity, then in a world where their professional roles leave room for doubt about trust. The superhero setting is filtered through digital communication: the story is told entirely in texts, transcriptions, and direct messages. Its setup combines a romance between supposed adversaries with questions about reputation, trust, and the darker history threatening both characters.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Teens and young adults interested in superhero fiction and digital-media storytelling.
  • Readers who enjoy romance centered on rivals or adversaries.
  • Readers looking for a chat-fiction format with dark humor.

Themes

Heroism and villainyReputation and publicityTrust between adversariesRomance and rivalryDigital communication

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

There's an app for everything, even meeting a new nemesis.

Up-and-coming teen superhero Cortex is on top of the world-at least, until his villain dumps him. If he's going to save his reputation, he needs a new villain to fight, and fast. Meanwhile, the villainous Vortex has once again gotten a little overeager and taken out a hero prematurely. Will any young hero be able to keep up with her? Maybe she should work on finding a steady relationship with an enemy she won't kill in the first round.

Enter Meta-Match, a nemesis pairing site for heroes and villains. The two match right away, and after throwing punches at each other behind coffee shops, practicing their fight choreography, and hiring henchmen to do their bidding (mostly just getting them coffee), they realize they have a lot more in common than names that annoyingly rhyme. After all, they're still rising through the ranks in their respective circles, and their reputations need good press.

But not everything in the superhero world is as it seems. Can a hero really trust a villain to do the right thing? And can a villain trust a hero not to screw them over? As darkness from the past threatens them both, they may need each other for the fight to come-one with much higher stakes than their choreographed meet-ups on weekends.

Told entirely through texts, transcriptions, and direct messages, this darkly humorous chat fiction rom-com goes behind the scenes of the superworld.

 

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