Scott's Take: A Trick Of Light Stan Lee and Kat Rosenfield

A Trick Of Light by Stan Lee and Kat Rosenfield is the start of a new series that the legendary Stan Lee helped create along with several other folks. The tale is set in “Stan Lee’s Alliances Universe” that features new superheroes. This book stars Cameron who, because of a freak accident, becomes a cross between a Spider-Man type deal and a Cyborg type deal. What the book is about, as opposed to what the book jacket says it is about, are two different things and that makes it very hard to actually talk about the book.

The book is far more complicated than what is listed in the book jacket. The story itself changes dramatically in the later third of the book and goes from being a mystery young adult type read with some romance and science fiction components to a thriller style read with massive amounts of horror and end of the world type components. While it is a good read, several of the deaths are flat out gruesome and horrific in detail and methodology.

The read is told from a variety of perspectives which results in massive variation in view of the world as well as word choice. Themes that cross all characters to differing degrees are loss, growing up, life not being what was/is expected, being an outsider or different, and more. The bad guys in this read would not be out of place in an R-rated movie. These villains go way further than normal Stan Lee type villains and things are very graphically described. For example, one guy likes to change human body parts into the body parts of other creatures while the person is alive. He is into bizarre body morphing for “art” such as adding fins to the back of a random person that was abducted and is being held captive for medical experimentation. The villain comments from time to time about how he hates the screams, but does enjoy watching their eyes move from the pain and all. Another scene has a character, while conscious and alive, being ripped apart in graphic detail.

While I very much enjoyed the actual book as compared to what it said on the book jacket, I am not sure this is a book for the intended audience. The last part of the read is definitely primarily a horror novel so those readers who do not like horror books (such as my Dad) should definitely stay away from this one. Much of this read, especially the later third of the book, is not really at all appropriate for a young adult reader. While billed as a Stan Lee book and with an introduction allegedly by him, this is not a normal Stan Lee novel.

A Trick Of Light

Stan Lee and Kat Rosenfield

https://katrosenfield.com/

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

https://www.hmhco.com/

September 2019

ISBN# 978-0-358-11760-5

Hardback (also available in audio and digital formats)

Material came from the Polk-Wisdom Branch of the Dallas Public Library System.

Scott A. Tipple © 2019