Welcome Back, Booklovers! The Second Chance of Darius Logan caught my attention in the search for YA SFF written by Black men with Black boys as the lead. One would be surprised at just how little is out there. And luckily it didn't take too long for my library to get the audiobook. So keep reading to hear my thoughts.
Darius Logan has spent most of his life on the streets or in and out of foster care and group homes. After a run in with the police after a drug deal gone wrong he gets a second chance by being recruited to join a special program through the Super Justice Force. This program called, Second Chance, is a program that helps ex convicts start a normal life after prison. Darius will be the first one through the program who hasn't gone to jail and they promise to help him get his life back on track.
The story starts out so interesting with a vibe that reminded me of Black Lightning with the way this crime ridden world riddled with metahumans is described. I thought the concept of rehabilitation by helping with the special tax force was interest however since Darius doesn't have powers of his own that complicates things. Darius meeting the superheroes he grew up admiring and encountering their different personalities is a strong point here. Where this story started to lose me was the heavy info dumping. Too much felt told instead of shown particularly when it came to the romance. It progressed quickly and I thought I had missed a section. Darius himself needed to be fleshed out more however a decent job was down fleshing out the side characters.
Being familiar with David F. Walker's work on Bitter Root I'm wondering if this would've read better as a comic or graphic novel instead of as prose. The pieces were all their for an interesting YA superhero story but the execution doesn't quite land. It does end in a way where if a book 2 isn't already in the works there's plenty of opportunity to do some cool things in the sequel.
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