Probably would rate this 4.5? I liked it better than Not Your Sidekick (think I got used to the present tense as well), probably because I got to see the characters I learned about grow and develop.

The first fifth or so of this book recaps Not Your Sidekick, but from Bells perspective, though we also get to see him go to Meta-Human Training at an undisclosed location in what was likely former British Columbia. I really appreciated this part of the world building given what we learned about how meta-humans are organized at the end of NYS, and was curious about the training bit (Christine's parents donating to put her in the program was unintentionally resonant with the news story about wealthy parents paying a fixer to pretend their students were athletes/etc. to get into elite schools, but that's a side tangent).

I am cis, so I don't know how well Bells' PoV speaks to the trans experience, but he gets a really great line about 2/3rds through the book where he tells an enemy that it doesn't matter if his shapeshifting is taken away, in his heart and his head he knows who he is. There's discussion of a character possibly being ace or aro, which feels like a great way to introduce concepts to a teenage audience.

Throwing this in my Idahome tag as well because at one point, characters walk from a shelter in Middleton to the Bitterroot hovertrain station, which I assume is likely in the Bitterroot mountain range... ( )

Again with the excellent story, the horrible third person present tense, the excellent characterization, the weird gaps in plot and danger-levels-are-maybe-random, and the excellent inclusiveness. I seriously wanted to like this a lot more than I did, and adored elements of it, but other elements kept blowing me entirely out of the book into, "Wait. What?"

*shrugs*

Still bloody well worth reading. ( )

This is a fun installment of the Sidekick Squad. I was a little annoyed at first that the beginning of the book was a repeat of events from book one, just told from a different viewpoint, but then at the end of the book it became clear to me why we needed to include at least some of the events at the beginning of this one. (Maybe not quite all of them, and maybe the parts we needed could have been shown in a flashback instead of the way it was done, but at least I understand better now.)

The Bells & Emma relationship was very sweet, and I'm happy to see where it goes in the next book (which is Emma's book). I do like a lot of the new side characters we met in this book, though honestly Crinoline's powers are some of my favorites. Of the meta-humans in this book, I think I would want one of the less traditional power sets if I was picking my own abilities—either Crinoline's textile manipulation, or Jess's (Compass, perfect hero name) directional abilities. ( )

I spent the first few chapters of this book being hella confused before I was able to square away the timelines of this book and its predecessor. It was honestly really disappointing to realize that the full first third of this book was just retelling the events of [b:Not Your Sidekick|29904219|Not Your Sidekick (Sidekick Squad, #1)|C.B. Lee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1460486105s/29904219.jpg|50278232]. I definitely didn't feel like Bells's viewpoint added enough extra to our understanding of what happened in Sidekick to justify putting so much time into retelling it. That entire first third could have been cut and more time could have been put into Bells's family's illegal farming and the methods of resistance that his family has been practicing for decades already and how that informs the way Bells and his friends form their new resistance efforts. I feel like Lee really dropped the ball there and it made the entire reading experience kind of underwhelming.

I still love the characters of this series and I'll definitely continue it (esp since the next book is from Emma's POV and we're gonna get a lot of questioning aroace content which I am SO HERE FOR) but this installment just didn't do a ton for me. Which was unfortunate. ( )

This was neat! I loved the variety of queer rep - the main four are one trans guy who is attracted to multiple genders, two sapphic girls dating each other (I know Jess is bi but I can't remember if Abby was specified), and one a-spec girl, but Emma also has two moms, and Jess's little brother has a crush on Bells, who is a guy. There is also another aroace side character, although he's pretty minor and his identity is only mentioned in passing towards the end.

I thought this was a direct sequel to Not Your Sidekick, so I was a little surprised when it started with a recap of the first book from Bells's POV, but I actually liked this solution. It had a lot of new parts that we didn't see in the first book even though it was going on at the same time, and the actual summary part wasn't that long, or at least it didn't feel like that to me. (I do wonder if the next book is going to do the same thing, though.)

I loved that Brendan (Jess's little brother) got more focus and kind of became part of the team in this one, and I loved all the new added side characters who will hopefully be more important later on.

The next book will focus on Emma, who is definitely ace and/or aro, but still figuring things out for herself. I can't wait to read it, and I also seriously can't wait to see the cover! (Also, does this mean book 4 will be Abby? Does it?) ( )