Miles Morales Faces The Grossest Villain
Book Review: Miles Morales Suspended by Jason Reynolds
Miles Morales is back as Spider-Man but instead of saving lives, he’s in detention and crushing on a classmate named Alicia. Miles Morales Suspended by Jason Reynolds is a novel that takes place after the event of Into the Spiderverse and the first Miles Morales book. The book picks up with Miles being comfortable with his Spidey sense and physical abilities. Talking with girls though? That’s much more difficult. In between classes with best friend Ganke and flirting with Alicia, Miles feels like something is off with his academy. It’s not only the annoying and racist teacher but something else lurking within the hallways.
What I enjoy about Reynolds’s version of Spider-Man books is that they immerse readers so intimately into the world of Miles Morales. The life of a teenage boy can be complicated and the superhero twist makes Miles relatable in two ways. He’s forced to deal with his romantic feelings for a classmate and with the anger and confusion of dealing with a racist teacher. Miles Morales Suspended also follows a theme we’ve seen before in this version of Spider-man, a teen who has a ton of responsibility and not enough bandwidth to rescue everything and everyone.
Suspended is unique in that it has spoken word prose before a lot of major events in the book. Also sprinkled in are intricate illustrations by Zeke Peña showing some of the action and detailing the big baddie that Miles has to defeat.
So who is Miles Morales Suspended for? This entertaining read would be appealing to readers who enjoy action-packed superhero stories, coming-of-age tales, and stories that tackle important social issues such as race, identity, and representation.
Genre — Children’s Fiction
Rating — ⭐⭐⭐
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