Lois Lane: Fallout - Gwenda Bond

Title: Lois Lane: Fallout
Author: Gwenda Bond
Pages: 304
Publisher: Switch Press
Source: BEA 15
Goodreads rating: 

About: Lois Lane is starting a new life in Metropolis. An Army brat, Lois has lived all over—and seen all kinds of things. (Some of them defy explanation, like the near-disaster she witnessed in Kansas in the middle of one night.) But now her family is putting down roots in the big city, and Lois is determined to fit in. Stay quiet. Fly straight. As soon as she steps into her new high school, though, she can see it won’t be that easy. A group known as the Warheads is making life miserable for another girl at school. They’re messing with her mind, somehow, via the high-tech immersive videogame they all play. Not cool. Armed with her wit and her new snazzy job as a reporter, Lois has her sights set on solving this mystery. But sometimes it’s all a bit much. Thank goodness for her maybe-more-than-a friend, a guy she knows only by his screenname, SmallvilleGuy. 

I was so excited when I got this book at BEA 15, but then I put off reading it for a super long time.  I think it's probably because I'm so over the superhero thing.  It's such a bummer, because I used to really enjoy superhero movies and now I want nothing to do with them.  They've over-saturated the market and ruined my life /dramatics over.  However, I am totally here for awesome ladies, and with this book being about Lois Lane, I was pretty sure it would fit the bill.

First of all I was so impressed by how the Superman stuff was updated and changed for a YA story:

• SmallvilleGuy - obviously Clark, very skittish about letting Lois know who he really is.  You can't help but hope these two kids get it together
• The Daily Scoop - a student run offshoot of the Daily Planet that Perry White is in charge of.  Speaking of Perry White, was anyone else picturing him as the hot teacher from the new 90210?  Just me then?
• The Warheads - totally reminded me of the villains in the old Superman movies that I used to watch with my dad when I was little.  (I think I'm thinking of Superman II, General Zod and all them?)

So Lois is an army brat.  She never really makes any friends because she's not in one place long enough to put down roots, only long enough to get in a little bit of trouble.  The only exception to this being her online friend SmallvilleGuy (lol),  They met on an unusual occurrence website that she frequents and they've kept in contact over the years, even though he's hellbent on keeping his identity a secret.

This time her dad's been relocated to Metropolis and Lois is set on making some friends and staying out of trouble.  On her first day at her new school Lois has a run in with Anavi, who is being bullied by a group of kids (the Warheads), the principal (who is ignoring Anavi's complaints), and Perry White, who is there to talk to the principal about the student run newspaper project the Daily Planet is sponsoring.  This chance meeting sets her up for what's to come.  After seeing her step in on Anavi's behalf and take the principal to task for ignoring bullying, Perry offers her a chance to work at the Planet.  While working on the paper, she meets new friends Devin, Maddy, and James (well, kind of).

The thing about Lois is that she's just trying to do the right thing, which, of course, is the same thing that's going to get her in trouble.  She wants to save Anavi from these hive-minded jerks and, in her investigative pursuits, skips a few classes and, you know, borrows some military grade surveillance equipment, and is constantly crossing paths with the principal in a bad way.  I loved everything about Lois and I can't wait to get my hands on the next book!