Faith

September 15, 2021
This sequel to Faith: Taking Flight (2020) delivers more action and intrigue. Faith just wants to enjoy these last few months of senior year before college, before her best friends move away, before life becomes one big change. Unfortunately, life won't wait. For starters, her grandmother, in the not-so-early stages of Alzheimer's, decides to move into assisted living earlier than Faith had anticipated. Then there's fallout from a recent event in which Faith busted a nefarious criminal plot wide open, literally saving people and puppies from a burning building with the aid of her psiot abilities of flight and force-field manipulation. Her sort-of-girlfriend disappeared that day, as did Colleen, a classmate who could apparently control fire. Suddenly Colleen shows up back at school, behaving almost as if nothing had happened and brushing off Faith's attempts to talk about the past. There's no shortage of other shady characters on Faith's radar, as the aspiring journalist delves deeper into mysteries that are still hidden in her Minnesota town. Murphy crafts a narrative that balances many aspects of Faith's life--school, friendships, superhero abilities, romance, betrayal, and being both a loving granddaughter and super sleuth. Faith is relatedly imperfect and driven by an unflagging desire to do good and help others. White, plus-size Faith expresses attraction to multiple genders, and there are several secondary characters of color. The continuing adventures of an admirable superhero who goes above and beyond. (Fiction. 13-18)

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January 1, 2022

Gr 7 Up-This story begins three months after Faith: Taking Flight's denouement, when a web of mysteries coalesced in an inferno. Although its precursor's busy plot is (thankfully) recapped, not all returning characters or relationships are memorable enough to carry dramatic weight. In Greater Heights, Faith has less time to spend fangirling over the fictional TV show The Grove or working with animals. Her two best friends, Matt and Ches, are back, but the friendship feels underdeveloped; it's hard to reconcile their status as "get matching tattoos"-level besties with the many times Faith leaves them in the dark. They know, of course, that Faith can fly, but are unaware when she harbors both her ex, Dakota, and the last book's "big bad," producer Margaret Toliver. Faith's feelings for Dakota read a bit more clearly than her friendships, but the most resonant story line is the teen's changing relationship with Grandma Lou, who raised her after her parents' deaths. Lou, now facing worsening dementia, is able to move into a posh continuing care facility run by George, her newly reappeared childhood sweetheart. But something is amiss at Cedar Hills. The prom- night climax is satisfyingly campy, if sudden. Connections between these revelations and the work of mad scientist Toyo Harada and fellow "psiot" Peter are teased, as is the next step in Faith's evolution as a superhero. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed the first book will likely embrace this sequel; despite some shortcomings, it's still entertaining. A win for more varied representation, and a bridge to future installments in Faith's saga.-Miriam DesHarnais

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 20, 2020
In the first of two origin story novelizations based on the comic book character Faith Herbert, aka Zephyr, Murphy (Dear Sweet Pea) breaks stereotypes while retaining well-established comics tropes. Seventeen-year-old Faith, who is white and fat and considers her sexual orientation “abstract,” is a superfan of long-running television show, The Grove, her love instilled by her cosplay-loving parents before their death in a car accident. When the show relocates to her small Midwestern town, Faith crosses paths with its star, 18-year-old “modern heartthrob” Dakota Ash, a half white/half Latinx lesbian. As their friendship deepens into a flirtation, Faith carries other secrets, like her grandmother’s declining health and memory and her time last summer at the Harbinger Foundation’s secret lab, where her buried powers, including flight, awakened. As people, including a popular classmate, and pets go missing and a new drug starts appearing around town, Faith finds herself pulled into a dangerous plot involving family trauma and the fumbles that come with newfound power. Murphy affectionately portrays a plus-size girl coming into her own, resulting in a character readers can root for while adding much-needed diversity, in terms of body type and sexuality, to the superhero canon. Ages 13–up. Agent: Jen Marshall, Aevitas Creative Management.