So I finished Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen, book three in the Please Don't Tell My Parents series.
The Please Don't Tell My Parents books are a young adult superhero series by
Richard Roberts. So far is consists of three books. Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain, Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon and the released a few days ago Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen. The next book has no release date and is set to be called Please Don't Tell My Parents I Have a Nemesis.
What is the Please Don't Tell My Parents series about? Summed up briefly, it is Silver Age Worm for kids (though that is just a description. It has nothing to do with Worm). The books star Penelope Akk, the daughter of two (mostly) retired superheroes. She is just coming into her powers as a mad scientist when a series of misadventures and misunderstandings causes her to secretly become the Supervillain Bad Penny. She is joined in this by her two friends Claire and Ray.
The first book is about their misadventures joining the Supervillain world. The second book is about their trip to Jupiter and the interplanetary wars they, in no particular order, star, stop and get involved with.
And that brings me onto the third book.
I enjoyed the third book but to me it lacked the manic energy of the first and the more structured story line of the second. After returning home from the Moon, Penelope and co return to school. As has been hinted before, the children of lots of super heroes and villains go to this school. If the book has a defining plot, it is mostly about them all coming out of the (cape) closet. Apart from that, the book some what meanders through the lives of the main characters. There is no single strong plot thread tying it all together, except perhaps character growth. There are a couple of super outings, both villain and hero, but nothing much really happens superhero plot wise. For example, the big final fight is entirely of Penelope's own making and frankly doesn't really matter that much as far as I could see.
But as I said, lots of character growth. Penelope and Ray get their relationship on. Ray's home life is expanded upon, complete with an ominous future for him and Penelope. Claire shows she's far far to into the Penelope-Ray relationship. The super cast is majorly expanded, with lots of kid supers with interesting powers. Beaddown is cool, Penelope's lesbian admirer is sparking, the magical bunny book is funny, Marcia went from stuck up queen bee to bipolar psycho and became a better person for it. All good.
As I said, I liked it but I think it was the weakest of the three so far.