Review Detail

How To Date a Superhero (AND Not Die Trying) has a fun premise, as the title suggests it will. Imagine a world like Disney’s Incredibles, where superheroes and aliens are hiding in the population, and incidents of epic proportions happen on the regular. Then imagine trying to be a regular human, trying to make it through premed, and how your study schedule gets interrupted for all these incidents. This is the world Astrid Rose finds herself in, and the small bit of happiness she allows in her jam-packed schedule is for her boyfriend, Max Martin, who she finds out is a superhero named Kid Comet.
I relate to Astrid so much as I was in college. She has organized her schedule to within an inch of her life with her identity and self-worth wrapped up in how good her grades are. She even goes so far as to schedule panic attacks and cry sessions for how overwhelmed she is. It is revealed that a past traumatic incident has led to this coping mechanism for her to feel control in her life in an out-of-control world.
Once she learns the truth, she must now participate in the Program designed to give her survival skills for the inevitable times the supervillains target her as the girlfriend. This extra bit of chaos forces Astrid to her breaking point, where a tight schedule can no longer support her lack of work/life balance.
Cristina Fernandez does such a nice job fleshing out this scenario of a world of superheroes from the perspective of normal people. Astrid’s character is a bit robotic with all her talk of schedules, but it also helps show how much disassociation Astrid is dealing with, trying to avoid her anxiety and survive. Astrid feels too much and doesn’t know how to deal with any of it, so she represses what she can until it breaks her. Then she finally must deal with it and that speaks to the truth that many of us experience.
Overall, this book showcases a fun perspective for fans of superhero stories. It also has a believable representation of mental health, anxiety, and neurodivergent thinking that will hold appeal to many.