Reviewed by Jess
TITLE: White Knight
AUTHOR: Maple Marr
PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press
LENGTH: 54 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 11, 2018
BLURB:
University life is hard enough to without catching the attention of the Villains that call the campus home. Rosey and Lilly, fourth year seniors and best roomies since first year, are preparing to graduate when Lilly decides once and for all that she will be a Super. She is determined to protect the innocent, help those in need, and create a safe place for everyone—even though she doesn’t have powers.
And while Rosey struggles to keep Lily from getting creamed by people like Darklaw and Arson Invitation, the secrets she’s been hiding since their first year threaten to emerge.
REVIEW:
Superheroes and villains, by nature, are larger than life. They’re just fantastical enough to be a little bit absurd, no matter how cool they are. This story is awesome because it relies on the fact that even if super-powered people were real, they’d still be human, and humans do stupid stuff, fight with each other, and lie to their roommates who they are secretly in love with. For a very short story, White Knight does a lot of stuff no other superhero meta-fiction has done before.
Right away, I knew I liked both of these characters. Their friend/roommate dynamic is just cute enough to make me want them to come to their senses and just smooch already after the first chapter. Because this world’s “super” backstory took the narrative lead, we don’t get a ton of in-depth characterization of Rosey and Lilly, but we get enough to understand and sympathize with both of their points of view. I like how Lilly’s Muslim background comes into play with both her moral code and her choice of costume (as well as the gorgeous book cover), and Rosey’s natural biting sarcasm makes so much more sense when we learn about her big secret.
I enjoyed the humor between the two women and the world around them more than the actual hero/villain backstory. I just took the world as it was right away—there are heroes, there are villains, and that’s just how it is. I didn’t question it or need a whole lot of justification until Lilly decides for herself that she wants to change the old ways. It might be a cliché idea on paper—“what if we could be good and bad?”—but this story doesn’t take the 100% moral route. Lilly, Rosey, and the readers all know that the world isn’t black and white, but certain tropes exist for a reason, and those tropes can always be toyed with or broken. Those hero/villain stereotypes sure are fun to play with!
As usual, I found the very PG conclusion to Lilly and Rosey’s long-held mutual pining to be a little lackluster. While the guys in M/M romances always get their explosive kisses and passionate climaxes (pun intended), the ladies are often relegated to a chaste kiss with mere promises of more off the page. Lilly and Rosey have such lovely chemistry that I wanted to see them as them just a little bit more. It’s a short work, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t get a more romantic conclusion.
This is an easy, accessible, fun story if you need something short and sweet, but it’s also a fresh, new read that plays with ideas and tropes we all know and love.
RATING: 
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