A friend of mine who studies children's and YA literature mentioned the term "teen issue novel" the other day (while bemoaning them), which is an apt description for this book. We see the very beginning of the Spider-Man saga through Mary Jane's eyes-- while Mary Jane also deals with anorexia, an absent father, and a semi-abusive mother's boyfriend. All that plus she's starting a new school and Harry Osborn is coming onto her and she's been reunited with Peter Parker, who was her lab partner in fourth grade, long ago. It's too much, and it doesn't fit together tonally all the time: a subplot about evil energy drinks just jars with the more serious material. Plus, the serious material isn't always handled well: Mary Jane's descent into anorexia feels plausible to me, but the way it stops definitely isn't. There's definitely some stuff to like in this book, especially the depiction of Peter and MJ meeting as kids, and again as high schoolers, but this conceit was executed much better in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane than it is here. (Mike Mayhew's pictures are gorgeous, though.)

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Both my dad and sister are big on the whole Marvel scene, so that plus my school's libraians recomendation drew me into this book. I really enjoyed it. Its really fun to see the spider man story from another point of view. It helps if you know the spider man story, but even if you dont you could still probley enjoy this book. ( )

This was a cute book. It's definitely teen fiction, though. I enjoyed it and appreciated that the author tried to weave serious subject matter into the storyline. ( )