{"id":3711,"date":"2014-07-15T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-15T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=3711"},"modified":"2014-07-14T11:01:45","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T16:01:45","slug":"shadow-hero-by-gene-luen-yang-sonny-liew-book-review-asian-superhero-against-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=3711","title":{"rendered":"Shadow Hero, by Gene Luen Yang &#038; Sonny Liew (book review) &#8211; Asian superhero against crime!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ShadowHero.jpg\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4335\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?attachment_id=4335\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ShadowHero.jpg?fit=280%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"280,400\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ShadowHero.jpg?fit=280%2C400&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4335\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ShadowHero-210x300.jpg?resize=210%2C300\" alt=\"book cover of The Shadow Hero by Gene Yuen Lang and Sonny Liew published by First Second Books\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ShadowHero.jpg?resize=210%2C300&amp;ssl=1 210w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/booksyalove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/ShadowHero.jpg?w=280&amp;ssl=1 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a>In Chinatown&#8217;s dark alleys,<br \/>\nthe ruthless <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sfmuseum.org\/sfpd\/sfpd4.html\" target=\"_blank\">tongs<\/a> demand payment,<br \/>\nbut the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.comicvine.com\/green-turtle\/4005-61241\/\" target=\"_blank\">Green Turtle<\/a> arises to protect the innocent!<\/p>\n<p>Happy book birthday to <em>The Shadow Hero<\/em>, as the origins of the first Asian-American superhero are revealed!<\/p>\n<p>I love this new joint effort of graphic novelists Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew &#8211; light-hearted, but underpinned with the historical accuracy which won Gene so many awards for his paired graphic novels of a pivotal time in Chinese history, <em>Boxers<\/em> and <em>Saints<\/em> (my review <a href=\"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=1803\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>) .<\/p>\n<p>Get a quick look at its vintage look and action here:<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QvlrcTB6FVE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Green Turtle&#8217;s adventures continue in this short sequence published on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tor.com\/stories\/2014\/01\/the-shadow-hero-prequel-comic\" target=\"_blank\">Tor website<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n<p>**kmm<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book info<\/strong>:\u00a0 The Shadow Hero \/ Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew. First Second Books, 2014.\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/geneyang.com\/the-shadow-hero\" target=\"_blank\">Gene&#8217;s site<\/a>]\u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/sonnyliew.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sonny&#8217;s site<\/a>] \u00a0 [<a href=\"http:\/\/www.firstsecondbooks.com\/books\/shadow-hero-the-green-turtle-chronicles\/\" target=\"_blank\">publisher site<\/a>]\u00a0 [book trailer] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n<p><strong>My book talk<\/strong>: As a child of Chinese immigrants, Hank expected to follow family tradition, but his mother demands that he become a superhero!<\/p>\n<p>When The Anchor of Justice rescues his mother from a bank robber, she won&#8217;t be satisfied until Hank reinvents himself as a superhero, instead of being a grocer like his father.<\/p>\n<p>Hank discovers that intense training and a new costume certainly don&#8217;t guarantee superhero success when his attempt to save a young lady from thugs merely earns him a beating and the crime boss&#8217;s daughter rescues herself.<\/p>\n<p>Fighting against the tong&#8217;s extortion has a high price for Hank&#8217;s family, yet he vows to continue, aided by the ancient Tortoise spirit from his parents&#8217; homeland.<\/p>\n<p>As the Green Turtle, Hank battles his way into the tong&#8217;s headquarters with the Tortoise spirit&#8217;s guidance. Yet the challenges he finds there would tax any superhero&#8217;s skill and resolve.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sometimes a fight you cannot win is still worth fighting,&#8221; counsels the spirit of the Tortoise, and Hank is in this fight until the end.<\/p>\n<p>Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew transform an old comic book into this great graphic novel about the first Asian-American superhero.\u00a0 (One of 6,000 books recommended on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abookandahug.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.abookandahug.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Chinatown&#8217;s dark alleys, the ruthless tongs demand payment, but the Green Turtle arises to protect the innocent! Happy book birthday to The Shadow Hero, as the origins of the first Asian-American superhero are revealed! I love this new joint effort of graphic novelists Gene Luen Yang and Sonny Liew &#8211; light-hearted, but underpinned with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,19,80,30,51,41],"tags":[218,22,7,105,11,45,20,5,70,37,16,220,18,40,46,43,39,38,49,12,15,21,57,219,35,33,53,8,28],"class_list":["post-3711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-fiction","category-graphic-novel","category-legends","category-mystery","category-paranormal","tag-asian-american","tag-behavior","tag-beliefs","tag-california","tag-communication","tag-competition","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-crime","tag-death","tag-determination","tag-diversity","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-funny","tag-growing-up","tag-love","tag-magic","tag-memories","tag-refugees","tag-relationships","tag-self-image","tag-sisters","tag-superhero","tag-surprises","tag-survival","tag-us-artist","tag-us-author","tag-villains"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3711"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4344,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3711\/revisions\/4344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}