Three books to cure your "Superhero Fatigue"

Superhero fatigue has become a phrase that goes hand-in-hand with superhero movies lately. There are questions of if a movie will fall to the curse, if there's too much superhero content out there, and if viewers will continue to get bored by the genre. And while I cannot help the first two, the third is something I believe I can help with. While many pieces of superhero media follow a similar formula, I have chosen a few novels I feel break out of the original mold. So find a chair and a mug of your favorite hot beverage, and fall in love with superheroes again with one of these reads.

1. Renegades by Marissa Meyer

This book is one of my absolute favorite superhero-themed novels because it lets us truly understand the supervillain's point of view. Nova is known to the city as "Nightmare" a villain with the power to put people to sleep. However, to get information about her enemies Nova decides to go undercover as a Renegade. With a new alias, a fake name, and a side effect of her powers listed as her official power, Nova becomes "Insomnia." Using the Renegades for information, that's harder than it looks. Especially when the son of two of the Council, the first of the Renegades, is her team leader - and is interested in her. It's a fun look at superheroes through a very different lens while looking at the theme of how power corrupts even those with the best intentions.

Renegades is available through Macmillan Publishers

2. Vicious by V.E. Schwab

What is it that makes a villain? Is it their actions or is it the way they are perceived? Vicious dares to answer the question with a morally gray story about two former best friends turned archenemies. The story is told across various points of view and timelines, keeping the reader in the dark as everyone seems unreliable. V.E. Schwab wisely lets the readers make their own decisions about the characters while providing a look into the ethics of superheroes in a way nobody had dared do before.

Vicious is available through Macmillan Publishers

3. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

Red Queen gives us everything we want from superheroes - but with a dystopian fantasy twist. This world is divided by blood: red and silver. Reds are considered lesser citizens, while the silvers rule the world with their powers. Mare is a red, however, finds out she has a power of her own - one that should not exist. To fix the problem, she's disguised as a lost princess and betrothed to one of the King's sons. However, the court is not as stable as it seems - and with rebellion on the way, she's torn between duty and her heart. By putting typical superhero tropes into a new setting, Victoria Aveyard gives us a genre-bending mixture of tropes that will make any superhero fan remember why they fell in love with the genre in the first place.

Red Queen is available through HarperCollins Publishers