Lili Gray and the World’s Most Embarrassing Superpower - Ada Loewe - ★★.½

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AUTHOR: Ada Loewe
GENRE: Middle-Grade Superhero Mystery.
PUBLICATION DATE: March 22, 2024
RATING: 2.5 stars

In a Nutshell: A middle-grade mystery-fantasy about a girl who has an “embarrassing superpower”. The mystery part gets greater focus, so don’t expect a typical superhero story. I liked the idea more than the implementation, but looks like I am the only one so far who has outlier feelings. This might work better for younger middle-graders.


Plot Preview:
Ten-year-old Lili Gray is struggling to deal with an embarrassing new development in her life. (No spoilers! Sssh!) To add to her worries, her dad has gone missing, and she is sure that her stepmother Bella is behind his disappearance. Other than her friend Alejandro (aka Ale), she has no one to turn to for support. Then she discovers a long-lost uncle. Can she seek his aid to find out where her father is? Can she also figure out how to deal with her mortifying ability?
The story comes to us in Lili’s first person perspective.


Kids enjoy potty humour, and in that aspect, this book does well. I don’t want to reveal the superpower outright, but kids are sure to delight in the discovery. (Parents, be prepared to make/hear some funny noises if reading this story together.)

Lili as a protagonist left me with mixed feelings. Her love for her dad is clear, as is her sadness about being the victim of taunts and bullying. But the irony is that she too doesn’t give Bella a fair chance. I didn’t get why she was willing to trust two strangers (a police officer and a newly-discovered uncle) than someone she has seen her dad trust and love. Lili’s main problem seems to be that of miscommunication; she has a tendency of jumping to conclusions without considering all the facts. I liked Bella’s character, and I wish she would have got a better deal in the book.

The friendship between Lili and Ale is interesting. Ale is the typical smart geek who can create anything he sets his mind to, so he works as a good counterfoil to the more impulsive Lili. That said, the two of them rarely seem their age.

The premise is imaginative enough to be fun. But the main hurdle for me is that the book focusses much on the whats and doesn’t explore the whys. Lili’s deep-rooted antagonism for Bella doesn’t seem to spring from any reason except that she is the new stepmother. No further details provided. Lili’s mom died two years ago. How? No idea. What were Lili’s feelings when her father met Bella and decided to remarry? No idea. Why does Lili trust an uncle she hasn’t even met so far? No idea. Who were Ale’s parents, and why are they nowhere in the story, even when Lili goes to Ale’s house so many times? No idea. The effect therefore was somewhat flat as I didn’t experience any character development, despite the characters having the potential to be interesting.

Of course, kids probably won’t bother this much about character development. Thankfully, the stepmother arc is resolved on the positive side, else I would have had a bigger issue with this for sending out the wrong message to kids. I hope children who read this realise that that assumptions based on hearsay and stereotypes are never reliable. It is almost always better to communicate with the adults in your life than to trust outsiders you don’t know.

I have some unanswered queries about Lili’s new superhero outfit, for which also the book doesn’t explain the hows and whys. Without entering into spoiler mode, all I can ask is: How are Lili’s stockings more durable than her trousers? IYKYK.

A substantial part of the book is more like a journey of self-discovery . The superhero action is restricted to the final scenes. This works better as a mystery story than as a superhero book. The scenes would translate well to screen, with lots of comic gags and action potential. But on paper, they don’t end up as impactful.

A shoutout to the cover art of the book – it is stunning!

All in all, I am not entirely happy with the way this went, though I can see the potential of the storyline. I do love middle-grade fiction, but some middle-grade books work only for the age group. I hope this is one of them. Looking at the other reviews so far, I am the only one with mixed feelings. So please go through the other opinions and take a call. Maybe if this book is read without overthinking, it could work better.

My thanks to author Ada Loewe and BookSirens for the DRC of “Lili Gray and the World's Most Embarrassing Superpower”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The digital version of this book is currently available free to Kindle Unlimited subscribers.

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