Review: The Secret Life of Copernicus H. Stringfellow: Surreptitious Superhero by Lorin K. Barber

Title: The Secret Life of Copernicus H. Stringfellow: Surreptitious Superhero
Author:  Lorin K. Barber
Genre: YA
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc. (Mar 13, 2012)
Get it: Amazon, B&N

Goodreads
Copernicus H. Stringfellow, a.k.a. Nick, is not your run-of-the-mill genius. His mind is so powerful it can stop a speeding automobile or stem internal bleeding. As Nick goes about quietly doing good, he discovers that his powers are greatly enhanced by the nutrients present in Twinkies. Follow Nick on his amazing adventures in this humorous and exciting action-packed book for all ages.

Review

Copernicus H. Stringfellow is not your average guy, although he tries to be. He's extremely rich, though you wouldn't know it to look at him, and Nick is incredibly intelligent. He had a difficult childhood, ended up being raised by his aunt and uncle. Nick grew up tall, gangly and awkward yet he is probably one of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet.

Nick has learned to harness his mental powers to do amazing things, usually to help others. He does have a bit of a mischievous side to him. In his attempt to learn what his brain needed to function at optimal capacity, he realized that all the ingredients needed are present in Twinkies, thus they play a big part in this story.

I received a copy of The Secret Life of Copernicus H. Stringfellow from the author for review. The synopsis doesn't go into too much detail but I was still intrigued by it. This was such a fun story to read. I hardly wanted to put it down once I started reading. It has a little bit of everything: mystery, action, romance, intrigue, humor, suspense. A number of times as I was reading my mouth dropped open because I wasn't expecting something that was shocking or surprising. And I particularly enjoyed the humor in it.

At the beginning of the book Nick is on his way to Seattle. He feels a pull towards there. He just knows that he's needed there for some reason, though he doesn't specifically know why. He visits an old professor of his at the local hospital who gives him a job at his request. Along the way Nick meets a wide variety of people whom he becomes friends with and helps along the way.

I don't believe I've read a book quite like this before. Lorin K. Barber seems to have a unique way of telling a story, and I found it very entertaining. As weird as it may sound, I like when a book has some small parts written in other languages. Granted, I don't usually know how to pronounce the words or understand them, but thankfully in this case there are translations included. And Nick has this obsessive need to calculate everything which was odd but funny at times. He also loves to use big words.

Although I very much enjoyed the story, I did find myself confused a few times as I was reading because of the way some of the dialog was presented. I would be reading dialog from say Nick and then the next piece of dialog I assumed was the person he was talking to, only to realize it was still Nick speaking. There is also an intense scene where Nick's obsessive calculations got to be a bit much however it was very much within his character.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fun, lighthearted, exciting story.  I'm actually hoping there might be another adventure for Copernicus H. Stringfellow in the future.

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