Book Review: Reformed: Supervillain Rehabilitation Project by H.L. Burke

As an avid fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I love a good superhero story. I had previously read Ronnie Akkard and The Brotherhood of Blades by A.C. Williams and The Rise of the Anointed series (Launch, Fractures, and Anointed) by Jason C. Joyner. That led me to H.L. Burke’s Reformed.

In both Brotherhood and Anointed, the world is getting its first taste of enhanced individuals. The world of Reformed is on its second generation of sables, the term Burke coins for super-abled super powered heroes and villains.

I loved the creativity of sables, and the strong world building. The world of Reformed feels real and lived in. There’s even a government agency called the Department of Super Abled or DOSA doing the exact sort of things you’d expect a government agency to do in a world with supers.

Burke’s cast is strong and diverse. These characters feel three-dimensional and each location has enough detail to transport you there.

Prism is smart and has an inner fire for resurrecting her father’s Supervillain Rehabilitation Project. She’s easy to like and root for. Fade was so intriguing as the former relapsed super villain trying to rehabilitate. As part of his extraordinary sentence, he agrees to a memory wipe. This aspect immediately drew parallels in my mind to Revan from the Knights of the Old Republic. Revan received a mind wipe and walked a similar path between villain and hero that Fade must try to navigate.

Revan was also part of arguably the greatest plot twist in video game storytelling. This may have led to some false expectations as the story follows what I felt was a predictable path. There was only one very minor twist at the end with one of the orbital characters where I truly heard the voice of Pietro from the Age of Ultron saying, “You didn’t see that coming?”.

Burke lets you get to know her characters physically, emotionally, but also spiritually. You learn where Prism and Fade are in their spiritual lives and how it affects everything they do and say. It’s never preachy and never identified to a specific faith tradition.

The story has a strong romance subplot. I’m not usually a huge fan of romance, but this one was well done. Every step along the way felt well earned.

The book was easy to read, and hard to put down. More than once, I groggily stumbled into the office after staying up far later than I had planned on reading Reformed. Burke makes it easy to get into the story and the characters.

I’d say the novel was PG to PG-13. The characters are adults, and there is some discussion of and even the actual imbibing of alcohol. They discuss previous sexual relationships and there’s some mild adult language. The violence level was typical for what I’ve seen in other books of the genre, and nothing you wouldn’t see in your typical MCU film, though I felt it ramped up a bit in the last battle.

A solid four stars and recommend for older adults and teens who love super hero stories. You’ll probably like it even more than I did if you prefer a well-executed romance.