I think it was a bit more interesting when Eric was training to be a supervillain's sidekick. In this book, he seemed recovered from his brush with the super-villainlyness, and was a completely normal, bratty and occasionally selfish but very funny teenager. I really enjoyed the bit with his journal--from shopping for it to writing in it, and his love-hate relationship with it.

When Eric wandered into the retro arcade and robot spiders attacked, there was a mention of Eric feeling something cold against his neck. I was so sure he was going to turn into a human arachnid hybrid thing, and so was worried about him. OMG! What if the good guys couldn't come up with an effective antidote? But then it turned out I was worried about nothing. It was probably mean of me that I was actually disappointed that nothing happened to Eric. :)

Oh, and Freddie is awesome! Not even counting the fact that he can turn into the most interesting people and creatures! :D ( )

Little superheroes are growing… but they have still to respect curfew and take out the garbage.

After last books adventures, Eric is trying to have a normal life, at least as normal it can be if your boyfriend is a superhero. The fact that Eric is gay is not part of the problem, his family is accepting him and he is growing up self-confident and loved… the main problem is that Peter, the boyfriend, want to “wait” for the right moment, and Eric is tired to do his own laundry to hide all those towels…

While in the previous three books Eric had to grow pretty fast and beforehand, here he is almost going back; his mother is pretty vigil, he has no pocket money to spend as he wants and he basically has to study since his own boyfriend doesn’t want to go out during the week and also in the weekend he is pretty busy. Basically Eric has to behave as a good boy since he has no way to be bad, even if he would like much so.

In this story, Eric is not directly involved in all the superhero adventures of his friends, and I think that he is very much bored; he searches in any way to “waste” time, he even arrives to buy a journal, a real paper and ink journal, believing that he will have a lot of things to write, and discovering that, in the end, is life is pretty ordinary, and that he prefers to spend time fantasizing about his boyfriend. He also tries to find a job in the local LGBT bookstore, again, I think more to find a way to spend his time than for a real need of money; he even fancies the idea to do a supporting action for the small business, to soon realize that he is only a kid, not a superhero, and as a kid he prefers to enjoy his carefree way of life.

I really enjoy all the attempt of Eric to convince Peter that it was time for them to loose their virginity, and Peter apparently dullness, that I instead think is hiding his firm belief that they are still too young. As Eric in the previous book rushed beforehand in his search of adventure, now he is doing it again with their sexuality; Peter understands that and he is able to stop Eric when it’s time, without letting him understand that he is doing so. After all, Eric has the coolest boyfriend of the school, and by league, he is so himself.

Curse of Arachnaman has less the “fantasy” feeling of the previous books (something that in the third book was pretty heavy) and it’s more a sweet coming of age story about two young boys in love.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1610400054/?tag=elimyrevandra-20