Reading: Girl Reporter

I've been following Tansy Rayner Roberts' blog for several years, ever since she did an interesting series of posts about the female characters in the Discworld books, and she's also one of the regulars on the Verity! podcast, which is one of my favourites. Recently, she's been posting about the influences for her new novella, Girl Reporter, and given that they include several of my own favourite characters (Hildy Johnson in His Girl Friday, Sarah Jane Smith and the magnificent Lynda Day in Press Gang) I couldn't resist buying the book, thinking that it looked like a fun read.

And it was indeed a fun read. Perfect for a dismal time of year when I'm up to the eyeballs at work and don't have the brainspace for anything too complicated or serious. It's narrated by Friday Valentina, wisecracking bisexual Millenial Youtube host, devoted fan of Australia's team of superheroes, and daughter of acclaimed journalist Tina Valentina, best known for her reports on the superhero team in the 1980s. When Tina goes missing, believed kidnapped by supervillains from another dimension, Friday has to team up with the superheroes to rescue her. Despite only being novella-length, Girl Reporter manages to take in the changing face of media, the role of women in standard superhero narratives, queer identities, disability representation and racial diversity, while also being a sweet and funny action-adventure. I'm really not into superhero stories, so I felt a bit adrift to begin with as I wasn't familiar with the tropes that were being referenced by the plot, but in the end it didn't matter; once I got into it I just enjoyed it for what it was.