The Night Gwen Stacy Died: Not Actually About Spider Man, But Still Pretty Good

I recently finished reading a book that I didn't think that I would like. The Night Gwen Stacy Died was an unexpected gem. I originally checked it out of the library because, excusably, I thought it was about Spider Man. Incidentally, I still think that someone should write a novel about Spider Man, but I'm glad that Sarah Bruni wasn't the one to do it. Her novel so was so much better, so much stranger, sadder, and romantic.

The story follows two unlikely allies: 'Peter Parker', a man who has spun a comic book fantasy life in his mind and believes himself to have something akin to 'Spidey Sense', and Shelia, a high school student who dreams of escaping her small town life. The two throw their lot in together when they rob the gas station where Shelia works and run off to Chicago to save the life of a man that Peter has been dreaming about for months. Peter's dreams have a nasty habit of coming true and, after having a premonition about a man who tries to kill himself with pills, he decides that it's his job to stop him. Though Peter has never acted on his premonitions before, he believes that it's his time to be a hero in his own right. What happens next makes for an alluring, mysterious story that ends with a shocking twist of fate.

I tend not to read much realistic fiction, so this is a book that I probably would not have read under a different title. However, at the same time, this is not a realistic story. It is a realistic world, slightly distorted and fuzzy around the edges, a place where truth and fiction mix and comic book characters step off the page.

It's not hard to see why it was listed as one of Barnes and Noble's books of the week. Reviewers on Amazon called it a "a surreal love story. Bruni's book superbly explores the part fiction plays in our search for identity" (Bookforum.com) and "Part tangled love story and part love affair with comics, this debut novel centers on that tenuous bit of time between childhood and adulthood" (Library Journal). Which, after all, is what the cult of the Superhero is all about. It's American mythology, an exploration of the grey area of the subconscious that believes that anything can happen. It also makes you want to re watch all of the Spider Man movies.

Just readin'