Lois Lane YA Novels – Review

Yesterday I finished reading Triple Threat by Gwenda Bond, the latest novel in the YA Lois Lane series. Yes, I mean Lois Lane as in Superman and Lois Lane.

About a fortnight back I read on Twitter that there was a series of YA novels about Lois Lane starting her career as a journalist. I was intrigued and thought it might be worth a read. I bought the first book, Fallout and have been hooked since then. The Lois Lane series is about a young teen journalist investigating weird and unexplained things in Metropolis. That basic premise reminds me a bit of The Sarah Jane Adventures, which in my opinion is a very good thing. It is a YA series but these are entertaining and gripping mystery novels that transcend the clichéd tropes of YA. Reading this series has definitely shifted my opinion of Lois Lane. Before I kind of just assumed that she was the stereotypical superhero girlfriend damsel in distress. After reading the series that opinion has been changed. To put it another way, when I saw a rumour that Lois Lane was going to get a DC Superhero Girls doll I didn’t understand why, now I really hope they release one!

Fallout is the first book in the series and sets the general tone for the series. Lois Lane is newly arrived in Metropolis, she’s trying to stay out of trouble and make friends. Lois is successful at making friends with her team of young journalists at The Daily Planet’s new teen aimed news site. But she completely fails at staying out of trouble as she starts to investigate something strange happening at her new school. This book deals with bullying and technology being misused, out of the three books I would say it is the most concerned with real world issues though it still has a strong sci-fi mystery.

Double Down then continues the story. Lois is now more confident in her abilities as a journalist and takes on an ambitious new assignment. I think this book really highlighted one of the biggest strengths of the series, the supporting cast of characters. Lois has a strong group of friends – whom she befriended in Fallout – and in Double Down they are just as important to the plot as Lois Lane herself. Also Double Down has arguably some of the most intense moments in the entire series as Lois gets herself into a situation that turns out to be way more complicated than it initially appeared.

Triple Threat is the latest novel in the series. It pulls together several loose ends from the previous books. I feel that if I say too much I will possibly accidentally spoil Fallout and Double Down.  But if Triple Threat is the last book in the series then it’s a satisfying ending, however I really hope that there’s a fourth book!

As someone who is a pretty hard-core DC Comics fanboy I found it really interesting to read a series about the DC universe before it becomes the more recognisable DC universe. What I mean by that is when these books are set Clark Kent has yet to become Superman, Barry Allen has yet to be struck by lightning, Diana Prince has yet to leave Themyscira and so on. This makes the stories of Lois Lane’s investigations even more interesting as weird stuff is not yet widely accepted as part of daily life for people within the novel.

I’d recommend the Lois Lane YA series for comic and superhero fans, fans of mystery novels and in general people who enjoy reading stories about competent female protagonists who know what they want and go get it. With Lois Lane getting her chance to shine in these novels, Wonder Woman finally hitting the big screen very soon, Supergirl on TV and the DC Superhero Girls toys quite widely available it’s good to see that DC have made such a serious commitment to their female characters. Long may it continue!