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Please Don't Tell My Parents #0.5
I Did Not Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence!
Being a superhero should be fun. After all, a world of super powers is a world where amazonian juggernauts made of candy battle guys in spandex that drive talking cars. Irene loves that weirdness, loves the game of fighting, and loves being a four-foot-tall woman who still gets to drop big heavy objects on villains' heads. In 1980, that fun is in danger. A mad scientist who murders people for his research has everyone afraid. Two of the friendliest super powered rivals around stop playing and go for the kill. If superheroes and villains aren't safe in their own homes, how can having powers be anything but a nightmare? Irene will not let that happen. She wants to show her friends--a ten-year-old grim reaper, and a zombie mish-mosh of living and metal parts--that their lives don't have to be grim. With the help of a superintelligent spider, Team Tiny will make the world fun again. Except maybe it's the spider who's in charge after all . . .
10 pages, Audio CD
First published December 5, 2016
128 people are currently reading
522 people want to read
About the author
Richard Roberts
24 books418 followersI've been writing for a long, long time. A long, long, long time. Do you remember when dirt was invented? I was using it to scratch out stories. Getting published was harder, but now I'm hooked up with Curiosity Quills and I have real books in paper, and you should buy some!
As a writer my fascination has always been children's literature, especially children's lit that is also adult lit. For some reason, this means that instead I write gothic light romance for fun, and very dark and tragic young adult books for passion. I love seeing the world through the eyes of strange people, and I believe that happy endings must be earned the hard way. There's a reason my friends started calling me Frankensteinbeck.
I could talk about how great my writing is until I turn blue, but I should let an expert do that for me. Check out the Kirkus Review for Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth!
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-rev...
As a writer my fascination has always been children's literature, especially children's lit that is also adult lit. For some reason, this means that instead I write gothic light romance for fun, and very dark and tragic young adult books for passion. I love seeing the world through the eyes of strange people, and I believe that happy endings must be earned the hard way. There's a reason my friends started calling me Frankensteinbeck.
I could talk about how great my writing is until I turn blue, but I should let an expert do that for me. Check out the Kirkus Review for Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth!
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-rev...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 56 reviews
December 27, 2016
I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence! (Please Don't Tell My Parents, #0.5) by Richard Roberts is a wonderful romp is a fun world of Team Tiny and Spider. I have not read any of the other books so I am now going to change that after reading this book. I love all the fun characters in here. These characters are so unique and fun, dangerous but fun. Where were these books when I was a kid? These maybe made for kids but adults will enjoy them too, I know I do. What a fun plot, exciting characters and dialogue and wonderful ride of a story! It is hard to pick a favorite character, they are all so strange and great in their own crazy way. This is set in 1980, before the other books. Thanks Curiosity Quills for letting me have a chance to read this book.
December 18, 2016
It was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!! Not the next book in the series, but extremely awesome nonetheless!!!! I loved the characters and the plot!
Goodnight!
Goodnight!
December 23, 2016
This is easily the best book in the series for me and it's easy to see why, you have a funny lead with Deadpool like narration, a mob boss Spider that would put Al Capone to shame, and -my personal favourite- a eternal ten year old who might as well be death herself (here's to hoping Psychopomp joins Bad Penny's gang in the next book)
July 2, 2021
The Please Don't Tell My Parents series is a series I have declared to be the Supervillainy Saga's. This, despite the fact mine are R-rated superhero camp stories and they're well, PG superhero camp stories. See? Completely different! Despite this, I'm going to say I think they're probably the best superhero series I'm presently reading. Yes, even better than Wearing the Cape and more enjoyable than Brandon Sanderson's The Reckoners. Why? Because, really, these are some completely INSANE novels.
No, seriously, the chief appeal for this series is the stories are utterly out there. They involve utterly outlandish characters in impossible situations and yet it's all so innocent as well as fun. I've rarely been touched by superhero literature but I was actually moved by the resolution to Generic Girl's story arc in the previous novel. Still, I couldn't help but be a bit leery about the idea of a prequel which starred a number of minor characters from the main series.
So, what did I think? I absolutely loved I Did Not Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence. I was confused as hell for the first few chapters and had to re-read them but after that, the story really gelled and became probably my favorite of the series. I already liked the series a lot but I think this felt a bit more substantial, I suppose is a good word for it, and even had its own little message. I rank it right up there with the first novel, which remains my favorite.
The premise is recently retired superhero, Goodnight, finds two new friends in the eternally ten-year-old Grim Reaper-esque Psychopomp and a cyborg animal-human hybrid named Mish-Mosh. Deciding to form a goofy Charlies Angel-esque team, except with two of them being children while the other being the size of one. Unfortunately, the city of Los Angeles isn't as nice for superheroes and supervillainans as it will be during the Inscrutable Machine's era.
It seems, in this time, supervillains and superheroes have a much more antagonist relationship. It's also getting worse all the time with the psychopaths among both sides slowly driving the others to extremes. It's basically a Silver Age goofy sort of world which is gradually transforming into a Iron Age one. Goodnight, being a superhero in love with Bull (and destined to get with him), is appalled by this transformation. How she tries to stop it and succeeds (since we know she does from the other books) is the subject of the story. In the process, we also get a bunch of origin stories for characters from the Please Don't Tell My Parents series.
The characters play off of one another extremely well. I loved Goodnight's attempts to treat superheroism as a silly, goofy pastime when she's partnered with a mass-murdering demigod and a tortured murder-cyborg. Goodnight's infectious cheeriness and utterly contradictory backstory that reminds me of too many X-men backstory retcons. The origin stories in the book are surprisingly affecting with crime boss Spider and Mourning Dove's backstories being really good.
I like several of the characters introduced in the story like Palooka Joe, Bismuth, Delicious, and Cyber-Angel. Each of them is a parody on a popular archetype or element from superhero comics like Clark Kenting, theme villains, and sexy superhero costumes. I personally would easily read a series starring these characters and Goodnight, perhaps even more than the Inscrutable Machine. The fact the characters can shift from zany comedy to surprisingly effective drama is a testament to the author's skill.
In conclusion, this is a really-really good book. The characters are good, the interactions are fun, the world-building is solid, and I enjoyed the entire story throughout. The book is delightfully bizarre and that's something which I approve of in all my superhero books. Aside from feeling a bit lost at the beginning, I can't think of anything I disliked about this book and I heartily recommend it to fans of superhero literature.
9/10
Merged review:
The Please Don't Tell My Parents series is a series I have declared to be the Supervillainy Saga's. This, despite the fact mine are R-rated superhero camp stories and they're well, PG superhero camp stories. See? Completely different! Despite this, I'm going to say I think they're probably the best superhero series I'm presently reading. Yes, even better than Wearing the Cape and more enjoyable than Brandon Sanderson's The Reckoners. Why? Because, really, these are some completely INSANE novels.
No, seriously, the chief appeal for this series is the stories are utterly out there. They involve utterly outlandish characters in impossible situations and yet it's all so innocent as well as fun. I've rarely been touched by superhero literature but I was actually moved by the resolution to Generic Girl's story arc in the previous novel. Still, I couldn't help but be a bit leery about the idea of a prequel which starred a number of minor characters from the main series.
So, what did I think? I absolutely loved I Did Not Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence. I was confused as hell for the first few chapters and had to re-read them but after that, the story really gelled and became probably my favorite of the series. I already liked the series a lot but I think this felt a bit more substantial, I suppose is a good word for it, and even had its own little message. I rank it right up there with the first novel, which remains my favorite.
The premise is recently retired superhero, Goodnight, finds two new friends in the eternally ten-year-old Grim Reaper-esque Psychopomp and a cyborg animal-human hybrid named Mish-Mosh. Deciding to form a goofy Charlies Angel-esque team, except with two of them being children while the other being the size of one. Unfortunately, the city of Los Angeles isn't as nice for superheroes and supervillainans as it will be during the Inscrutable Machine's era.
It seems, in this time, supervillains and superheroes have a much more antagonist relationship. It's also getting worse all the time with the psychopaths among both sides slowly driving the others to extremes. It's basically a Silver Age goofy sort of world which is gradually transforming into a Iron Age one. Goodnight, being a superhero in love with Bull (and destined to get with him), is appalled by this transformation. How she tries to stop it and succeeds (since we know she does from the other books) is the subject of the story. In the process, we also get a bunch of origin stories for characters from the Please Don't Tell My Parents series.
The characters play off of one another extremely well. I loved Goodnight's attempts to treat superheroism as a silly, goofy pastime when she's partnered with a mass-murdering demigod and a tortured murder-cyborg. Goodnight's infectious cheeriness and utterly contradictory backstory that reminds me of too many X-men backstory retcons. The origin stories in the book are surprisingly affecting with crime boss Spider and Mourning Dove's backstories being really good.
I like several of the characters introduced in the story like Palooka Joe, Bismuth, Delicious, and Cyber-Angel. Each of them is a parody on a popular archetype or element from superhero comics like Clark Kenting, theme villains, and sexy superhero costumes. I personally would easily read a series starring these characters and Goodnight, perhaps even more than the Inscrutable Machine. The fact the characters can shift from zany comedy to surprisingly effective drama is a testament to the author's skill.
In conclusion, this is a really-really good book. The characters are good, the interactions are fun, the world-building is solid, and I enjoyed the entire story throughout. The book is delightfully bizarre and that's something which I approve of in all my superhero books. Aside from feeling a bit lost at the beginning, I can't think of anything I disliked about this book and I heartily recommend it to fans of superhero literature.
9/10
No, seriously, the chief appeal for this series is the stories are utterly out there. They involve utterly outlandish characters in impossible situations and yet it's all so innocent as well as fun. I've rarely been touched by superhero literature but I was actually moved by the resolution to Generic Girl's story arc in the previous novel. Still, I couldn't help but be a bit leery about the idea of a prequel which starred a number of minor characters from the main series.
So, what did I think? I absolutely loved I Did Not Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence. I was confused as hell for the first few chapters and had to re-read them but after that, the story really gelled and became probably my favorite of the series. I already liked the series a lot but I think this felt a bit more substantial, I suppose is a good word for it, and even had its own little message. I rank it right up there with the first novel, which remains my favorite.
The premise is recently retired superhero, Goodnight, finds two new friends in the eternally ten-year-old Grim Reaper-esque Psychopomp and a cyborg animal-human hybrid named Mish-Mosh. Deciding to form a goofy Charlies Angel-esque team, except with two of them being children while the other being the size of one. Unfortunately, the city of Los Angeles isn't as nice for superheroes and supervillainans as it will be during the Inscrutable Machine's era.
It seems, in this time, supervillains and superheroes have a much more antagonist relationship. It's also getting worse all the time with the psychopaths among both sides slowly driving the others to extremes. It's basically a Silver Age goofy sort of world which is gradually transforming into a Iron Age one. Goodnight, being a superhero in love with Bull (and destined to get with him), is appalled by this transformation. How she tries to stop it and succeeds (since we know she does from the other books) is the subject of the story. In the process, we also get a bunch of origin stories for characters from the Please Don't Tell My Parents series.
The characters play off of one another extremely well. I loved Goodnight's attempts to treat superheroism as a silly, goofy pastime when she's partnered with a mass-murdering demigod and a tortured murder-cyborg. Goodnight's infectious cheeriness and utterly contradictory backstory that reminds me of too many X-men backstory retcons. The origin stories in the book are surprisingly affecting with crime boss Spider and Mourning Dove's backstories being really good.
I like several of the characters introduced in the story like Palooka Joe, Bismuth, Delicious, and Cyber-Angel. Each of them is a parody on a popular archetype or element from superhero comics like Clark Kenting, theme villains, and sexy superhero costumes. I personally would easily read a series starring these characters and Goodnight, perhaps even more than the Inscrutable Machine. The fact the characters can shift from zany comedy to surprisingly effective drama is a testament to the author's skill.
In conclusion, this is a really-really good book. The characters are good, the interactions are fun, the world-building is solid, and I enjoyed the entire story throughout. The book is delightfully bizarre and that's something which I approve of in all my superhero books. Aside from feeling a bit lost at the beginning, I can't think of anything I disliked about this book and I heartily recommend it to fans of superhero literature.
9/10
Merged review:
The Please Don't Tell My Parents series is a series I have declared to be the Supervillainy Saga's. This, despite the fact mine are R-rated superhero camp stories and they're well, PG superhero camp stories. See? Completely different! Despite this, I'm going to say I think they're probably the best superhero series I'm presently reading. Yes, even better than Wearing the Cape and more enjoyable than Brandon Sanderson's The Reckoners. Why? Because, really, these are some completely INSANE novels.
No, seriously, the chief appeal for this series is the stories are utterly out there. They involve utterly outlandish characters in impossible situations and yet it's all so innocent as well as fun. I've rarely been touched by superhero literature but I was actually moved by the resolution to Generic Girl's story arc in the previous novel. Still, I couldn't help but be a bit leery about the idea of a prequel which starred a number of minor characters from the main series.
So, what did I think? I absolutely loved I Did Not Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence. I was confused as hell for the first few chapters and had to re-read them but after that, the story really gelled and became probably my favorite of the series. I already liked the series a lot but I think this felt a bit more substantial, I suppose is a good word for it, and even had its own little message. I rank it right up there with the first novel, which remains my favorite.
The premise is recently retired superhero, Goodnight, finds two new friends in the eternally ten-year-old Grim Reaper-esque Psychopomp and a cyborg animal-human hybrid named Mish-Mosh. Deciding to form a goofy Charlies Angel-esque team, except with two of them being children while the other being the size of one. Unfortunately, the city of Los Angeles isn't as nice for superheroes and supervillainans as it will be during the Inscrutable Machine's era.
It seems, in this time, supervillains and superheroes have a much more antagonist relationship. It's also getting worse all the time with the psychopaths among both sides slowly driving the others to extremes. It's basically a Silver Age goofy sort of world which is gradually transforming into a Iron Age one. Goodnight, being a superhero in love with Bull (and destined to get with him), is appalled by this transformation. How she tries to stop it and succeeds (since we know she does from the other books) is the subject of the story. In the process, we also get a bunch of origin stories for characters from the Please Don't Tell My Parents series.
The characters play off of one another extremely well. I loved Goodnight's attempts to treat superheroism as a silly, goofy pastime when she's partnered with a mass-murdering demigod and a tortured murder-cyborg. Goodnight's infectious cheeriness and utterly contradictory backstory that reminds me of too many X-men backstory retcons. The origin stories in the book are surprisingly affecting with crime boss Spider and Mourning Dove's backstories being really good.
I like several of the characters introduced in the story like Palooka Joe, Bismuth, Delicious, and Cyber-Angel. Each of them is a parody on a popular archetype or element from superhero comics like Clark Kenting, theme villains, and sexy superhero costumes. I personally would easily read a series starring these characters and Goodnight, perhaps even more than the Inscrutable Machine. The fact the characters can shift from zany comedy to surprisingly effective drama is a testament to the author's skill.
In conclusion, this is a really-really good book. The characters are good, the interactions are fun, the world-building is solid, and I enjoyed the entire story throughout. The book is delightfully bizarre and that's something which I approve of in all my superhero books. Aside from feeling a bit lost at the beginning, I can't think of anything I disliked about this book and I heartily recommend it to fans of superhero literature.
9/10
February 5, 2017
Be warned! This is a prequel to the Please Don't Tell My Parents series, so it might not make much sense unless you have read some of that series. That out of the way. Irene is a retired superhero, well sort of retired. She had a very bad experience with a super-villain several years back, but when she hears a cry in a back alley, she comes to the rescue and gets introduced to Mish Mosh, Bluejay, and Pysychopomp. Team Tiny get formed and they are off to save the world. And a strange saved it turned out to be as it involves dueling heroes and villains, giant, super-intelligent spiders, criminal gangs, spandex, and the birth of a criminal enterprise. And Irene had fun most of the time! Another good read from Richard Roberts!
September 4, 2018
I absolutely loved all the books in the "Please don't tell my parents" series, and was happy to find a prequel to it. That being said, this one left me rather ho-hum. I don't know if it's because I listened to it rather than read it (though I have listened to all the other books), but I honestly didn't particularly care for the main character of Goodnight. For her age, she felt rather immature - almost TOO much like the character of Bad Penny in the other books.
What I did like was the origin stories of some of the secondary characters that are in the main series.
All in all, it was not a bad story. But I think when recommending the series, I would say either start with this book or skip it all together.
What I did like was the origin stories of some of the secondary characters that are in the main series.
All in all, it was not a bad story. But I think when recommending the series, I would say either start with this book or skip it all together.
Read
August 8, 2017I've tried three times - a total of about 5 hours - to get into this tale. After reading some other reviews - which were, by the way, glowing- I see it's recommended that other books in the series be read first. Since this was #.05, I had wrongly assumed that I should start with it. I don't have those books at this time, so, for now, I'm going to mark this one as a DNF. I would also state that my inability to get into this tale is not the fault of the narrator whose performance was professional and whose voice was clear, exuded what seemed to the be proper emotions and differentiated between the characters.
September 22, 2017
This is a prequel to the Please Don't Tell My parents series.
This is the story of Spider, Mourning Dove, Goodnight, Mish-Mosh, and Psychopomp! Before there was Bad Penny and the Inscrutable Machine, there was Team Tiny. These tiny ladies want to have fun with their superhero abilities. But things have become darker in the superhero community as rivals start to take their conficts more seriously. There also happens to be a mad scientist going around creating zombies in the name of his research. Can these tiny titans stop everyone from their destructive ways?
I quite enjoy this series. It has some intersting twists on the superhero story. One of the big things is that both heroes and villains look at it more as a job than anything else. And when they aren't on the job, they leave their differences behind. This story shows how this situation arose.
This is a prequel but you need to be familiar with the story before reading this book. (Three books have already come out in the series before this one was published.) This is because while you are seeing an earlier point in time, several elements in this story only make sense if you know what happens later in time. Even though I have read the first three books, I had to stop and think back to what I had read in them to get what was happening here. (It didn't help that I read all of those back to back awhile ago and had forgotten some stuff.)
Overall, a nice entry into this series which helps to fill in some background material. But I do wish the author would not have made it where you had needed to read the other books first so much.
This is the story of Spider, Mourning Dove, Goodnight, Mish-Mosh, and Psychopomp! Before there was Bad Penny and the Inscrutable Machine, there was Team Tiny. These tiny ladies want to have fun with their superhero abilities. But things have become darker in the superhero community as rivals start to take their conficts more seriously. There also happens to be a mad scientist going around creating zombies in the name of his research. Can these tiny titans stop everyone from their destructive ways?
I quite enjoy this series. It has some intersting twists on the superhero story. One of the big things is that both heroes and villains look at it more as a job than anything else. And when they aren't on the job, they leave their differences behind. This story shows how this situation arose.
This is a prequel but you need to be familiar with the story before reading this book. (Three books have already come out in the series before this one was published.) This is because while you are seeing an earlier point in time, several elements in this story only make sense if you know what happens later in time. Even though I have read the first three books, I had to stop and think back to what I had read in them to get what was happening here. (It didn't help that I read all of those back to back awhile ago and had forgotten some stuff.)
Overall, a nice entry into this series which helps to fill in some background material. But I do wish the author would not have made it where you had needed to read the other books first so much.
January 21, 2021
A prequel with no dependency on the previously published (but chronologically later) books, can be read stand-alone.
This is an excellent book—probably better than the first of the series, Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain, but less focussed—necessarily so, since the protagonist Irene's objective here is to just have chaotic fun. And the immature good-guy fun (even if technically a supervillain) was the best aspect of PDTMPIaSV. It works even better in a superhero.
The plot is functional and interesting, and all the bits that come up are well resolved. I wish the sequels to PDTMPIaSV were as good as this prequel.
I had missed the explicit setting date of 1980 (mentioned three times in the novel, including as the very first word, plus it's in the blurb—mea idiot 🙄). Took me a bit to realize as a prequel to PDTMPIaSV that it would be before cell phones when computers used floppy disks. Definitely not the author's fault.
This is an excellent book—probably better than the first of the series, Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain, but less focussed—necessarily so, since the protagonist Irene's objective here is to just have chaotic fun. And the immature good-guy fun (even if technically a supervillain) was the best aspect of PDTMPIaSV. It works even better in a superhero.
The plot is functional and interesting, and all the bits that come up are well resolved. I wish the sequels to PDTMPIaSV were as good as this prequel.
I had missed the explicit setting date of 1980 (mentioned three times in the novel, including as the very first word, plus it's in the blurb—mea idiot 🙄). Took me a bit to realize as a prequel to PDTMPIaSV that it would be before cell phones when computers used floppy disks. Definitely not the author's fault.
July 14, 2017
A prequel to a series I've not read - and it works just fine on its own. Irene, aka Goodnight is a superhero who comes out of retirement to make new friends and have new adventures. She thinks and talks like she's on a high octane caffeine buzz, but basically she's buzzing on finding the new, or at least the fun in life.
The audio reader is amazing, able to speak quickly but with impressive inflection to really bring Goodnight's personality into it's fullness.
The audio reader is amazing, able to speak quickly but with impressive inflection to really bring Goodnight's personality into it's fullness.
May 17, 2025
I loved reading the back story for the characters you meet in the Bad Penny stories. I struggled at first with Goodnight's voice because it's annoyingly perky, so it took a bit to get hooked on the story. However, I did get hooked and ended up really enjoying it: especially Psychopomp and Spider.
January 28, 2018
Fun read
Good characters, doing fun stuff at a breakneck pace. Fills in some blanks in the universe of our favourite Roberts' trio. Onward to book five.
Good characters, doing fun stuff at a breakneck pace. Fills in some blanks in the universe of our favourite Roberts' trio. Onward to book five.
April 20, 2018
A weird ride.
Kinda hard to follow in places, but it is an interesting world that is created.
Not for everyone, but I would recommend a look if you like punk type of stories.
Kinda hard to follow in places, but it is an interesting world that is created.
Not for everyone, but I would recommend a look if you like punk type of stories.
May 21, 2024
Just couldn't get into it.
April 17, 2018
Per the internal chronology of this series this should be the first book you read. I didn't notice that until after I had read the first published book, which I can tell you is worth the read.
The sad thing about this book is that the last few pages ruin it. Until that time the main character seemed like a competent hero who understood she couldn't afford to take the job too seriously. After all, she is over 200 years old and can potentially live forever, so she needs to see the brighter side of life to keep motivated. However, the end of the book makes her look completely incompetent [SPOILERS]: First she lets her dear friend go home unprotected. Second, when she comes to save the day she essentially gets lucky to get past the bad guy's thugs, even though the rear door is apparently unguarded since a non-superhero cop strolls through it a few minutes later. Third, she does a poor job of handling the hostage situation and here the author conveniently describes the hero's weapon of choice as "needing an angle" even though that was never the case before. Finally, the actual ending is REALLY STOOOOOOOOOOOPID- The hero sends the bad guy off with a cop who can barely stand. In fact the cop is in such bad shape she doesn't even handcuff the bad guy. Then the hero just walks away leaving a bunch of unconscious thugs lying around in a residential neighborhood. The thugs are "demons" so presumably they won't be unconscious for long and then they just be running amok in that residential neighborhood. There's no reason to believe the cop called anyone to help and even if she did what are regular cops going to do against demons?
The author's handling of the hero's primary weapon is poorly thought out all the way around. He just announces upon its introduction that it moves things but not living things, although no reason for that distinction is ever given. And then the author tells us it doesn't work on clothes because they have too much life on them. That seems clearly to be a case where the author can't be bother to actually think about what he's writing and is just writing for his own convenience. Its essentially a magic item so all the author had to say was that it didn't work on things with auras or anything contained in an aura, but no. It works on dead things, except clothes worn by living things. Then, immediately after telling us that the bad guys turn themselves into zombies and so the magic works instantly on them. So, in this world, clothes hold life better than a human body. A body that, since it just died, would still have living tissue????????????????
Its just so annoying that except for two obvious and EASILY FIXED issues (the ending and the weapon) this was a good book.
Bottom line: the first 90% of this book is fun and pretty well written, 4.5 star range, but the last 10% is pretty stupid, 2.0 stars. I won't read this book again because of how bad the ending is.
The sad thing about this book is that the last few pages ruin it. Until that time the main character seemed like a competent hero who understood she couldn't afford to take the job too seriously. After all, she is over 200 years old and can potentially live forever, so she needs to see the brighter side of life to keep motivated. However, the end of the book makes her look completely incompetent [SPOILERS]: First she lets her dear friend go home unprotected. Second, when she comes to save the day she essentially gets lucky to get past the bad guy's thugs, even though the rear door is apparently unguarded since a non-superhero cop strolls through it a few minutes later. Third, she does a poor job of handling the hostage situation and here the author conveniently describes the hero's weapon of choice as "needing an angle" even though that was never the case before. Finally, the actual ending is REALLY STOOOOOOOOOOOPID- The hero sends the bad guy off with a cop who can barely stand. In fact the cop is in such bad shape she doesn't even handcuff the bad guy. Then the hero just walks away leaving a bunch of unconscious thugs lying around in a residential neighborhood. The thugs are "demons" so presumably they won't be unconscious for long and then they just be running amok in that residential neighborhood. There's no reason to believe the cop called anyone to help and even if she did what are regular cops going to do against demons?
The author's handling of the hero's primary weapon is poorly thought out all the way around. He just announces upon its introduction that it moves things but not living things, although no reason for that distinction is ever given. And then the author tells us it doesn't work on clothes because they have too much life on them. That seems clearly to be a case where the author can't be bother to actually think about what he's writing and is just writing for his own convenience. Its essentially a magic item so all the author had to say was that it didn't work on things with auras or anything contained in an aura, but no. It works on dead things, except clothes worn by living things. Then, immediately after telling us that the bad guys turn themselves into zombies and so the magic works instantly on them. So, in this world, clothes hold life better than a human body. A body that, since it just died, would still have living tissue????????????????
Its just so annoying that except for two obvious and EASILY FIXED issues (the ending and the weapon) this was a good book.
Bottom line: the first 90% of this book is fun and pretty well written, 4.5 star range, but the last 10% is pretty stupid, 2.0 stars. I won't read this book again because of how bad the ending is.
March 6, 2017
Goodnight is being pulled back into superheroing, despite being officially retired.
But when pint-sized heroes Mish-Mosh and Psychopomp drop in her lap, along with an instant chance to save the day, how could she not form Team Tiny?! A superhero team wedded to Goodnight’s firm principle
Being a superhero should be fun! To Irene this is an awesome game. Lives are at stake, some terrible people need stopping – but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fun as well!
I love the quirky super hero world which we’ve seen through the lens of Penny Ack and her friends which has always been so much zany fun. And after three books of that, this book is perfect to delve a little behind all that
And lo we have this prequel which does this so perfectly
Going back several decades before Penny came on the scene we get to see the wonderful origin stories of several of the most compelling characters that loom large over the ongoing series. Not characters who are, perhaps, most involved in the books, but ones whose legends truly shape them by everyone knowing about them – like Mourning Dove. One of the good elements of the original three books is that there isn’t a lot of explanation of things that everyone knows- everyone knows about Mourning Dove so there isn’t really any need to explain her other than have her presence shadow the book. That’s well done. But it’s also awesome to see the origin behind that, the history and how she developed
And also how the city developed and how Goodnight’s visions of what super heroes and super villains should be and the whole wonderful underpinning of this series – that super heroing can be fun. That there should be rules, code of conduct, rules of engagement. That when super powerful beings clash there needs to be some rules or everyone suffers
And it wasn’t just abstract – there was a really excellent metaplot on the consequences of, for example, heroes and villains targeting revealed identities, homes, families: how it not only gives heroes and villains downtime but how someone’s family being targeted makes them more and more desperate and more and more dangerous. And dangerous + super powers = terrible consequences.
Basically, this book took the whole underlying awesome concept of this series – the idea that superheroing/villaining is a game, is something that can be fun, is something that has rules and can be made fun and zany (especially since so much of the superhero genre seems to be loving the whole grimdark gritty) is not just maintained but explained. It’s not just random quirkiness, there’s a real history, a real reality behind this. It has taken what is a very zany, immensely fun, let’s-suspend-disbelief-and-run-with-it world and given it far more powerful structure behind it
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But when pint-sized heroes Mish-Mosh and Psychopomp drop in her lap, along with an instant chance to save the day, how could she not form Team Tiny?! A superhero team wedded to Goodnight’s firm principle
Being a superhero should be fun! To Irene this is an awesome game. Lives are at stake, some terrible people need stopping – but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be fun as well!
I love the quirky super hero world which we’ve seen through the lens of Penny Ack and her friends which has always been so much zany fun. And after three books of that, this book is perfect to delve a little behind all that
And lo we have this prequel which does this so perfectly
Going back several decades before Penny came on the scene we get to see the wonderful origin stories of several of the most compelling characters that loom large over the ongoing series. Not characters who are, perhaps, most involved in the books, but ones whose legends truly shape them by everyone knowing about them – like Mourning Dove. One of the good elements of the original three books is that there isn’t a lot of explanation of things that everyone knows- everyone knows about Mourning Dove so there isn’t really any need to explain her other than have her presence shadow the book. That’s well done. But it’s also awesome to see the origin behind that, the history and how she developed
And also how the city developed and how Goodnight’s visions of what super heroes and super villains should be and the whole wonderful underpinning of this series – that super heroing can be fun. That there should be rules, code of conduct, rules of engagement. That when super powerful beings clash there needs to be some rules or everyone suffers
And it wasn’t just abstract – there was a really excellent metaplot on the consequences of, for example, heroes and villains targeting revealed identities, homes, families: how it not only gives heroes and villains downtime but how someone’s family being targeted makes them more and more desperate and more and more dangerous. And dangerous + super powers = terrible consequences.
Basically, this book took the whole underlying awesome concept of this series – the idea that superheroing/villaining is a game, is something that can be fun, is something that has rules and can be made fun and zany (especially since so much of the superhero genre seems to be loving the whole grimdark gritty) is not just maintained but explained. It’s not just random quirkiness, there’s a real history, a real reality behind this. It has taken what is a very zany, immensely fun, let’s-suspend-disbelief-and-run-with-it world and given it far more powerful structure behind it
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February 4, 2018
This is essentially a bundle of "origin" stories for the Inscrutable Machine books. We learn where Spider, Mourning Dove, and others came from, and have fun in the process.
Contrary to what you might expect from the "Book 4" heading, this comes before the other books, and the Machine does not appear.
Contrary to what you might expect from the "Book 4" heading, this comes before the other books, and the Machine does not appear.
January 3, 2017
Compatible to revenge of the sith or hopefully the Phantom menace.
I'm in LOVE with the world of Mr. Roberts. The main cast, I wish were my kids. The supporting cast is superb. The mastery of his turn of phrase is contagious.
I'm in LOVE with the world of Mr. Roberts. The main cast, I wish were my kids. The supporting cast is superb. The mastery of his turn of phrase is contagious.
June 20, 2017
I give this 3.5 stars.
I have read "Please dont tell my parents I'm a supervillain" about a year ago and really liked it, and have now read this. I really liked this one, but think I enjoyed Bad Penny's story much better.
I adored Goodnight's sense of humour. Actually both of the books had this humour side to them that made the whole book and situations in it hilarous, and not in the bad way. Sure, in some cases it made the situation less serious or believable, but I still like it.
I also absolutely loved Psychopomp. I'd love a spin off about her, and I think I'd really like it if it was properly grim as it should be with the grim reaper.
I also liked finding out how Spider and Mourning Dove came to be, and a bit about Bull aswell. I would've like more dissection of Spider's behaviour and how she really became such a manipulating mastermind, from being seemingly so nice and motherly in the beginning.
After saying that, I did have a couple problems with this book. My biggest problem would be Mammon and his whole satanism/magic thingy. I don't get it - from Bad Penny's adventures I had a feeling this alternate universe had purely superhero/villain powers. No unexplained magic or religious anything. I felt like Mammon just didn't fit in, and not just by what he does, but also his behaviour - even in a book where the characters usually are a bit hillarious and make you wanna laugh, I found Mammon to be very plain, two dimensional and out right ridiculous. I actually think he could be just cut out of the story and it would still be a good book, and I wouldn't miss Mammon at all. He just annoyed the hell out of me the whole time.
Other than all that, I am really happy for finding out about these series and look forward to continuing them.
I have read "Please dont tell my parents I'm a supervillain" about a year ago and really liked it, and have now read this. I really liked this one, but think I enjoyed Bad Penny's story much better.
I adored Goodnight's sense of humour. Actually both of the books had this humour side to them that made the whole book and situations in it hilarous, and not in the bad way. Sure, in some cases it made the situation less serious or believable, but I still like it.
I also absolutely loved Psychopomp. I'd love a spin off about her, and I think I'd really like it if it was properly grim as it should be with the grim reaper.
I also liked finding out how Spider and Mourning Dove came to be, and a bit about Bull aswell. I would've like more dissection of Spider's behaviour and how she really became such a manipulating mastermind, from being seemingly so nice and motherly in the beginning.
After saying that, I did have a couple problems with this book. My biggest problem would be Mammon and his whole satanism/magic thingy. I don't get it - from Bad Penny's adventures I had a feeling this alternate universe had purely superhero/villain powers. No unexplained magic or religious anything. I felt like Mammon just didn't fit in, and not just by what he does, but also his behaviour - even in a book where the characters usually are a bit hillarious and make you wanna laugh, I found Mammon to be very plain, two dimensional and out right ridiculous. I actually think he could be just cut out of the story and it would still be a good book, and I wouldn't miss Mammon at all. He just annoyed the hell out of me the whole time.
Other than all that, I am really happy for finding out about these series and look forward to continuing them.
December 3, 2016
Another delightful romp with really likeable characters doing things that matter. Set back in the 80's before Bad Penny and The Inscrutable Machine were even born, and explains some of the mysteries and origins while keeping other bits pleasingly mysterious. A very enjoyable read. Its only drawback was that after finishing it I immediately wanted to go back and reread the first three books ( Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up The Moon Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen ) again. You don't have to have read the first three books to enjoy this one, but they're lots of fun too. I'd also recommend reading "Summer of Lob" in The Indomitable Ten , set in the 70's and also featuring the irrepressible Goodnight.
Totally flashlight-worthy!
Totally flashlight-worthy!
March 21, 2017
I think it's time mister Roberts stopped.
Like a grandpa that's finally hurt one of the grandkids trying to show them how magnifiicient the things he used to make in his shops were Mr Roberts needs to be led away from his typewriter and settled down where he will stop hurting beautiful things.
His obsession with inflicting body horro on little girls was disturbing in the sesond book of the series.
His insistence that hurting and maiming little girls in the third book was "Character development' was a low point in an otherwise acceptable book.
This bad excuse for flesh torture on small children is the undeniable evidence that the lightning of Please don't tell my parents I'm a supervillain was a stroke of genius but like all strokes it left the poor unfortunate with major issues and apparently an inability to discern between comedy and, and I don't want to belabor the point the way Mr Roberts did during the entirety of this book, inflicting gruesome and disgusting body horror on poor little girls.
It is now two books past due for the publisher and editor of Mr Roberts to take him away from this universe and relegate him where he belongs: Third rate hollywood gore fests.
There he will be free to torture, mutilate, hurt and lovingly linger on the suffering of little girls.
Stay away if you had any love for the franchise.
If you are trying to read them in chronological order skip this useless C list horror movie wannabe and go straight to the first book.
Like a grandpa that's finally hurt one of the grandkids trying to show them how magnifiicient the things he used to make in his shops were Mr Roberts needs to be led away from his typewriter and settled down where he will stop hurting beautiful things.
His obsession with inflicting body horro on little girls was disturbing in the sesond book of the series.
His insistence that hurting and maiming little girls in the third book was "Character development' was a low point in an otherwise acceptable book.
This bad excuse for flesh torture on small children is the undeniable evidence that the lightning of Please don't tell my parents I'm a supervillain was a stroke of genius but like all strokes it left the poor unfortunate with major issues and apparently an inability to discern between comedy and, and I don't want to belabor the point the way Mr Roberts did during the entirety of this book, inflicting gruesome and disgusting body horror on poor little girls.
It is now two books past due for the publisher and editor of Mr Roberts to take him away from this universe and relegate him where he belongs: Third rate hollywood gore fests.
There he will be free to torture, mutilate, hurt and lovingly linger on the suffering of little girls.
Stay away if you had any love for the franchise.
If you are trying to read them in chronological order skip this useless C list horror movie wannabe and go straight to the first book.
December 6, 2016
Not what I thought
If you read the first three books, this is nothing like them. Except it is...kind of.
First, Penny is not in this book. At all. This is more of a side book, filling in backstory. It's really good. But it's not really a book that fits naturally into the series. Because the series is about Penny, and she is not here.
Second, it takes a while to start warming up to the characters. Irene is complex. Until she meets Spider you have no idea what is going on. When everything starts to come together it's kind of awesome, but that is the latter half of the book.
I graded this down not because it is badly written or poorly plotted. I Graded down because it wasn't the book I thought I was buying. I expected Bad Penny and Penultimate. The title of the series promises Penelope Akk. But that's not what you get.
If this book had been properly marketed, I would definitely recommend any fan of The Inscrutable Machine to read and enjoy the deep background. But, while Spider is the same Spider E-Claire fears, this is not the book I was sold, so I feel I cannot support it. Even though it is well written
If you read the first three books, this is nothing like them. Except it is...kind of.
First, Penny is not in this book. At all. This is more of a side book, filling in backstory. It's really good. But it's not really a book that fits naturally into the series. Because the series is about Penny, and she is not here.
Second, it takes a while to start warming up to the characters. Irene is complex. Until she meets Spider you have no idea what is going on. When everything starts to come together it's kind of awesome, but that is the latter half of the book.
I graded this down not because it is badly written or poorly plotted. I Graded down because it wasn't the book I thought I was buying. I expected Bad Penny and Penultimate. The title of the series promises Penelope Akk. But that's not what you get.
If this book had been properly marketed, I would definitely recommend any fan of The Inscrutable Machine to read and enjoy the deep background. But, while Spider is the same Spider E-Claire fears, this is not the book I was sold, so I feel I cannot support it. Even though it is well written
February 6, 2017
After retiring from being a superhero, Goodnight gets drawn into the superhero world once more when Mish-Mosh, a human-robot hybrid, and Psychopomp, a grim-reaperesque, scythe-wielding superhero. When an encounter in a neutral club goes bad, Goodnight and their friends get on the wrong side of a mad scientist. Now it’s up to Team Tiny, and a very helpful supernatural spider, to save the world. Will they succeed?
The characters are likable and engaging. The plot is action-packed and does a great job of further building Roberts superhero world. I like the backstory this provides to the first three in the series. It is however a bit confusing at first if you haven’t read the other books despite it being a prequel.
This book was featured on The Keepers of the Books' Weekly Reads 13 episode. For more book reviews, recommendations, or online librarian advice, please visit us at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK3v....
Please Note: This book was given to us in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed, however, are our own.
The characters are likable and engaging. The plot is action-packed and does a great job of further building Roberts superhero world. I like the backstory this provides to the first three in the series. It is however a bit confusing at first if you haven’t read the other books despite it being a prequel.
This book was featured on The Keepers of the Books' Weekly Reads 13 episode. For more book reviews, recommendations, or online librarian advice, please visit us at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCK3v....
Please Note: This book was given to us in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed, however, are our own.
June 24, 2017
Kindle Unlimited
assume this one should really have been something such as .5 or whatever because as you can see below there is a #4 and it's not this one, and in the blurb even says the story of Spider, Mourning Dove, Goodnight, Mish-Mosh, and Psychopomp! Before there was Bad Penny and the Inscrutable Machine... there was TEAM TINY! -- it says in a couple of places that this is 'young teen fiction' but since when did young equal talking about the most fun they'd had well vertically.... And yes that is almost a quote.
I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence! (Please Don't Tell My Parents Book 4) {more like .5/prequel} {Amazon shows it as book 4, so Amazon shows 2 book 4's}
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain 1
Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon 2
Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen 3
Please Don't Tell My Parents I Have A Nemesis 4
assume this one should really have been something such as .5 or whatever because as you can see below there is a #4 and it's not this one, and in the blurb even says the story of Spider, Mourning Dove, Goodnight, Mish-Mosh, and Psychopomp! Before there was Bad Penny and the Inscrutable Machine... there was TEAM TINY! -- it says in a couple of places that this is 'young teen fiction' but since when did young equal talking about the most fun they'd had well vertically.... And yes that is almost a quote.
I Did NOT Give That Spider Superhuman Intelligence! (Please Don't Tell My Parents Book 4) {more like .5/prequel} {Amazon shows it as book 4, so Amazon shows 2 book 4's}
Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain 1
Please Don't Tell My Parents I Blew Up the Moon 2
Please Don't Tell My Parents I've Got Henchmen 3
Please Don't Tell My Parents I Have A Nemesis 4
March 16, 2017
This book is a quality prequel to the Please Don't Tell My Parents series of books taking the wayback machine back to the '80's where we get to witness some of the superheroes and supervillains who play a roll in the main series back in earlier days.
I think he did a great job with this prequel and the series in general.
I have noticed that the author does seem to take glee in describing the outfits of the various superpowered characters, especially the state of undress of each of the female superheroes and supervillains.
All in all, if you enjoy this kind of book you will likely enjoy this series. You might get away with reading this book before the others, but I think you might get more out of the series if you start with book one and read this as book four.
I think he did a great job with this prequel and the series in general.
I have noticed that the author does seem to take glee in describing the outfits of the various superpowered characters, especially the state of undress of each of the female superheroes and supervillains.
All in all, if you enjoy this kind of book you will likely enjoy this series. You might get away with reading this book before the others, but I think you might get more out of the series if you start with book one and read this as book four.
April 2, 2017
I enjoyed this book more than the trilogy it's a prequel too. It had characters with more personality that were a lot more likable, and it was quite a bit darker. I'd say that this one is probably pressing the bounds of the mid-grade level that it's classified in pretty hard. It also had an actual storyline, which two of the three books of the trilogy lacked. I thought it was a lot of fun, though I'd advise maybe reading it first before giving it to a child. It is pretty dark, violent, and gory. It's still pretty fun, and in my opinion the best book in the series so far, but it's not the harmless, light-hearted fun of the trilogy.
June 16, 2025
audiobook
uh... odd... but... oddly entertaining! I loved the way this book was written. The alliteration, the fun with language, the arc of events were all just good. The reader likewise did a wonderful job! I'm a fan. I stumbled on this one through a library app and was pleasantly surprised. While the genre isn't really my favorite, it was still well done and mindlessly entertaining. It looks like this is one of a series, but I don't think I need to read any more of them, not being a fan of series anyhow. This one is a bit Dispicable Me meets Gaudians of the Galaxy in a Steam Punk sort of way. Quite unique and fun, just not really my thing.
uh... odd... but... oddly entertaining! I loved the way this book was written. The alliteration, the fun with language, the arc of events were all just good. The reader likewise did a wonderful job! I'm a fan. I stumbled on this one through a library app and was pleasantly surprised. While the genre isn't really my favorite, it was still well done and mindlessly entertaining. It looks like this is one of a series, but I don't think I need to read any more of them, not being a fan of series anyhow. This one is a bit Dispicable Me meets Gaudians of the Galaxy in a Steam Punk sort of way. Quite unique and fun, just not really my thing.
December 9, 2022
I tried so many times to get into this book. I think I was both not in the mood for something so cute and light and also I just missed Bad Penny (who is not even born yet). Still a great story once I was in the mood for this kind of writing. I enjoyed the hell out of it and loved how it provided insight into the characters we see in the main story. I also just want to give Spider a hug, poor dear.
On re-read, Irene is such a nice character. It was fun spending time with her when she was enjoying being wicked.
On re-read, Irene is such a nice character. It was fun spending time with her when she was enjoying being wicked.
September 6, 2018
I probably should've read this "in order" where it belongs in books, but sometimes i like to read books in the order they were published, so i can better understand the timeline of the creation of it. I did neither for this book. I was so bummed at the end of book 5 that it was over until i noticed that i hadn't gotten around to reading 0.5! wow! i wish i read this before book 5, it would've made more sense there, but i'm so glad i got to visit with some old friends from the series. It truly rounded out Claudia (indirectly) and Spider for me, two characters I wish I understood more.
February 14, 2017
This is a prequel to the "Please Don't Tell My Parents..." series presenting the origin stories of many minor characters in the main series.
As a standalone novel, I liked it. It's silly and spunky. But, it doesn't differentiate itself from the main series and the voices of the characters read to me as not that different from those in the main series.
A good addition to the series, but I wasn't in love with it.
As a standalone novel, I liked it. It's silly and spunky. But, it doesn't differentiate itself from the main series and the voices of the characters read to me as not that different from those in the main series.
A good addition to the series, but I wasn't in love with it.
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