Temptation

Smallville (Young Adults) #10

by Suzan Colon

Sixteen-year-old Clark Kent struggles with his desire to rely on dangerous red meteorites that give him self-confidence, becomes jealous of a rival for Lana, and confronts an entity that kills people by stealing their breath.

Genres: Young Adult, Superheroes, Science Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2004

About the author

I'm the author of Cherries in Winter: My Family's Recipe for Hope in Hard Times, published in hardcover by Doubleday in November, 2010; normally a happy holiday time of year, but that particular November was one of the worst in this economic downfall--kind of timely, since my book was part Recession therapy, part comfort food recipes. Cherries in Winter is out now in paperback with added chapters and recipes.

I've written for O, the Oprah Magazine, Jane, Harper's Bazaar, Details, Rolling Stone, and tons of other magazines. I love magazines; I hope they don't go away.

I've also written three young adult novels based on the Smallville TV series, and a few children's books based on Batman.

I live in New Jersey with my husband, two cats, and an occasional beagle. I am not a great cook, but I try.

Reviews

[John Michael Strubhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. It's not terrible, but a bit too much on the touchy-feely side for my taste. Suzan is not in my top 50 favorite authors. She might be in yours though, so if she is, I reckon you'll enjoy this one. You got Lana crushing on a French student who has a naughty meteor induced power that poses quite a threat to her loved ones. Clark decides to play with a little red rock. You'd think he would know better, but no! He had to have it. There's nothing new in the canon sense here. That's another reason for my profound disappointment. On to the last in the series!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this one.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the young adult novels set in Smallville, this is the latest to have caught up with the show. Set some time after the events of the groundbreaking episode Rosetta, Clark ends up finding a small rock of red Kryptonite. The episode Red was an amazing example of Kryptonite being able to harm Clark worse than death. In many ways, it is a science fiction version of real-life drug abuse. Whereas the episode Red had it be a mistake, this one he finds, and instead of getting rid of it becomes tempted to retrieve it and abuse it.

Because at around the same time, a handsome young man from France named Jaime makes himself Smallville High's most popular new guest. A lot of girls, especially Clark's lovely crush Lana Lang, are ogling the new guy. Clark feels jealous, and with so much work at the farm, he runs to that rock of red Kryptonite and sets himself up for some of the madness he unleashed in the earlier episode.

Lying, yelling, thieving, hurting, etc. Certainly not the traits of a hero. But while this is going on, the new guy is not so golden. Jaime has a strange ability to turn into smoke. While it sounds cool, it's not very healthy. This is not a new thing caused by Smallville's meteor shower, but the timing is strange, as he desperately becomes more unstable and needs to harvest oxygen from living people, killing them. Maybe it's maturity; the older he gets, the more unstable he becomes.

In many ways, not too dissimilar from the season one episode of Cool, but whereas that boy was already a jerk, Jaime is a nice guy who does what he does out of desperation. Still, it's a tragic circumstance as he brings so much death; he must be stopped while Clark is steeped in madness.

All in all, a very good story that shows how susceptible Clark was to losing his sanity as well as the trouble of living his life as a powerful alien being and living with his secret. No surprise he'd become addicted to a drug to cope with his feelings. Still, it's no good excuse to abuse drugs. B+

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm almost done with the middle-aged series now (only one left to go). This was the one I was most excited about since I loved the RedK story with Clark in the Smallville series, but this book didn't deliver as well as some of the others.

It was interesting to see Clark's struggling with the RedK, and I didn't know he could tolerate it for short periods. The author invented a new meteor freak character for the purpose of plot - a boy of smoke and fire - which was a creative enough invention for this sort of story, and of course he gets involved with Lana, the girl who may as well have a meteor ability of her own to attract any man in town. (sigh)

The timeline seems to be before his big Metropolis crime spree but after the school ring purchase, after the prom dance with Chloe that didn't go anywhere but before she knows his secret, after Peter is aware of the secret and after Whitney has gone on to that great football field in the sky. The series isn't always consistent on getting it all right with adhering to the series storylines, but I'm thinking this one is a little more loyal to the series.

No Lex Luthor hurt the story since he has shown to be a drawing character in the other books (and show). The Kents, Chloe, Lana and Pete are around - I miss Pete the "boss" Ross

Overall it's an okay edition that, even with the RedK, misses some of the layers I'd like it to have.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this. Of course I did. It just has to have Superman or Smallville and I’m hooked. My only complaint, as usual, is that I’m not completely sure where this fits in with the show. Timeline wise. I’ve seen the show over and over so many times that I have the timeline for events pretty much mesmerized so it sticks out when it doesn’t fit and distracts me from the story. This is probably one of the better ones in the series because of the red K. I can see why a copy of this one was so hard to find. As much as I love that Clark is such a good guy, it’s actually one of my favorite aspects of Superman as a hero, it’s always entertaining to see him let go. I remember how well Tom Welling played red kryptonite Clark and the author of this book wrote him just as well.

[The Third Place A Teen Library]

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Science Fiction