Review for The Golden Age by Kaleb Quist

The heroes portrayed in The Golden Age by Kaleb Quist might be carrying sporks in their utility belts now and are more likely to be facing their arch-rivals across monopoly boards themed after them instead of a true battlefield, but they certainly aren’t dead yet! The Golden Slumbers Retirement Home houses the last remaining heroes from the age of comic books: The Militia Man, She-Woman, Skunkboy, and Mothman. And though they might be filling out their spandex in different ways than in their youth, their costumes are still just as much a part of them.

Humor fills most of the pages of this novel just like Skunkboy fills the halls of the nursing home with his stench. From lines like “I’m not diabetic, I’m agnostic!” to “my nipples are like pepperonis,” you know these aren’t your typical type of heroes. And most of the interaction is comical between the characters named above, some new arrivals, and the nursing home staff charged with taking care of them.

However, there was also a slew of other emotions evoked than just straight humor. Many of the characters battle an almost existential dread of whether their lives had worth in the face of their advanced ages. And there is an extremely poignant but graphic description of a character going through a degenerative mental illness. Though the depiction is exceptional in that case, I’d label it a possible trigger warning for anyone who’s dealt with losing a family member in such a way.

While I did thoroughly enjoy many aspects of The Golden Age, I felt that sometimes the story itself or characterizations were sacrificed just for the sake of humor. There were quite a few instances I would have to go back and reread conversations while paying closer attention to tags because the characters all seemed to meld together with their voices. And with She-Woman in particular, her manner of speaking changes dramatically from scene to scene without really any reason to do so. The frequent jokes about physical abuse, especially involving sexuality also felt out of place.

In addition, the physical capabilities of the senior-citizen heroes lacked consistency. They ran or raced or zipped quite a few places. And while that was sometimes explained further, it also wasn’t either. Naming conventions for two of the characters kept pulling me out of the story as well, just because the deviations distracted me. These issues along with quite a few typos and errors were ultimately what kept me from giving it a LOVED IT!

The Golden Age by Kaleb Quist is available to buy on Amazon.