It’s a silly book, but the glory of it is that it doesn’t try too hard for comedy, and instead looks at the inner life of someone who still isn’t really sure whether she even likes being male or female (protagonist is Asian, female, bi and genderqueer), or liking men or women, and then throws her into a world in which she is a superhero with powers and forces that are going to result in people getting hurt and her hurting people whether she likes it or not. And some times she does like it, and is not sure if that’s her or not either.

The ambiguity over free will, identity, feelings (sparks have “halos” and darklings have “shadows” that inspire awe and/or terror from being in their presence) contribute to an undertone of body horror even as she enjoys having superpowers. It is like Worms in this aspect.

Unfortunately the other characters are not nearly as well fleshed out, although it’s a question whether this is because Kim doesn’t really see her college friends as real people after a point.

also the geek cred name dropping of xkcd was really annoying after a point.