In July 2020, YA prose readers will get to meet Faith Herbert a.k.a. Zephyr, the Valiant Comics superhero who proves that yes, fat people can be superheroes and no, their weight doesn’t have to be a major focal point of their stories. On Thursday, Bustle published an exclusive excerpt from Faith: Taking Flight, a new novel by New York Times best-selling author Julie Murphy that follows Faith as a teenager, in the wake of the realization that she can fly.
Here’s the full synopsis, per Harper Collins:
Faith Herbert is a pretty regular teen. When she’s not hanging out with her two best friends, Matt and Ches, she’s volunteering at the local animal shelter or obsessing over the long-running teen drama The Grove.
So far, her senior year has been spent trying to sort out her feelings for her maybe-crush Johnny and making plans to stay close to Grandma Lou after graduation. Of course, there’s also that small matter of recently discovering she can fly….
When the fictional world of The Grove crashes into Faith’s reality as the show relocates to her town, she can’t believe it when TV heroine Dakota Ash takes a romantic interest in her.
But her fandom-fueled daydreams aren’t enough to distract Faith from the fact that first animals, then people, have begun to vanish from the town. Only Faith seems able to connect the dots to a new designer drug infiltrating her high school.
But when her investigation puts the people she loves in danger, she will have to confront her hidden past and use her newfound gifts—risking everything to save her friends and beloved town.
Faith: Taking Flight is currently available for pre-order; the book hits shelves July 7, 2020. Murphy is set to appear as a special guest at Valiant’s Saturday evening New York Comic Con panel, “Valiant Uprising: News and Announcements and More.” Attendees can catch the panel in room 1A02 at 6:30 p.m.
Check out the cover for Faith: Taking Flight, illustrated by Kat Goodloe with design by Jenna Stempel-Lobell, below!
