The Ultra-Violets: Middle Grade superheroines

It's no secret that I love superheroes beyond the telling of it.  I'll try anything if there's superheroes attached (well, almost anything.  It's an important caveat!).  So when I saw the shiny cover of a new middle grade book called The Ultra-Violets: The Fuchsia is Now, I may have jumped up and down.  A superhero book aimed at 8-12 girls?  Where it's okay to be girly and superpowered?  Where half of the cast-of-four are characters of color?  And everything is purple?

Eeee!

My spoiler-free review looks like this:

The Ultra-Violets: The Fuchisa is Now, by Sophie Bell, is what would happen if you took Lemony Snicket's writing style (and his habit of humorous inserts), mixed well with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and used it to write the origin story for a group of sixth-grade superheroes.  Iris, Cheri, Scarlet and Opal are reunited after four years apart, and after their first sleepover as renewed BFFs, they realize something very weird is going on: they have superpowers!  But weirder, creepier things are happening in SyncroniCity, and it's up to them to put a stop to it.  The Ultra-Violets is fast, fun, and viomazing. (Plus, the text is purple.  Really!)

For actual opinions, follow the cut.

( Spoilers ahoy! )

All in all, not great but not bad, either.  And anything that lets girls (and the publishing industry!) know they can be superheroes too is good in my book.