Once upon a time, Dr. Emily Nichols—the academic kind, not the physician kind—was an eco-crusader who was shot with water cannons, hunted by poachers, and chased by a bulldozer. Now? Action Emily lives in a bland condo with gray walls and teaches disengaged students at a university alongside a risk-allergic boyfriend, asking herself every day: How did I get here?
Then one afternoon Emily and her best friend, people-pleasing real estate agent Liv Bennett, witness an attempted robbery at their local coffee shop that is foiled by a yoga mom wielding a baby stroller. Their hero attributes her bravery to a mysterious class called Fearless, Inc. Its enigmatic and dizzyingly muscular instructor, Zeus, is now fully committed to helping Emily and Liv overcome their fears, too—one thrilling self-help lesson at a time.
Along with a ragtag group of other wimps, Emily and Liv must embrace the passionately unconventional methods of the leader to harness their powers, gain a bracing new perspective on life, act on their impulses, and be the no-holds-barred anti-heroes of their dreams. (Synopsis courtesy of Amazon.)
I enjoy reading Jen Lancaster's fiction novels, and The Anti-Heroes stands out as a favorite of the ones she has written. It ranks up there with Here I Go Again and The Best of Enemies for me. It's fun and refreshing with a clever concept and quirky characters.
I could easily sympathize with both Emily and Liv. They were both in places they didn't want to be. Emily was teaching college students about the environment when all they wanted to do was post TikToks about stuff that wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. Her boyfriend was annoying her to no end and making her think of the guy she lost in the past. Liv's family was taking advantage of her availability and willingness to drop all her plans for them and everyone at her work was either acting like children or stealing all her hard earned commissions. I couldn't help but want things to go right for them.
The Fearless training was unconventional but I liked seeing how it impacted their lives. No more "baked potatoes". (You'll have to read the book to see what I mean.) The other characters who were also in the training were fun to follow. B-Money was afraid of insects and just wanted to be a DJ. Michael was meticulous and also had a lot of trouble with technology. Vishnu was more of a pushover. So I wanted to see how Fearless could help them too. As a side note, I also love that the story took place in the Chicago suburbs, as most of Jen's novels do.
Stereotypes seemed larger than life for the characters who were annoying the main characters, but it was also really funny. The more difficult the character, the bigger a caricature they were. Liv's troublesome clients definitely topped the charts of how far one could go to make someone completely unbearable.
My only concern was that the epilogue felt unnecessary and just made things confusing.
Another side note: The Fearless program made me think of a song from Mean Girls: The Musical, even though I know the title of this book is inspired by Taylor Swift.
I encourage everyone to read this novel, especially if you feel like you are in a rut and need to shake things up. It's invigorating and empowering!
B-Money: Evan Ross
Zeus: John Cena
Michael: Scott Evans
Vishnu: Nikesh Patel
Miles: Nicholas Braun
Taylor: Livvy Dunne
Zeus: John Cena
Michael: Scott Evans
Vishnu: Nikesh Patel
Miles: Nicholas Braun
Taylor: Livvy Dunne
Thanks to Amazon for the book in exchange for an honest review.
More by Jen Lancaster:
Bitter is the New Black (non-fiction)
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