The Mediocre Artists Club
a novel
Reese and Noah Gallagher are the youngest children in a long line of super heroes, their family woven tightly into the fabric of their hometown, Grove City. After generations of protecting the city, the Gallaghers don’t take on super hero aliases, which leaves Noah in the spotlight with nothing to hide behind. His older sister Reese is the family disappointment, with no super powers to speak of, but the pressure of living up to their family’s legacy is still high.
In the Fall of 2010, they both reach their breaking points, though they handle that break… differently. Reese, by convincing her best friend to embark on a scheme to become super villains and expose corruption in the city. Noah, by finally letting himself feel the crush he’s had on that same best friend and admitting to himself that he’s gay, even if he’ll have to keep it under wraps.
But when Tony - Reese’s best friend and Noah’s crush - gets hurt, they both have to reckon with their secret identities potentially coming to light.
The Mediocre Artists Club began life as “Super,” a loose concept for a story about a teenage superhero’s non-super sister becoming a supervillain, in 2014. At the time, I fleshed it out only enough to know who the three main characters would be, but didn’t have a specific enough direction for the story for it to come of anything. After ten years on the back burner, the time was finally right to pick it back up again in 2024, and I have been picking at it ever since.
The MAC is a story about friendship, and about queerness in the particular landscape of the late aughts/early tens, and most importantly about secret identities and what it means to let someone know you. I cannot wait to finally share it with the world.
Reese Gallagher, 2024 vs 2014
Reese, Tony, & Noah, 2026 vs 2015