Superhelden.nl (superheroes.nl) is a Dutch youth thriller series written by Marcel van Driel, first releasing in September 2011, and has four installments since January 2017.
The fourteen-year-old Teen Genius Iris Goudhoorn does little else besides playing video games since her fathers suicide. After becoming one of the top players in the online game superhelden.nl, the game grants her access to the virtual island of Pala. However, the island turns out to be a very real place, and Iris gets kidnapped by two teenagers named Alex and Fiber. On Pala, children receive excessive training to become superspies, led by the mysterious Mr. Oz, the only one who knows the ultimate goal of the island.
Examples:
- And I Must Scream: The fate of Mister Oz. Finally having his memory uploaded to the computer as he wanted, all his opponents do is pull out the plug, and he has to continue living in complete darkness, with all his senses shut off. As the narrator puts it, it wouldn't take long before he loses it.
- Batman Gambit: Big Bad Mr. Oz pulls this one on Iris. Getting her befriended with another girl, gave him the opportunity to threaten her friend to get the upper hand.
- Cunning Linguist: After extensive language classes, the kids on Pala have a basic grasp of many different languages, and even mastering the accents of said languages.
- Gratuitous English: Since the people on the island are from different nationalities, Iris gets addressed in English on occasion.
- Island Base: Pala, a base for child superspies in training.
- Photographic Memory: If Iris has seen something only once, she can remember every single background detail, even if the environment should have moved to fast for her to have noticed it.
- Shout-Out: Turns out Mr. Oz is into The Lord of the Rings, as in one of his challenges, the solution for the problem turns out to be a reference, where the answer is the word "friend" in Elvish.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Fiber, who likes to spice things up by adding "fucking" to almost every sentence she utters. Although since it is a Dutch book, it usually comes out as "fokking".
- Took a Level in Badass: Every kid on Pala. Due to their dense training in martial arts and physical exercise, they would be able to floor a grown man.
