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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
This genre exists in what feels like only the dusty lower corner of the YA section at my local library. I love them. The niche qualities always bring me straight to them: Never heard of them, always have great audiobooks, as well as how they do the characters justice.
As for this specific book I truly liked it.
As for this specific book I truly liked it.
1.5 stars — this is like a wattpad fan fiction except without any spice and the “main character” is actually the side chick. even then, she’s completely out of character and the plot barely even makes sense. what a waste of time :P
I've got fellings for this book, it's trully amazing!! Bravo
I’m a HUGE Marvel fan, so when I learned about these books, I was ecstatic. I’ve read the IronMan one and the Spider-Man ones already, and this is probably my second favourite. It’s a close call though, since Reynolds did such an amazing job with Morales.
I was going in blind with this book, but the way Stohl mixed the canonical MCU with her own fictional universe was masterfully done. The insight into each characters mind was heartfelt and I was left wishing for me.
Fortunately, there’s Red Widow. I’ll definitely be going into the second book when I get the chance.
100% recommend to anyone who loves Marvel and YA books.
I was going in blind with this book, but the way Stohl mixed the canonical MCU with her own fictional universe was masterfully done. The insight into each characters mind was heartfelt and I was left wishing for me.
Fortunately, there’s Red Widow. I’ll definitely be going into the second book when I get the chance.
100% recommend to anyone who loves Marvel and YA books.
Not quite consolation for the lack of Black Widow movie, but comes close. This novel reveals a lot of Natasha's backstory - Family, Red Room, and her introduction to SHIELD. Black Widow has a mysterious link to a Russian girl named Ava, and an American boy named Alex. The three of them become very reluctant allies.
Like many people, I knew little about Black Widow/Natasha Romanoff before the Marvel films and Scarlett Johansson made her a pop culture icon. However, I have come to love the character immensely, so I was thrilled when this title was announced. I was somewhat hesitant due to Margaret Stohl being the author they chose to partner with as I haven’t completely loved some of her other work. I was determined to at least give this a shot though due to my love of Black Widow and superheroes.
Unfortunately, Forever Red fell flat for me. While some of the superhero/spy elements are there, this book gets caught up in many of the YA-tropes that I find frustrating. Lonely, tough girl who secretly longs for love and dreams of a mysterious boy. Suddenly meets mysterious boy and together they’re drawn into a wild situation beyond their control. Of course, they fall in love (as in willing to risk their lives for each other) five minutes after actually meeting. It felt like something I’d read a dozen times before. The plot, for the most part, is easy to predict and could never hold my attention for long.
Overall, I was quite disappointed. The characters felt like cardboard cut outs, and I never felt any sort of investment in them. There was no emotional connection to be found. The pacing is likely a factor in this as mysteries are quickly introduced and just as quickly resolved. It makes everything seem anticlimactic and melodramatic. If you’re looking for a quick read with little depth and lots of action, this might be worth checking out, but I won’t be continuing on to the next book.
2.5/5
Unfortunately, Forever Red fell flat for me. While some of the superhero/spy elements are there, this book gets caught up in many of the YA-tropes that I find frustrating. Lonely, tough girl who secretly longs for love and dreams of a mysterious boy. Suddenly meets mysterious boy and together they’re drawn into a wild situation beyond their control. Of course, they fall in love (as in willing to risk their lives for each other) five minutes after actually meeting. It felt like something I’d read a dozen times before. The plot, for the most part, is easy to predict and could never hold my attention for long.
Overall, I was quite disappointed. The characters felt like cardboard cut outs, and I never felt any sort of investment in them. There was no emotional connection to be found. The pacing is likely a factor in this as mysteries are quickly introduced and just as quickly resolved. It makes everything seem anticlimactic and melodramatic. If you’re looking for a quick read with little depth and lots of action, this might be worth checking out, but I won’t be continuing on to the next book.
2.5/5
*Review also posted at Briar Rose Reads
I nearly wept for joy when I saw that this book was going to exist. Natasha Romanoff is one of my favorite fictional characters. Now she's going to be in a YA novel--my favorite genre?! Life couldn't get any better!
Well... It could, a bit.
Natasha's characterization is... unsteady. She flips back and forth between arctic and maternal at a dizzying pace. I think that might have been meant to convey internal conflict, but it just comes off as inconsistent, in my opinion. Her characterization, to me, is not as bad as Tony Stark's, however. In the MCU, Tony is fascinating, as much as he's a jerk: crackling with humor and impudence thinly layered over trauma and insecurity. In this book, he sounded like he was trying to be funny but didn't quite have the wit to pull it off. And the damage that's always just under the surface? Nowhere to be seen.
And as for the original characters, teenagers Ava and Alex: Tropes. Tropes everywhere. It's not all bad, and they have their moments of being likeable, but there wasn't anything really original about them, nothing I haven't seen done dozens of times. Seemingly ordinary teenagers have a super-special suppressed past that comes roaring back in hidden memories! They're drawn together and feel like soulmates even though they don't know why! INSTA-LOVE!
I nearly wept for joy when I saw that this book was going to exist. Natasha Romanoff is one of my favorite fictional characters. Now she's going to be in a YA novel--my favorite genre?! Life couldn't get any better!
Well... It could, a bit.
Natasha's characterization is... unsteady. She flips back and forth between arctic and maternal at a dizzying pace. I think that might have been meant to convey internal conflict, but it just comes off as inconsistent, in my opinion. Her characterization, to me, is not as bad as Tony Stark's, however. In the MCU, Tony is fascinating, as much as he's a jerk: crackling with humor and impudence thinly layered over trauma and insecurity. In this book, he sounded like he was trying to be funny but didn't quite have the wit to pull it off. And the damage that's always just under the surface? Nowhere to be seen.
And as for the original characters, teenagers Ava and Alex: Tropes. Tropes everywhere. It's not all bad, and they have their moments of being likeable, but there wasn't anything really original about them, nothing I haven't seen done dozens of times. Seemingly ordinary teenagers have a super-special suppressed past that comes roaring back in hidden memories! They're drawn together and feel like soulmates even though they don't know why! INSTA-LOVE!
Spoiler
A character dies in the end (there are hints of this all through the book), and hir relationship to another character means that we should care about hir a lot, but I just... Didn't. I finished the book and went, "Hmm. Okay. Well, zie ain't gettin' any deader." Which tells you something about my lack of emotional connection to hir and everyone else.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Gun violence, Torture, Trafficking
Minor: Cursing
Minor swearing in Russian so most people would not understand them anyway.
What do I do when I have an evening at home and a mountain of work to do?
I read a little over half a novel.
Why?
What do you do?
This was good. I loved the teaser comic thing, and I really enjoyed most of this book. And Stohl, God bless her, she knows what she's handling here. They wouldn't give you a movie, but they gave you a book. So here it is, take it and go yell some more. Yell until they hear you. And there's already a Captain Marvel book announced, which I am SO excited for.
An ongoing comic run would be awesome. I want this. Or a sequel to this book. I would buy the hell out of that.
It's a good book. It is only good, but it is good. It was honestly not terribly well executed. It was not the painful emotional roller-coaster I wanted and expected from a Black Widow book. There were times when it seemed very middle-grade, which is fine, except that this isn't a middle-grade book. It could have been so much better. But it was still good.
It's got three POVs that it cycles through, and it tells you whose you're reading from at the beginning of the chapter. Sometimes it strays throughout the chapter, but it never gets confusing, which it pretty impressive now that I think about it.
Half way through I was so annoyed with Ava and Alex's perspectives that I was for a fleeting moment tempted to put it down and not pick it back up. (If anyone reading this is currently trying to decide if they should finish, I do recommend finishing it.) I freely admit that I am no longer a teenager, but I do teach for a living, so I'd like to think I'm not TOO much of an old fuddy-duddy (that's right, I said fuddy-duddy) and Ava and Alex seemed like... manufactured teenagers? Teenagers that were trying too hard to obviously be teenagers that they weren't quite nailing it?
Either way, they were stupidly annoying after a while. I'd read a Natasha chapter and just be all, "yes, tell me more about how your trigger breaks like glass" (and no, that wasn't a euphemism), and then I'd have to go back to listening to Ava and Alex babbling about body heat and kissing (and now you know an uncomfortable amount about my personal preferences). There was just so much space wasted on a romance that I didn't care about, when it could have been used for... well, let's be honest here, for Natasha. The reason I bought this book. (actually it was a birthday gift. THANK YOU JASMINE!)
Maybe I'm old. Maybe romance means something different to me than it used to. I'm willing to consider the possibility. But I hated the romance.
There were these moments in the novel when Stohl would be examining some really deep emotion, or trying to convey something really heart wrenching, and I kept thinking, "yeah, that's okay, but I can think of a couple of other authors who could have worded that better." I think there was only one spot where I thought, "oooh that was well-put." I did not cry reading this book. And if you read my reviews, you know it's not that hard to make me cry. The diction just didn't resonate with me. Except when she was talking about guns and fighting. Those little moments of competency porn were definitely a highlight of the book for me. I loved them so much.
Also, OMG that cover!! I want a poster of it! It's so freaking pretty!!
One final complaint: I got confused in the final battle. I read it twice and I'm still not sure I understand all the action. Or rather, why they did the actions they did. Why did he grab the thing? There were a couple of little things like that, where I had to go back and re-read. I'm not sure if they were editing errors, or maybe in one spot a printing error, or what happened there, but I got confused a couple of times.
I liked the end. I'm trying not to be spoilery, even though I could see it coming a mile off.
I think if there had been less time spent on the romance I would have gotten more attached to all the characters who weren't Natasha and I would have been more invested. But as it was I was actually pretty meh about it.
Speaking of Characters who weren't Natasha, I a.) loved the Tony Stark cameos and b.) wish Pepper had made an actual appearance. Totally understand why she didn't, but it would have been so fun. I loved all the references to how she and Nat are good friends. And, I mean, there's not a lot to chose from by way of gal pals in the MCU, so it seems natural, but it's super fantastic.
Enjoyable! Worth reading! I would buy more! I am stupidly on board for Hale's Cap book! Come on, Marvel, give me more!
I read a little over half a novel.
Why?
What do you do?
This was good. I loved the teaser comic thing, and I really enjoyed most of this book. And Stohl, God bless her, she knows what she's handling here. They wouldn't give you a movie, but they gave you a book. So here it is, take it and go yell some more. Yell until they hear you. And there's already a Captain Marvel book announced, which I am SO excited for.
An ongoing comic run would be awesome. I want this. Or a sequel to this book. I would buy the hell out of that.
It's a good book. It is only good, but it is good. It was honestly not terribly well executed. It was not the painful emotional roller-coaster I wanted and expected from a Black Widow book. There were times when it seemed very middle-grade, which is fine, except that this isn't a middle-grade book. It could have been so much better. But it was still good.
It's got three POVs that it cycles through, and it tells you whose you're reading from at the beginning of the chapter. Sometimes it strays throughout the chapter, but it never gets confusing, which it pretty impressive now that I think about it.
Half way through I was so annoyed with Ava and Alex's perspectives that I was for a fleeting moment tempted to put it down and not pick it back up. (If anyone reading this is currently trying to decide if they should finish, I do recommend finishing it.) I freely admit that I am no longer a teenager, but I do teach for a living, so I'd like to think I'm not TOO much of an old fuddy-duddy (that's right, I said fuddy-duddy) and Ava and Alex seemed like... manufactured teenagers? Teenagers that were trying too hard to obviously be teenagers that they weren't quite nailing it?
Either way, they were stupidly annoying after a while. I'd read a Natasha chapter and just be all, "yes, tell me more about how your trigger breaks like glass" (and no, that wasn't a euphemism), and then I'd have to go back to listening to Ava and Alex babbling about body heat and kissing (and now you know an uncomfortable amount about my personal preferences). There was just so much space wasted on a romance that I didn't care about, when it could have been used for... well, let's be honest here, for Natasha. The reason I bought this book. (actually it was a birthday gift. THANK YOU JASMINE!)
Maybe I'm old. Maybe romance means something different to me than it used to. I'm willing to consider the possibility. But I hated the romance.
There were these moments in the novel when Stohl would be examining some really deep emotion, or trying to convey something really heart wrenching, and I kept thinking, "yeah, that's okay, but I can think of a couple of other authors who could have worded that better." I think there was only one spot where I thought, "oooh that was well-put." I did not cry reading this book. And if you read my reviews, you know it's not that hard to make me cry. The diction just didn't resonate with me. Except when she was talking about guns and fighting. Those little moments of competency porn were definitely a highlight of the book for me. I loved them so much.
Also, OMG that cover!! I want a poster of it! It's so freaking pretty!!
One final complaint: I got confused in the final battle. I read it twice and I'm still not sure I understand all the action. Or rather, why they did the actions they did. Why did he grab the thing? There were a couple of little things like that, where I had to go back and re-read. I'm not sure if they were editing errors, or maybe in one spot a printing error, or what happened there, but I got confused a couple of times.
I liked the end. I'm trying not to be spoilery, even though I could see it coming a mile off.
Spoiler
Actually, the whole thing is based around an LODD interview, so it spoils itself. I didn't find it terribly emotional, and it was a bit of a cheap trick, but I liked the aftermath. Maybe that's not a good way to put it. I liked what the characters were left with, I guess. And I waffled a bit when I saw what was coming because I wasn't sure if it was going to be a case of fridging but I don't think it was. I don't think Stohl did everything possible to save said character, but... idk. It worked? It wasn't a casual character death, at the very least. And while it certainly motivates the survivors, I think it was important in it's own right and honoured as such.I think if there had been less time spent on the romance I would have gotten more attached to all the characters who weren't Natasha and I would have been more invested. But as it was I was actually pretty meh about it.
Speaking of Characters who weren't Natasha, I a.) loved the Tony Stark cameos and b.) wish Pepper had made an actual appearance. Totally understand why she didn't, but it would have been so fun. I loved all the references to how she and Nat are good friends. And, I mean, there's not a lot to chose from by way of gal pals in the MCU, so it seems natural, but it's super fantastic.
Enjoyable! Worth reading! I would buy more! I am stupidly on board for Hale's Cap book! Come on, Marvel, give me more!