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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
Foi emocionante conhecer a Natacha, uma história focada na emoção de uma personagem que conhecemos como a mais fria dos Vingadores.
Black Widow is one of my favorite MCU heroes. She's strong, a total bad ass, and holds her own just by herself, without any added “powers”. Natasha has a heartbreaking and tragic backstory, but has risen above it, becoming someone good. Now that the Black Widow film is out and Natasha’s story in the MCU has seemingly come to a close, I picked this book up hoping it would fill the Natasha sized whole in my heart.
I went into this book expecting more Natasha then what we got. I did like Ava, the other female protagonist, but she was difficult to sympathize with at times. Alex I found to be pretty unnecessary, and I think I would have enjoyed the book more without his character (although some of his sarcastic dark humor did make me lol).
I’m a little confused on when this is supposed to take place, as Coulson is alive and well, but references make it seem as if it’s post Avengers. I did love the inclusion of Coulson and Tony, and their characters seemed on par with who they are in the MCU & AOS.
The instalove trope was unfortunately present, and although I thought they were cute together, the book didn’t need the romance, and could have spent that time further exploring Nat and Ava’s relationship. It’s difficult to expand upon such an iconic character’s backstory, while introducing the history of two new main characters and getting an audience to care about them. As a whole, Ava and Alex felt really shallow, which made them difficult to care about.
I’m typically not crazy about switching perspectives, and this book was no exception. I think it would have been better to have been 100% from Ava’s perspective, with only the briefings at the beginning of each chapter from Natasha’s.
I like where Nat and Ava ended up in their mentor/mentee relationship, and where Ava ended up in her character arc. I would be interested to see Ava’s story continued. I know there’s a sequel, and although I’m unsure if I’ll be reading it anytime soon, I think I will probably eventually give it a chance!
If you view this as a Black Widow Variant, it’s a good story! If you go into it expecting it to be just like Scarlett’s Black Widow, and have the same history as her, it will definitely be a let down.
I went into this book expecting more Natasha then what we got. I did like Ava, the other female protagonist, but she was difficult to sympathize with at times. Alex I found to be pretty unnecessary, and I think I would have enjoyed the book more without his character (although some of his sarcastic dark humor did make me lol).
I’m a little confused on when this is supposed to take place, as Coulson is alive and well, but references make it seem as if it’s post Avengers. I did love the inclusion of Coulson and Tony, and their characters seemed on par with who they are in the MCU & AOS.
The instalove trope was unfortunately present, and although I thought they were cute together, the book didn’t need the romance, and could have spent that time further exploring Nat and Ava’s relationship. It’s difficult to expand upon such an iconic character’s backstory, while introducing the history of two new main characters and getting an audience to care about them. As a whole, Ava and Alex felt really shallow, which made them difficult to care about.
I’m typically not crazy about switching perspectives, and this book was no exception. I think it would have been better to have been 100% from Ava’s perspective, with only the briefings at the beginning of each chapter from Natasha’s.
I like where Nat and Ava ended up in their mentor/mentee relationship, and where Ava ended up in her character arc. I would be interested to see Ava’s story continued. I know there’s a sequel, and although I’m unsure if I’ll be reading it anytime soon, I think I will probably eventually give it a chance!
If you view this as a Black Widow Variant, it’s a good story! If you go into it expecting it to be just like Scarlett’s Black Widow, and have the same history as her, it will definitely be a let down.
This book wasn't anything like I thought it was going to be. Having been named Black Widow and semi-marketed at her origin story, I thought it was going to be that: Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, and her time in the Red Room and how she became Black Widow. I didn't even realize there were alternating character POVs until I read the jacket flap.
On the subject of Natasha's characterization though, I was having SUCH A HARD TIME trying to picture her has the Scarlett Johansson I've come to know and love. To be quite honest I pictured this entire book in the style of this really dumb Avengers cartoon movie. I tried finding a clip with just her but couldn't, so here's a horrible ripped version to illustrate my point (9:10-9:30):
https://youtu.be/VnyBsTjt5T0?t=9m10s
http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files/...
The way she talked in this book, I dunno, I just couldn't stop hearing the cartoon Russian accent. I was a little letdown that she seemed so...not Black Widow-y? I got tired of the sister/family stuff weird as that is to say. I don't want a nurture-y, loving, distracted-by-love-for-children Natasha, I want my badass, takes-no-nonsense, intelligence surpassing everyone in the room Natasha. She had her moments but I guess I just wanted more.
Ava and Alex were sort of meh for me. I didn't have particular attachment to either even though I think we spend more time in their POVs than we ever did Natasha's. I started ignoring the little POV identifiers eventually because I felt they didn't matter. The voices weren't distinct enough for me and I didn't really feel like they really CHANGED POVs throughout...? Like it was all fairly third person unrestricted to me. The only "POV"-ish parts were their italicized thoughts. And I wasn't all that sad when Alex died. I didn't like him enough to care.
And real quick, to piggy-back on Delaney's comment, I thought it was so weird that Tony just sort of randomly pops up and then is there to help, readily available. You can't tell me Tony has better things to do? Or other stuff he'd rather be doing? Helping Natasha on a case that's top secret and super personal doesn't seem like a thing you'd go to Tony for (at least not for Natasha; I love Tony). I really think Tony was used almost disrespectfully to the character. He was there because a.) he's smart and can help try to fix the mind link thing, b.) he's conveniently rich and Ava can conveniently steal a giant wad of 100s that Tony conveniently carries on him at all times apparently, and c.) he's a blaring reminder/connection to the Avengers as a whole, almost like a, "Hey!!! Look!!! Natasha and Tony!!! AVENGERS!!! REMEMBER THEM???!!!" Tony felt like a prop and that bothered me.
All that aside, I did enjoy parts of this book. And the story was admittedly interesting though arguably could have been told in a better way. I think false marketing harmed my experience with this book. I gave it 3/5 - it was okay, but if/when there are ever anymore of these books I don't think I'll pick them up. One was enough.
EDIT: The longer I think about it, I changed my rating to 2/5. D:
On the subject of Natasha's characterization though, I was having SUCH A HARD TIME trying to picture her has the Scarlett Johansson I've come to know and love. To be quite honest I pictured this entire book in the style of this really dumb Avengers cartoon movie. I tried finding a clip with just her but couldn't, so here's a horrible ripped version to illustrate my point (9:10-9:30):
https://youtu.be/VnyBsTjt5T0?t=9m10s
http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files/...
The way she talked in this book, I dunno, I just couldn't stop hearing the cartoon Russian accent. I was a little letdown that she seemed so...not Black Widow-y? I got tired of the sister/family stuff weird as that is to say. I don't want a nurture-y, loving, distracted-by-love-for-children Natasha, I want my badass, takes-no-nonsense, intelligence surpassing everyone in the room Natasha. She had her moments but I guess I just wanted more.
Ava and Alex were sort of meh for me. I didn't have particular attachment to either even though I think we spend more time in their POVs than we ever did Natasha's. I started ignoring the little POV identifiers eventually because I felt they didn't matter. The voices weren't distinct enough for me and I didn't really feel like they really CHANGED POVs throughout...? Like it was all fairly third person unrestricted to me. The only "POV"-ish parts were their italicized thoughts. And I wasn't all that sad when Alex died. I didn't like him enough to care.
And real quick, to piggy-back on Delaney's comment, I thought it was so weird that Tony just sort of randomly pops up and then is there to help, readily available. You can't tell me Tony has better things to do? Or other stuff he'd rather be doing? Helping Natasha on a case that's top secret and super personal doesn't seem like a thing you'd go to Tony for (at least not for Natasha; I love Tony). I really think Tony was used almost disrespectfully to the character. He was there because a.) he's smart and can help try to fix the mind link thing, b.) he's conveniently rich and Ava can conveniently steal a giant wad of 100s that Tony conveniently carries on him at all times apparently, and c.) he's a blaring reminder/connection to the Avengers as a whole, almost like a, "Hey!!! Look!!! Natasha and Tony!!! AVENGERS!!! REMEMBER THEM???!!!" Tony felt like a prop and that bothered me.
All that aside, I did enjoy parts of this book. And the story was admittedly interesting though arguably could have been told in a better way. I think false marketing harmed my experience with this book. I gave it 3/5 - it was okay, but if/when there are ever anymore of these books I don't think I'll pick them up. One was enough.
EDIT: The longer I think about it, I changed my rating to 2/5. D:
For the age rating of this book, go to my blog for the full article!
Oh, this was absolutely amazing! I went into this book with lower expectations but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I’m leaning more on the 4-star side only because of a couple of things but I gotta say that the good heavily outweighed the bad in my opinion. The flow of the story was fast-paced so I found it very easy to zone into and the characters were definitely portrayed more through dialogue than direct descriptions, which I found refreshing.
Honestly, this whole book is like a comic book in novel form. What I mean by that is that there are certain elements only found in comics that were translated into a more standard book format. Things like fast-paced storylines and a lot of dialogue were present in this book. A lot of times, it made the whole thing that much more enjoyable, but there were other times where it felt less unnatural. Things like romances are VERY sudden in a lot of Marvel comics but when it’s just a bunch of pictures and dialogue, it’s feels more natural. When your reading a young adult novel, you expect there to be a certain level of slow-burn in terms of romantic stories. Given that this story wasn’t just about the romance, I was able to kind of overlook the fact that Ava and Alex’s romance (and their connection in general) happened INSANELY fast. Other than that, though, this story was awesome!
I was surprised when I found myself zoning into the story right from the start. I’ve always loved Black Widow so this book was already up my alley. The mystery surrounding the characters was very riveting and I was just constantly wondering what was going to happen next. The characters themselves definitely made it easy to become invested in the story, as well. While, like I previously mention, Ava and Alex seemed to become really close really quickly, their romance slowly grew on me and I started loving them together. Plus, by the end of the story, I hadn’t even realized how much I loved these characters until the story was over. This book evoked such a huge emotional response from me and I didn’t expect that! Definitely made me upgrade my rating from 4 stars to 4.5!
So, to sum up, this is a must-read for any superhero fan!
Oh, this was absolutely amazing! I went into this book with lower expectations but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I’m leaning more on the 4-star side only because of a couple of things but I gotta say that the good heavily outweighed the bad in my opinion. The flow of the story was fast-paced so I found it very easy to zone into and the characters were definitely portrayed more through dialogue than direct descriptions, which I found refreshing.
Honestly, this whole book is like a comic book in novel form. What I mean by that is that there are certain elements only found in comics that were translated into a more standard book format. Things like fast-paced storylines and a lot of dialogue were present in this book. A lot of times, it made the whole thing that much more enjoyable, but there were other times where it felt less unnatural. Things like romances are VERY sudden in a lot of Marvel comics but when it’s just a bunch of pictures and dialogue, it’s feels more natural. When your reading a young adult novel, you expect there to be a certain level of slow-burn in terms of romantic stories. Given that this story wasn’t just about the romance, I was able to kind of overlook the fact that Ava and Alex’s romance (and their connection in general) happened INSANELY fast. Other than that, though, this story was awesome!
I was surprised when I found myself zoning into the story right from the start. I’ve always loved Black Widow so this book was already up my alley. The mystery surrounding the characters was very riveting and I was just constantly wondering what was going to happen next. The characters themselves definitely made it easy to become invested in the story, as well. While, like I previously mention, Ava and Alex seemed to become really close really quickly, their romance slowly grew on me and I started loving them together. Plus, by the end of the story, I hadn’t even realized how much I loved these characters until the story was over. This book evoked such a huge emotional response from me and I didn’t expect that! Definitely made me upgrade my rating from 4 stars to 4.5!
So, to sum up, this is a must-read for any superhero fan!
Giving it four stars for the Black Widow (we really do need more Black Widow and solo female superhero things in general) and the gorgeous art. I had some issues with it, like for instance the large portions of the novel where I felt like Natasha was a side character and not the leading lady. It was an enjoyable read, definitely, but it didn't fully meet my expectations.
MCU fans will probably enjoy it. However, the book also features an unnecessary male character who draws attention away from Natasha and Ava.
This book does a good job at giving more shades to Natasha’s character, particularly when it comes to family (which is how far I’ll go without spoiling). We are also introduced to 2 young adults, Ava and Alex, who are somehow mysteriously connected to Natasha & they are all quickly on the run together. What worked was building the connections to Natasha— the YA romance between the two younger characters was a bit forced (like it happens immediately). I love Margaret Stohl’s writing, and I’ll pick up the sequel.
3.5 stars. It was just okay until the ending. The ending bumped it up another .5 for me.