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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
1.5 stars at best!! Man I really didn’t like this book. Predictable and not even on brand with characters. Ugh. If you like Batman don’t read this book.
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bruce and Madeleine have a strange relationship. It's complicated because she's a prisoner and he's a billionaire temporarily doing community service on her floor. I like their dynamic, it fits the playboy trajectory that is implicit for this character, where he wants someone who will run circles around him like Madeleine does.
This references enough subtle touchstones for the general run of Batman stories to feel grounded in that world while also establishing the rules of this one, where he's not Batman, he's just Bruce, and he's still a kid. It plays off of the huge inequities in Gotham City (even in just the existence of so many ultra-rich people available to be targeted by the Nightwalkers with seemingly little effort). It nods to things like the Batmobile and the Batsuit by having him being in a very fancy car and wear a suit (but not that suit) at one point.
The plot of what actually happens on the page makes a bunch of sense and I like it a lot. However, the justifications for why the major players are where they are and are doing what they're doing... that was very fuzzy and had a bunch of switch-ups as Madeleine is Bruce's main source for most of that backstory. She's canonically a liar but hard to know which specific things were lies at any one time, and I'm loath to just believe whichever story was in play when the narrative stopped moving. The ending mostly pulls it together and includes additional nods for things in the Batman canon.
This references enough subtle touchstones for the general run of Batman stories to feel grounded in that world while also establishing the rules of this one, where he's not Batman, he's just Bruce, and he's still a kid. It plays off of the huge inequities in Gotham City (even in just the existence of so many ultra-rich people available to be targeted by the Nightwalkers with seemingly little effort). It nods to things like the Batmobile and the Batsuit by having him being in a very fancy car and wear a suit (but not that suit) at one point.
The plot of what actually happens on the page makes a bunch of sense and I like it a lot. However, the justifications for why the major players are where they are and are doing what they're doing... that was very fuzzy and had a bunch of switch-ups as Madeleine is Bruce's main source for most of that backstory. She's canonically a liar but hard to know which specific things were lies at any one time, and I'm loath to just believe whichever story was in play when the narrative stopped moving. The ending mostly pulls it together and includes additional nods for things in the Batman canon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Car accident
Moderate: Death, Murder, Sexual harassment
Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
This was not what I was expecting. Going in all I had was my love for marie lu and the comic and cartoon Batman.
Going in you can definitely tell that this is a book by Marie Lu. Her writing style is amazingly unique and her way of describing technology and the world is just beautiful
My only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars were the characters. Granted I've only read her Legend trilogy but I felt that the characters were not as easy to relate nor really get to know them. I felt that based on the fact that this book was written to show a superhero's unknown teen years, Lu was unable to play around with the characters to make them her own.
Full review will be up on my blog asap.
Going in you can definitely tell that this is a book by Marie Lu. Her writing style is amazingly unique and her way of describing technology and the world is just beautiful
My only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars were the characters. Granted I've only read her Legend trilogy but I felt that the characters were not as easy to relate nor really get to know them. I felt that based on the fact that this book was written to show a superhero's unknown teen years, Lu was unable to play around with the characters to make them her own.
Full review will be up on my blog asap.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bruce Wayne, a now eighteen year-old billionaire gets caught up with the Nightwalkers when he uses his Aston Martin to chase down one that blew up a building. For interfering with the police, he is put on probation where he has to clean Arkham's asylum. There, he meets Madeleine Wallace, a girl Bruce's age who's high up in the Nightwalker's ranks.
Having never seen any of the Batman movies or read any of the comics, I enjoyed this story, although it wasn't nearly as good as [b:Wonder Woman: Warbringer|29749085|Wonder Woman Warbringer (DC Icons, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478886078s/29749085.jpg|50105334]. (I prefer Marvel movies and don't like superhero comics that much, although I'm willing to try one again! Recently I've been reading [b:Saga, Vol. 1|15704307|Saga, Vol. 1 (Saga, #1)|Brian K. Vaughan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486028947s/15704307.jpg|19113524] and am open to more like it if anyone has recommendations!) I didn't feel the attraction for the romance in this book, and while the action scenes where cool, they could have been more interesting. I kept on wishing Bruce would start doing more Batman things like use the batmobile or other gadgets, but I guess he's younger than when he becomes Batman. While I didn't like these things, the story was still compelling enough to read and enjoy, but it didn't meet my expectations. I liked the friendship aspect and could tell it related more to Marie Lu's life than the rest of the book.
Having never seen any of the Batman movies or read any of the comics, I enjoyed this story, although it wasn't nearly as good as [b:Wonder Woman: Warbringer|29749085|Wonder Woman Warbringer (DC Icons, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1478886078s/29749085.jpg|50105334]. (I prefer Marvel movies and don't like superhero comics that much, although I'm willing to try one again! Recently I've been reading [b:Saga, Vol. 1|15704307|Saga, Vol. 1 (Saga, #1)|Brian K. Vaughan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486028947s/15704307.jpg|19113524] and am open to more like it if anyone has recommendations!) I didn't feel the attraction for the romance in this book, and while the action scenes where cool, they could have been more interesting. I kept on wishing Bruce would start doing more Batman things like use the batmobile or other gadgets, but I guess he's younger than when he becomes Batman. While I didn't like these things, the story was still compelling enough to read and enjoy, but it didn't meet my expectations. I liked the friendship aspect and could tell it related more to Marie Lu's life than the rest of the book.
This book was alright. It was entertaining but I could tell it was written more for a teenage audience. It was well written and the author kept the story going even though I didn't feel like that much actually happened. If you read a lot of books and think this one sounds interesting then I'd recommend it but if you only read a few books a year, I wouldn't suggest this one.
I love what Marie Lu did with Bruce's character. This was such a nerdy joy to read!
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Godt skrevet, men en smule kjedelig.
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Var egentlig en veldig teit bok.
Vanskelig å knytte seg til dårlig skrevet karakterer.
Var egentlig en veldig teit bok.
Not amazing, but pretty cool and engaging, especially if you’re a DC fan.