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Wonder Woman: Love & Murder
by Jodi Picoult

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1142008.Wonder_Woman_Love_Murder?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Wonder Woman: Love &amp; Murder" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51hn3KA7s7L._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1142008.Wonder_Woman_Love_Murder?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Wonder Woman: Love & Murder</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7128.Jodi_Picoult">Jodi Picoult</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/21608930?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 2 of 5 stars Poor Wonder Woman. She's my favorite DC hero, though it's been years since she's had decent writers, engaging storylines, or epic adventures. And this book does little to buck that unfortunate trend. In the wake of recent events, I was hoping for a good story dealing with the consequences of Wonder Woman's [justified] murder of Maxwell Lord and an exploration of her humanity, but this book failed to provide any real depth or clarity on those fronts. 
 
 I have a number of issues with this book, not the least of them being that this is not a book at all, but rather a collection of issues 6-10 of the current Wonder Woman monthly comic series. The reader is dropped into the middle of an ongoing plot with little introduction or frame of reference. This book ends abruptly, but the conflicts introduced in this story continue on in the monthly series, so readers are left without any resolution to the story. This wasn't a problem for me [I don't read her monthly series, but I know enough to follow along], but I have a problem with the way the book is being sold. There is little indication that it's not a complete story, and seems to be marketed toward Jodi Picoult fans even more so than comic book readers. 
 
 Which brings me to my next issue: Jodi Picoult. I have nothing against her. In fact, I know very little about her, but she strikes me as one of those writers of "Mom" novels--like Mary Higgins Clark or Janet Evanovich--the kind who write semi-trashy murder mysteries for beach reading. Surprisingly, Picoult is the first woman to take the helm as the regular series writer in Wonder Woman's nearly 70 year history. In accordance with this momentous occasion, I was hoping she might have some unique female insights into the character. Nope. The plot is new, but a lot of the dialogue and themes are rehashed drama about WW's difficulty and confusion trying to fit in among humans. There are a few good lines (usually involving the Golden Lasso of Truth), but those are few and far between. 
 
 My biggest gripe has to be with the jumpy and inconsistent plot. She's a best selling author, so I have no doubt the Picoult can write a coherent novel. I'm not sure how she approached writing a comic book, but I can only imagine it went something like this: She sat down, wrote out the complete story, then threw out every fifth paragraph. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why this story is so full of holes. Settings change at the blink of the eye, characters appear and alter the story with no explanation, and entire plot lines are abandoned and never addressed again. Some of them are small enough to be excused, but for the most part they make for a shaky a confusion read. 
 
 In all honestly, this book deserves only 1 star, but I added another in honor of the real star: Wonder Woman. Regardless of how poorly she's written, there's something endearing and heroic about her that always seems to shine through. 
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/214862?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Jace's review
rating:
bookshelves: comics

Poor Wonder Woman. She's my favorite DC hero, though it's been years since she's had decent writers, engaging storylines, or epic adventures. And this book does little to buck that unfortunate trend. In the wake of recent events, I was hoping for a good story dealing with the consequences of Wonder Woman's [justified] murder of Maxwell Lord and an exploration of her humanity, but this book failed to provide any real depth or clarity on those fronts.

I have a number of issues with this book, not the least of them being that this is not a book at all, but rather a collection of issues 6-10 of the current Wonder Woman monthly comic series. The reader is dropped into the middle of an ongoing plot with little introduction or frame of reference. This book ends abruptly, but the conflicts introduced in this story continue on in the monthly series, so readers are left without any resolution to the story. This wasn't a problem for me [I don't read her monthly series, but I know enough ...more Poor Wonder Woman. She's my favorite DC hero, though it's been years since she's had decent writers, engaging storylines, or epic adventures. And this book does little to buck that unfortunate trend. In the wake of recent events, I was hoping for a good story dealing with the consequences of Wonder Woman's [justified] murder of Maxwell Lord and an exploration of her humanity, but this book failed to provide any real depth or clarity on those fronts.

I have a number of issues with this book, not the least of them being that this is not a book at all, but rather a collection of issues 6-10 of the current Wonder Woman monthly comic series. The reader is dropped into the middle of an ongoing plot with little introduction or frame of reference. This book ends abruptly, but the conflicts introduced in this story continue on in the monthly series, so readers are left without any resolution to the story. This wasn't a problem for me [I don't read her monthly series, but I know enough to follow along], but I have a problem with the way the book is being sold. There is little indication that it's not a complete story, and seems to be marketed toward Jodi Picoult fans even more so than comic book readers.

Which brings me to my next issue: Jodi Picoult. I have nothing against her. In fact, I know very little about her, but she strikes me as one of those writers of "Mom" novels--like Mary Higgins Clark or Janet Evanovich--the kind who write semi-trashy murder mysteries for beach reading. Surprisingly, Picoult is the first woman to take the helm as the regular series writer in Wonder Woman's nearly 70 year history. In accordance with this momentous occasion, I was hoping she might have some unique female insights into the character. Nope. The plot is new, but a lot of the dialogue and themes are rehashed drama about WW's difficulty and confusion trying to fit in among humans. There are a few good lines (usually involving the Golden Lasso of Truth), but those are few and far between.

My biggest gripe has to be with the jumpy and inconsistent plot. She's a best selling author, so I have no doubt the Picoult can write a coherent novel. I'm not sure how she approached writing a comic book, but I can only imagine it went something like this: She sat down, wrote out the complete story, then threw out every fifth paragraph. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why this story is so full of holes. Settings change at the blink of the eye, characters appear and alter the story with no explanation, and entire plot lines are abandoned and never addressed again. Some of them are small enough to be excused, but for the most part they make for a shaky a confusion read.

In all honestly, this book deserves only 1 star, but I added another in honor of the real star: Wonder Woman. Regardless of how poorly she's written, there's something endearing and heroic about her that always seems to shine through.
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