Wonder Woman: Warbringer in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Mar 26, 2018 Molly rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, recommended, 4-stars, ya-lit, on-the-classroom-shelf, fya-finds, irc-2016, read-in-2018

I bought this book for one reason: Leigh Bardugo. I have zero interest in comics or superheros, but once I realized this was not a graphic novel I decided to give it a shot. (I have tried graphic novels, and even on my kindle where I can go panel to panel, they make my head hurt. I respect them as a medium, but they are a medium which is not for me) . Now having watched the movie too, I have to say I prefer the narrative in the book. One of the good things about having no familiarity with this s I bought this book for one reason: Leigh Bardugo. I have zero interest in comics or superheros, but once I realized this was not a graphic novel I decided to give it a shot. (I have tried graphic novels, and even on my kindle where I can go panel to panel, they make my head hurt. I respect them as a medium, but they are a medium which is not for me) . Now having watched the movie too, I have to say I prefer the narrative in the book. One of the good things about having no familiarity with this story is that I had no expectations. My knowledge of Wonder Woman is limited to the bracelets and the invisible plane (which isn’t featured here, sadly). So I neither know nor care how much of this novel is “canon.”

Anyway. We open with Diana on the island of Themyscira, where the Amazons live. The movie doesn’t really do much explanation of how they ended up here, but in the book we’re told that it’s almost a kind of afterlife. They were warriors who died in battle and cried out to a goddess (not sure if it has to be Athena, or if any goddess would do) and were sent to the island as their reward. Nothing about Ares, who’s Diana’s focus in the movie. Diana is different since she was created from clay by Hippolyta, who always wanted a child. So there’s all those parental expectations, plus the fact that some of the Amazons are snarky to her on account of her not being a “real” Amazon. So when she’s competing in a race and sees a shipwreck offshore, Diana jumps at the chance to rescue someone. But when she brings the very much human and not dead Alia onto the island, all hell pretty much immediately breaks loose. I wasn’t sure if it was the island rejecting the presence of any human or just this human. Because I feel like, given the subtitle, it’s not a spoiler to say that Alia is a Warbringer. There’s one born every generation and most of the major conflicts in history can be tied to the ones who survived. I forget how, exactly, Diana arrives at this conclusion (I think one of the Amazons tells her and she does some research), but she learns there’s a way to stop it. If she can deliver Alia to the final resting place of Helen of Troy and...bathe her in the spring, or something, it will remove her power, without killing her.

So our two intrepid heroines venture off into the modern human world. Although Diana’s trying to transport them to Greece, they end up in New York City, Alia’s home. There’s lots of running around and some near misses, but ultimately the two end up with Alia’s older brother Jason, her best friend Nim, and their childhood friend Theo. Luckily, Alia’s family has the means to send them to Greece immediately, but there’s a big investor’s gala that has to happen before they can make the trip. See, Alia and Jason’s parents died and left Jason in charge of their company and it’s vital that he rub elbows with the investors and partners and whatnot. So everyone fancies up and heads to the gala, which is, of course, a terrible idea.

(view spoiler) and the door is open for future books, which I wouldn’t actually mind reading, as long as Bardugo writes them.

This is an awful review! I read this book so fast because I was trying to finish it before I left for vacation (I’m trying really hard to shake my terrible habit of traveling with multiple hardbacks). And I’ve read too many books in between. The best part is really the friendship between Diana and Alia and Nim. I love seeing kickass females kicking ass. There’s a little romance, but it’s not overpowering, and I have to say the friendship element is what I thought the movie was missing (much as I love Chris Pine). ...more

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