My Review
I’m not all that familiar with the DC Universe, and I have to admit (although I’ll probably hear about it) – I’ve never read or watched anything Batman related. Yep, that’s right – I’m not at all familiar with Batman in any way whatsoever, so I kind of went into this book completely oblivious to anything I should expect.
That being said, Wonder Woman was a similar thing for me – I knew nothing about her, but when I read Wonder Woman: Warbringer a few months ago, it instantly became one of my all time favorite books ever. That’s when I decided that I’m totally on board for this series, because I had a feeling they were going to oh so much fun!
Along with not being familiar with Batman in even the slightest, I also haven’t read anything by Marie Lu. I have all of her books, by the way, I just haven’t read any of them until now – and wow, what talent she has for bringing her characters to life. This book was such a delight to read, and I think a good deal of it was based on the writing that Marie Lu brought to the story. Plus, the idea of Batman as a teenager is pretty intriguing all on its own, so I was really interested in reading it.
“‘The first rule of fooling someone,’ she said, ‘is to mix a few lies in with many truths.'”
Bruce Wayne has recently turned eighteen, and along with access to the trust funds set up by his parents, who were brutally murdered years before, he is also now in charge of his parents’ company, which focuses on new security and advanced technologies. Brought up by Alfred, his legal guardian, ever since the death of his parents, Bruce has gotten into a bit of trouble over the years, but has more or less managed to grow up pretty decently. In fact, he even continues in his mother’s footsteps by throwing charity events on his birthday instead of birthday parties. All in all? Bruce Wayne is a pretty good guy.
But that’s what gets him into a bit of trouble when he tries to stop a criminal that the police are chasing, crashing his completely custom Aston Martin into the car so that the police can capture the bad guy, who turns out to be a member of The Nightwalkers, a group of people who are bringing murder and theft into Gotham City. Bruce is given a community service assignment because of the big mess he caused – he is to work at Arkham Asylum, a prison that houses some pretty frightening criminals.
It’s also where he meets Madeleine Wallace.
Madeleine is a prisoner in Arkham Asylum who is under arrest for the murder of at least three people, and while she hasn’t talked to any of the police, guards, or detectives since she has been arrested and put there, she has no trouble talking to Bruce. She seems to know him right off the bat, even telling him she understands his feelings, which causes Bruce to start to find himself getting more and more involved with her. She tells him things that she doesn’t tell the police – things about the Nightwalkers, and of course, Bruce checks them out and finds them to be true, so he believes that she can be trusted.
“But what if the system just needed help? In every mystery he’d ever read the police always stayed one step behind the hero. What if taking things into his own hands was the only real way to fix everything?”
However, when Bruce is up on the hitlist for the Nightwalkers, and after Madeleine escapes, things take a turn for the unthinkable. When an incident at an important gala ends up becoming a life threatening event for many people, Bruce believes that only he can step up and help the police eliminate the threat.
This book was full of so much action and was quite fast paced, making it an enjoyable read that once you start, you can’t put down until you finish. The characters, the plot, the setting, everything about this book plays together to make for an exciting read.
I really loved the relationship between Bruce and Alfred – I thought it was sweet how much Alfred meant to Bruce. Since his parents had died and it had been the two of them for years, they had quickly become family. I also thought the relationship between Bruce and his best friends was a nice touch, as well. Bruce’s questionable budding friendship/relationship with Madeleine was a really complicated one, and it was so interesting watching it unfold.
Marie Lu’s fantastic writing style is, like I said earlier, one of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much. The way she writes her characters is like something out of a dream – there is so much to love about them. Needless to say, I’m not going to be hesitating to go back and read all of her previous works.
This book is such a great read, and I think it’s a solid addition to the DC Icons series, which I can’t wait to see more of in the future.
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Marie Lu is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Legend trilogy and The Young Elites trilogy. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing Assassin’s Creed, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California (see above: traffic), with one husband, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.
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3 winners will receive a finished copy of BATMAN: NIGHTWALKER, US Only.
Week One:
1/1/2018- Pen and Parchment– Review
1/2/2018- Margie’s Must Reads– Review
1/3/2018- YA Book Nerd– Review
1/4/2018- Mary Had a Little Book Blog– Review
1/5/2018- A Gingerly Review– Review
Week Two:
1/8/2018- YA Bibliophile– Review
1/9/2018- Here’s to Happy Endings– Review
1/10/2018- The Young Folks– Review
1/11/2018- The Book Nut– Review
1/12/2018- The Wanderlust Reader– Review
Week Three:
1/15/2018- Tales of the Ravenous Reader– Excerpt
1/16/2018- a GREAT read– Review
1/17/2018- BookHounds YA– Review
1/18/2018- Icey Books– Review
1/19/2018- Ex Libris– Review
Week Four:
1/22/2018- Brittany’s Book Rambles– Excerpt
1/23/2018- Seeing Double In Neverland– Review
1/24/2018- Brooke- Reports– Review
1/25/2018- Nerdophiles- Review
1/26/2018- Novel Novice– Excerpt
Week Five:
1/29/2018- YA Books Central– Review
1/30/2018- Bookish In Bed– Review
1/31/2018- Book Briefs– Review
I am so incredibly excited to read this book! I just know that the mashup of the genius that is Marie Lu and my favorite comic book hero will be epic!
Yay! I can’t wait to see your thoughts on this one – I hope you love it as much as you’re hoping you will!
Despite really wanting to like them, I’m not a huge fan of Marie Lu books. Hopefully this is the one that will change my mind. Great review!
Stephanie’s Book Reviews recently posted…Top 5 Wednesday: Books I Didn’t Get to In 2017
Which books by her have you read? It seems like most people are kind of either really liking her books or really not liking them, as opposed to being in the middle that much.
I am not that into superheroes, but I did grow up watching the Batman series from the 60s and Superfriends cartoon, so I was a little interested. After hearing Lu talk about his book at BookCon, I was a lot more interested, and I am such a fan of Lu’s. Your review makes it sound like something I could enjoy, because I am all about the characters when I read.
Sam@WLABB recently posted…Can’t Wait Wednesday: Emergency Contact – Mary H.K. Choi
If you’re into the characters of the book, this is a good one – I thought Bruce and Madeleine were both really fleshed out and well developed, giving so much more to the plot of the book. It’s awesome that you were able to hear Marie talk about her book at BookCon – I’ve never been to BookCon unfortunately so I missed out on some fun stuff =]
I am so thrilled to hear that you enjoyed this one! I absolutely love Marie Lu and I know exactly what you mean about the way her characters are written. I am hoping to start Batman soon and I will be going into it without any prior knowledge myself, so maybe I will come out of it a fan! This series has really been an interesting journey into themes I might have otherwise avoided. It is just so fantastic. 🙂
I’m so happy to see that I’m not the only one who doesn’t have much, if any, prior knowledge about Batman, haha. I hope you really enjoy this one when you read it. The series is just so much fun so far, and I can’t wait for the next book!
I’m not familiar with DC/Marvel worlds either, but I’m so surprised that this is your first piece of Batman fiction! I’ve watched 3 batman movies + Justice League (although none really have a solid background about him). I’m even MORE surprised that this is your first Marie Lu novel! You HAVE to read Legend and Warcoss they are absolutely amazing!!! So glad you got into her writing style! <3 <3 I need to read this one soon. Awesome review!!
Aimee (Aimee, Always) recently posted…It’s All Just Déjà Vu: Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandeira
Warcross is definitely on my list, and I have the audiobook version so I really have no excuse not to check it out at this point! I hope you enjoy this book when you read it – it’s such a neat origin story, and you’ll probably appreciate it even more since you’ve actually watched some of the Batman movies!
Kelly recently posted…Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu – Review and Giveaway!
New to Batman AND Marie Lu?! That makes me even more happy that you enjoyed it! I hope you get to try out some of her other books that have been sitting on your shelves. She is an absolute favorite author of mine. I have my copy ordered!
Sara @ Forever 17 Books recently posted…New Feature: at last…
Yay, glad that you got yourself a copy! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this one. I’m really looking forward to reading her other books now that I’ve read this one!
I’m so glad you enjoyed this one!! I also really loved Wonder Woman, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading this. You definitely should read Marie Lu’s other books as well though, they’re amazing! <3 Lovely review!
I’m so glad to hear that you loved Wonder Woman! It was such an interesting book, as was this one! I can’t wait to see your review for it!
Oh this was your first Marie Lu book? You are in for such a treat! I am no expert when it comes to her books, but I have read Legend and The Young Elites and Warcross and loved them all so much, so far. She has a talent to bring her characters to life, as you said, but also to build fantastic worlds 🙂
I am happy you enjoyed this book – I had a great time reading it as well and loved reading about Bruce and Madeleine’s relationship, it was so complex! 🙂
Great review! 🙂
Marie @ drizzleandhurricanebooks recently posted…Talking about writing and some aesthetics : winter is here write tag
It really was a complex relationship but I think it added a whole other level to the story to make it a lot deeper and more intense.
I can’t wait to read her other books! I think I’m going to start with Warcross!
I’m actually not fan of Batman but I really want to check this out because it’s Marie Lu’s book. I’m so glad you loved it! I haven’t read it yet but I’m planning to pick it up soon. Great review! 🙂
Raven recently posted…Everless (Untitled #1) By Sara Holland [Review]
I thought I wouldn’t like it all that much because it was Batman, but I ended up liking it way more than I expected. You might like it because Marie Lu wrote it if you’re a fan of her other books!
I’m really enjoying this series too. Wonder Woman was excellent, and I’m especially looking forward to this one and to the Catwoman book.
I can’t wait for Catwoman! Another that I have absolutely no knowledge about, but I’m super excited to see the origin story and background for her, as well! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it!
I am not into the comics, but I have enjoyed some DC movies. I was iffy about this series, but I won Warbinger not too long ago and have heard nothing but amazing things. This one might be another that I will have to pick up.
Awesome review! I need to read this one. I still need to read Wonder Woman, and now I saw there will be Catwoman from Maas. Wowsa!