Personal Rating: 2.9 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.65 Stars Content Rating: Light PG-13 Natasha Romanoff is one of the world’s most lethal assassins. Trained from a young age in the arts of death and deception, Natasha was given the title of Black Widow by Ivan Somodorov, her brutal teacher at the Red Room, Moscow’s infamous academy for operatives. Ava Orlova is just trying to fit in as an average Brooklyn teenager, but her life has been anything but average.The daughter of a missing Russian quantum physicist, Ava was once subjected to a series of ruthless military experiments—until she was rescued by Black Widow and placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection. Ava has always longed to reconnect with her mysterious savior, but Black Widow isn’t really the big sister type. Until now. When children all over Eastern Europe begin to go missing, and rumors of smuggled Red Room tech light up the dark net, Natasha suspects her old teacher has returned—and that Ava Orlova might be the only one who can stop him. To defeat the madman who threatens their future, Natasha and Ava must unravel their pasts. Only then will they discover the truth about the dark-eyed boy with an hourglass tattoo who haunts Ava’s dreams… (goodreads.com) Do I even need to explain why I read this book? It’s Black Widow for goodness sake! Who wouldn’t want to read a book about Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, aka the glue that holds the Avengers together, aka the queen of Marvel, aka the coolest spy I’ve come across since I watched Kim Possible as a kid. I only wish this book had actually been more about Black Widow and less about a teen romance. I really wanted to love this book, just like I wanted to love The She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta. Just like I hope I’ll really like Iron Man: The Gauntlet by Eoin Colfer when I finally get around to checking it out from the library. I’m still holding onto hope for that one because, I mean, it’s by Eoin Colfer, guys, but Black Widow: Forever Red and The She-Hulk Diaries are strikes one and two. Okay, Black Widow wasn’t nearly as bad as She-Hulk, but it wasn’t what I was hoping it would be. Basically, the plot of this book breaks down to: there is a crazy Russian man who trained Natasha Romanoff and he brainwashed a whole bunch of teenagers to infiltrate the governments of the world and he’s gonna cause a lot of problems. There is a girl named Ava who was rescued by Black Widow from the crazy Russian man when she was a child and now Ava is homeless but interested in fencing. There is also a teenage boy named Alex who is surprisingly skilled at fighting and he also likes fencing and he feels like someone is watching him. Ava keeps having dreams about what’s happening in Alex’s life even though she’s never met him. Then Black Widow, Ava, and Alex are all thrown together to try and stop the crazy Russian man. Before each chapter there are also snatches from SHIELD (a spy agency in the Marvel Universe) files that are mostly interviews between Natasha and a Department of Defence agent about a “LODD” or “Line-of-Duty-Death”. Sounds cool, right? And it totally could have been, but something went wrong. Possibly with the characters, but I don’t think the plot was perfect either. There were several pieces of the plot that weren’t as exciting as I felt they should have been and several more that I could tell were very exciting, but so confusing that I wasn’t sure what was going on. But about the characters… We’ve obviously got Black Widow, since the book is named after her. The first time we see her in the book is great. It makes you feel like this is going to be a really epic story about her taking down bad guys and rescuing kids. Then it turns out this book isn’t so much about her as we thought. And then we only get a few odd chapters from her perspective and she gets kind of OOC. And boring. And whiny. And boring. Then there is Ava Orlova, a seventeen year old girl from Russia with red hair and an attitude (sometimes). She isn’t my favorite protagonist in the world, but she wasn’t completely awful. I feel like this book would have been much better if there was no Ava and it was just a story about Natasha doing cool stuff, but I guess they have to throw in a teenager for it to count as YA fiction or something. So if Ava has to be here then I guess we could have had it worse. I did like that, for the most part, she did act like an actual teenager instead of the grown ups that most YA heroines are. Like, she behaved and spoke like real seventeen year olds do, which was kind of refreshing. Like I said, she’s not completely awful. She could use work, but she isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen. And for some peculiar reason we have Alex Manor in this book. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate the guy, I just think he ought to be kicked out of this book and land in some other, non-Marvel book. He’s a fun character with an interesting personality and who also acted like a realistic high school student, but he did not belong in Black Widow: Forever Red. I’m baffled as to why he’s in the book. To be fair, he ends up being the main reason I didn’t give the book a lower rating, but he’s just so out of place! He was a funny character with charm and realistic behavior. But his redemptive qualities aside, the boy was simply irrelevant. I mean, I know why he was put in the book - to be Ava’s love interest - but I don’t know why the slot he filled was a slot that needed to be filled. *shrugs* As for the other characters: I wish there had been more Avengers in it. Like, we only meet Natasha and Tony Stark. Most of the others are mentioned, but we don’t get to meet them. Which I find really weird because that’s pretty much how it was for The She-Hulk Diaries too, even though Tony didn’t make that much of an appearance. Is there some kind of rule that for Marvel novels you aren’t allowed to have more than your subject superhero and Iron Man? Is that a thing? If it is it’s a weird thing. (Will Iron Man: The Gauntlet only have Tony in it? That’s going to be a weird book if that’s the case.) I’m also confused about which “Earth” we’re in for Marvel (since they have many Earths and that’s how they can get away with so many different plotlines in their comics). The Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with the first Iron Man movie and so far going up to Avengers: Infinity War (guys, that movie is going to kill me and break my heart, I’m telling you now) is Earth -199999. I think the main Earth in the comics is Earth - 616 (don’t quote me on that, I try to ignore thinking about the Multiverse because it gives me a headache and therefore am not the person to ask about it). In this book I have no idea what Earth it’s on. I feel like it should be the MCU one, given that’s what most of the readers will have for background, but if that’s the case there are some things that don’t add up. Like the fact that Natasha says she and Tony are half of the Avengers and the other half is just Captain America and Bruce Banner. Um, excuse me? What about Thor and Hawkeye? And though they don't call him an Avenger they even mention Thor as “the blond guy with the hammer” (at least I assume they were talking about Thor - how many other blond hammer guys can there be?). BUT NO HAWKEYE?! This is the Infinity Wars trailer all over again! If this is supposed to be in the MCU where is Natasha’s best friend? Even in the comic books I’m pretty sure they are good friends (again, don’t quote me)! I demand to know why Clint Barton is not even mentioned in this book! Ahem, anyway… Like I was saying, there are some things that don’t add up and just add to my confusion with the book. All together, however, it wasn’t a bad book. There were parts I really enjoyed and the ending was amazing and emotional. I just wish it had been more about Black Widow and less about a teen romance that forms over, like, two days. Am I turning into a grouchy old person? Possibly. But come on! I wanted more of Black Widow kicking patootie and less of Alex thinking about how pretty Ava was. Also, the problem with them behaving like actual teenagers is that whenever they kissed I was like: wait, these are children, NO KISSING, CHILDRENS YOU IS JUST LITTLE BABIES! Even though they aren’t that much younger than I am. Would I recommend this book? I’m not sure. I am honestly not sure. I think you’d enjoy it more if you aren’t a huge Black Widow fan because then you won’t notice the OOC-ness as much. There is a sequel, but I haven’t heard much of anything good about it. However, the ending of this one definitely made me curious, so we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for reading my review! Feel free to leave a comment down below about your thoughts on Black Widow, or superheroes, or if you’re excited for Infinity Wars, or if you actually believe them when they say they are going to make a Black Widow movie in 2020! There is a spy wanting to talk to me so I’d best get going, dasvidaniya! Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23358109-black-widow
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