Title: Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons #1)
by Leigh BardugoPublishing Info: August 29, 2017 by Random House Publishing Group
Source: Received from the publisher for review purposes
Genres: Young Adult, Superheroes, Fantasy, Mythology
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: August 10, 2017
Related Posts: Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1), Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2), Grisha Novellas: The Witch of Duva (The Grisha #0.5), The Taylor (The Grisha #1.5), The Too-Clever Fox (The Grisha #2.5), Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1), Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2), Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3), Grisha Novellas: The Demon in the Wood (The Grisha #0.1) & Little Knife (The Grisha #2.6), The Demon in the Wood (The Grisha # 0.1), Little Knife (The Grisha #2.6), Six of Crows (The Dregs #1), Six of Crows (The Dregs #1),
She will become one of the world’s greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . .
Diana longs to prove herself to her legendary warrior sisters. But when the opportunity finally comes, she throws away her chance at glory and breaks Amazon law—risking exile—to save a mere mortal. Even worse, Alia Keralis is no ordinary girl and with this single brave act, Diana may have doomed the world.
Alia just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted. When a bomb detonates aboard her ship, Alia is rescued by a mysterious girl of extraordinary strength and forced to confront a horrible truth: Alia is a Warbringer—a direct descendant of the infamous Helen of Troy, fated to bring about an age of bloodshed and misery.
Together, Diana and Alia will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. If they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.
As always, Leigh Bardugo’s writing is so incredibly enjoyable! It was kind of weird not reading a strictly fantasy book from her — or rather, something not set in the Grishaverse — and also weird reading a stand-alone from her. I enjoyed my read of WONDER WOMAN but being an adaptation, it didn’t quiiiite have that Leigh Bardugo magic that I love so much when reading her original concepts, plots, and characters.
Mostly the reason I didn’t love it was the mythology aspect. I used to love mythology when I was a kid and I’ve sort of fallen out of love with it over the years and haven’t really enjoyed too many mythology adaptations or retellings as much as I had hoped. As we know, Diana (aka Wonder Woman) is an Amazonian princess and of course has many ties to the gods and goddesses, and really the entire plot starts to delve a little deeper into some myths. It was really interesting how everything tied together BUT mythology just isn’t that much of a draw for me anymore. I also never got into Wonder Woman in the first place so I wasn’t as connected to the book as others who are already fans might be. I’m actually not a superhero/comic person much at all (aside from catching the occasional movie) so this is a little step outside of my comfort zone but in a great way!
I loved seeing Leigh Bardugo’s writing style still shine in a totally different book/genre/world! At first I was worried since Diana is a mostly serious person but there were some amazing supporting characters (and main characters) who livened things up, delivered that classic sass & snark, and got Diana to come out of her shell. Since Diana spent all of her time on the island with her mother and sisters, away from the mortal world, she was a little sheltered and the sheltered-person-gets-hit-with-modern-day-culture-shock concept is also super hit or miss with me. I loved it in things like Sleepy Hollow but sometimes it just makes a character seem more simple and I felt like it took something away from Diana. BUT I know that’s also my personal preference as I’ve noticed with several retellings. I much more enjoy adaptations that fit a classic already within a modern world (Cinder, Geekerella) rather than fitting an old myth into a new setting, or retelling that story in the original time period. (Did that even make sense?) So I guess TL;DR, I don’t like mixing worlds & vibes.
I loved all of the characters, but weirdly enough, I liked Diana the least and felt like she was the least developed character. She has a very straight-forward quest and very straight-forward values and I just looooove Leigh Bardugo’s complex and morally grey characters, so that’s what I’ve come to appreciate the most with her writing! The secondary characters (the supporting friends) were always there for some banter and sass and really had their own backstories that added to the base of main character Alia. I really liked Alia a lot and it was interesting to see her character growth throughout the book!
Naturally with any Leigh Bardugo book, there were some things that I just did not see coming… and I loved that I’m always surprised! The ending brought an interesting twist and a satisfying ending. I’m just a modern adaptation kind of person but I also liked that the book stayed true to Diana’s origins since that was the whole purpose of writing this book! My own personal preferences got in the way (who is surprised here) and I didn’t fall head over heels but WONDER WOMAN: WARBRINGER is a very solid novel and a quick and fun read! I loved the variation in tone from serious to sarcastic to romantic to intense and every other emotion in between.
Kept Me Hooked On: Superheroes. I don’t usually read a lot of superhero books but I’m not opposed to them. It was great to see a Wonder Woman story and I loved reading Leigh Bardugo to sort of introduce me to that!
Left Me Wanting More: Maturity. Okay, that’s a silly thing to ask. These are teens and I know that. I just felt like things were a little dramatic at times and I could have enjoyed that more if it was less dramatic, but that’s life!
Addiction Rating
Read it
Elizabeth Eulberg is an absolute will-read author for me! I pick up pretty much anything she writes and this book was no exception. Very cute and a lot of fun!
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1 thought on “Wonder Woman: Warbringer – Leigh Bardugo”
I’m actually surprised by how excited I am for this book to come out, since I didn’t care much about it until I heard Bardugo talking about it at BookCon. It’s so interesting that it’s not entirely her own book, and I’m glad to hear you mostly thought it was successful. I’ll be curious if the things that stuck out to you will for me, too. Less than a week to find out!