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3 stars! This review will be spoiler free!
Synopsis:
Strong, independent, badass female fighter has a sick, innocent little sister with cystic fibrosis whom she must support and protect at all costs. Fighting in the pits of one of the gang leaders is one way in which Selina Kyle takes care of her baby sister. Until one day a social worker comes to their apartment and plans to separate them. When one the the social worker’s accompanying cops make a grab for Selina’s sister, Selina goes off and lands herself in tight situation. That’s when a mysterious figure gives her a choice, jail or come with them and never see her sister again though she will be taken care of. Easy choice for Selina, so long as her sister is safe, she would leave Gotham City. And when she came back... Sh*t went down.
Thoughts:
There are lots of parallels to Sarah J Maas’ previous books, which seems to be a common thing between all her works.
More tattoos. More fighting pits. More “a-girl-with-nothing-becomes-an-extremely-amazing-fighter.” Can I fault her though? An author likes what she likes and can put those same things in all her books if she wants, and who am I to complain when I’m also all about tattoos and badass fighting females and SASS. Just thought I’d mention that throughout this entire story, MANY things were reminding me of her Throne of Glass or ACOTAR series.
Selina immediately reminds me of a mixture between Celaena and Feyre.
Celaena because she has this sassiness and incredible fighting skills and her guard up all the time. Feyre because she comes from nothing, but also doesn’t really want anything, Selina only wants to care for her younger sister. However, once she goes through this crazy transformation, I like Selina so much more. She’s morally grey. She’s her own boss. She doesn’t fight for good, doesn’t fight for evil, but also doesn’t fight without reason.
The plot is rather slow in the beginning and middle.
I found that it wasn’t until the last third that I felt like something was actually brewing. The plot felt like more of a straight-ish/wiggly line rather than the up and down rollercoaster I prefer. This is mostly the reason why I couldn’t give this book more than 3 stars. I just didn’t feel very invested in most of the characters or plot.
Yaaassss to female friendships.
Not only did we get Catwoman, but we got Ivy and HarleyQuin?! Two more very interesting females to add to this seemingly lackluster plot. I loved these two girls and their criminal backgrounds before, but Maas puts on interesting twist on them! All the females Harley, Ivy, and Catwoman are all S.T.E.M women! They each have a scientific calling and are very smart and innovative in their fields, but they just use it for a different means than furthering the world. Not to mention Ivy is a treehugger, a vegan, and homosexual. She was my precious smol baby in this book. Harley, however, is a little bit more flat. Other than the fact that we know she is a chemist (basically a chemical bomb engineer) with sharpshooter aim, she kind of doesn't really have any other personality traits. We just know she's a little unhinged and in love with Joker. I would say she's the least developed of the characters in this book.
Some things in this story that are meant to add to the diversity feel… forced?
I feel like Sarah J Maas is answering the call from her fans that she needs to have more diversity in her books. But her trying to include a lot of them in this very short book of hers feels rather forced. Like I mentioned that Ivy is lesbian, YES, but did we need so much dialogue about it? Not necessarily, especially when it didn’t feel smoothly blended into the story. I think that SJM’s twist in that Ivy is in love with Harley was a nice addition to the trio’s complexity. I do love that one of the main characters is actually black too (not just deeply tan)—referring to Luke. I like that even though he's rich, he still experiences the same racism that other POC would—like how when he was pulled over by the cops and he felt really nervous and was absolutely listening to every single direction from the cop because he didn't want to get shot, then when the cop found out who he was he was let go. STILL, that flash back to showing the scene where he was pulled over seemed also forced and just input out of nowhere? I feel like the reason I keep saying things feel forced is because if I were to take out these parts of the story I don't think it would change the story?
Luke…
Is an oddball. He has PTSD, he’s a vet, and he falls in love way too easily. I like that the sexual tension between Luke and Holly or Batwing and Catwoman wasn’t over the top! I repeat, NOT over the top. I know some people were hoping that the smut would be controlled to a minimum in this one. The romance was just… okay? In my opinion at least. I was more interested in Catwomen and her female friendships that her finding a boyfriend. But can I just mention (I swear this isn’t spoilery) that there’s a moment after Luke finally kisses the girl and thinks to himself the next morning that "he hadn’t woken up once during the night and didn’t have a single nightmare"... but did he forget that he was drugged?? Like of course he didn't have any moments of waking up or nightmares?? I just thought that was incredibly funny.
At about 85% in, I finally had my AHA moment before the ending finally started to unravel.
SJM does just an amazing job of making some of the smallest details in her stories mean SO MUCH in the end. How in the world did all these tiny, insignificant occurrences that I thought were merely random chapters, come to together to be such a huge game changer in the end? The ending truly tipped the scales for me and made me like this story so so so much more. That’s one thing that I will never get tired off with SJM’s books. I had this exact same feeling while reading the ending of Empire of Storms and MAN, does it strike you right in the heart.
Overall:
If you need an SJM fix, here ya go. I’m happy to have read it even though it fall quite low on my list of SJM books I like. But hey! I didn’t hate it. Also, *peep* the new format of my reviews in this one.
Favorite quote.
I just want to insert my favorite quote from this book. It’s more just "out of context dialogue!" I don't think it's spoilery...
“Does this mean you have 8 lives left?” — Ivy
I was quite literally laughing my a** off with that one. I don’t know why. It’s not the funniest joke ever. BUT it was just so opportune.