Wonder Woman: Warbringer
by Leigh Bardugo
Synopsis:
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.
Review:
I’m a huge Wonder Woman fan (comics, books, tv, movies, you name it), so I really wanted to like this book. I saw that it was a story set before Diana becomes Wonder Woman. And while the story of a girl coming to the island and Diana leaving and seeing the world of man, completely disregards all Wonder Woman origin stories – I still tried to put that aside to enjoy this story. However, it’s just a slow-paced, dull plot that only really picks up at the end climactic scene. The characters weren’t really likable. And while Diana stays true to character for the most part, she attends a silly party instead of hurrying to get Alia (and the world) to safety. That’s right. The world is in mortal jeopardy, and they attend a gala – and even worry about gowns. It’s ridiculous. And disappointing. There are some fun fight scenes where Diana kicks butt. And I enjoyed her subplot coming-of-age story back home, but it wasn’t enough to save the book for me.