Black Widow: Forever Red (Black Widow Novels, #1)

by Margaret Stohl

Enter the world of the Avengers’ iconic master spy…

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. . . .

Black Widow:Forever Red features all the heart-pounding adventure readers expect from Marvel, written by #1 New York Times best-selling author Margaret Stohl. Uncover a new side of the Marvel Universe that will thrill loyal fans and newcomers alike, as Stohl reveals the untold story of Black Widow for the very first time.

Complete your Marvel YA collection with these best-selling fan-favorite novels:

• Black Widow: Red Vengeance by Margaret Stohl (the sequel to Forever Red!)
• Loki: Where Mischief Lies by Mackenzi Lee
• Gamora and Nebula: Sisters in Arms by Mackenzi Lee
• Miles Morales: Spider-Man by Jason Reynolds
• Unstoppable Wasp by Sam Maggs
• Captain Marvel: Higher, Further, Faster by Liza Palmer

• ISBN10: 148472643X
• ISBN13: 9781484726433
• Publish Date: 13 October 2015
• Publish Status: Transferred
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Marvel Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[liz089]

It is a bit weird how it went with reading this one.. I started it, really liked it.. and then some other books got in the way and I stopped with this one. Not because I didn't like it (because I did), but because some other books got my interest more, mostly books I've been waiting for a long time and got out when I started this one. Of course, after that I kind of forgot about this one.. But this weekend I picked it up (was about halfway already) and finished it the same day.

I'm a HUGE Marvel/DC fan, I love everything superhero-related and this book has been on my TBR pile for a while. I love the Black Widow, and the mystery surrounding her.
At first I thought this book was mainly about her, but after reading some reviews I saw a lot of negativity because it is actually more about Ava and people got dissapointed because of that.
For me a plus to know this beforehand, so I knew what to expect and not got dissapointed too.

I enjoyed this novel very much, I love the whole spy business, and well, thow in SHIELD, Tony Stark and Coulson and I'm sold !

I really enjoyed the mystery, all the action (because there was a lot of it) and the little bit of romance. It was well-written and easy to follow.

The ending though ? Not my favorite.. I would have prefered it that didn't happen, and even though it did add something extra to it, I well... it sucked and I was sad :(

So I would like to give this one 3.5 stars, rounding it up to 4. I think I will read the next one somewhere in the future.. kind of curious about what's going to happen.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

I read about 50% of Black Widow: Forever Red until I realized I was really disinterested in the story and my only motivation to continue was so I would be able to write a full review of the book. I generally dislike writing DNF reviews myself (though I have no issue with others writing them). but ultimately I believe that "This book was so disengaging that I couldn't finish it" is a fair review.  Here are some of my thoughts about the novel.

1. Although Black Widow is the titular character, she's actually secondary in the novel.  The real protagonist is teenager Ava, who ends up interacting with Black Widow.  I think this is a case of the author (and other minds behind the novel) taking the idea that a YA novel must feature a teen protagonist very, very seriously.  Generally speaking, this is true. However, I think there's a lot of evidence that teen readers would read a novel about Black Widow whether she was a teen or not, and I would have loved to see that happen. As it is, calling this a Black Widow novel is a bit misleading.



2. The writing is awkward and sometimes cliche. There's something difficult about transferring superheroes to novels, I think. They're larger than life, and what readers accept in a comic or what viewers appreciate in a movie can come across as a little cheesy in novel  form.  The author certainly has YA writing experience, and that's evident from the prose and general structure of the book, but the mix of YA and superhero was at times not a good fit for me.



3. The characters were almost right but not quite. A lot of the dialogue for fan favorites like Natasha, Stark, and Coulson was spot on. Stohl does a decent job of channeling their voices and personalities.  Sometimes, however, the characters were a little off. I felt the same way I feel when I see a favorite cartoon get a reboot or sequel and the original voice actors have been replaced.  The new actors are close to the original ones, but the whole time I'm watching I'm being driver mad by the sense everything is just slightly off.



4. The interchapters seemed unnecessary.  In between the main chapters about Ava and her love interest, Stohl inserts transcripts of a hearing that was held after the completion of the plot. I wasn't sure what these added to the book, beyond the fact that early on, they are the only way readers get to see Black Widow in the novel.  However, most of them aren't really informative (because Stohl doesn't actually want to tell you what happens in the book before you finish reading it), so it's just like having someone tell you they know a secret but they're not actually going to say what it is. It seems like a waste of time.



5. The plot is slow, and Ava doesn't redeem it for me. I read nearly half the book, and it seemed as if practically nothing had happened in all those pages.  I might be okay with this except 1) people tend to expect action from superhero stories and 2) I didn't like Ava, so getting to know her wasn't fun for me.  Ava is fairly whiny and, in my opinion, thinks Black Widow owes her far more than she actually does.  She's had some traumatizing things happen to her, so I can't blame her for being bitter, but she seems bitter towards all the wrong people. It's not endearing.

I wanted to love this, but it's the only book of 2016 I have decided to DNF. I don't think I'll be checking out anything else Marvel releases in this vein.

[Mary-Allyn]

Okay, that was painful and actiony and wonderful but WHERE THE HELL WAS CLINT????

[pamela]

Black Widow is without a doubt one of my all time favourite Marvel Superheroes. She's strong and kickass just being herself. She's a Superhero because she's awesome, and not through any mutation or nuclear accident. She's suffered, been physically, mentally and emotionally abused. Despite this she has remained strong, and essentially good; rising above her tragic past without letting it control her. Black Widow IS what Lisbeth Salander from Stieg Larsson's 'Millenium Cycle' should have been.

I enjoyed 'Forever Red' much more than I thought I would. Margaret Stohl's YA novel is my first foray in to the Marvel Universe outside of the Graphic Novel. She did a remarkable job of writing fun, interesting and likeable characters. The plot was exciting, good and evil were not black and white, there was personal growth, emotional development and the action was, for the most part, well developed and believable.

One issue I did have with 'Forever Red' was the unfortunate side effect of things being predictable. There were characters who's fate you could guess, simply by virtue of their continued existence altering the finely crafted, already existing, Marvel universe. This removed a lot of the emotional impact of some of the novel's events as you simply knew that these events weren't part of the wider story arc.

Some of the final action sequences could also have been a little less busy and over - ambitious. There was a, quite frankly, ridiculous scene in which one of the teenaged protagonists attempts to hotwire a motherboard abd CPU to jam a USB in to it. She pulls wires, there are sparks, she re-routes and then quite literally smashes there USB on to there motherboard. The whole scene made me painfully aware that Stohl doesn't seem to know how motherboards and CPUs work, let alone look like, making the otherwise well crafted plot seem quite silly in the end. (FYI a motherboard has an inbuilt USB port... directly on the board).

Overall I enjoyed reading 'Forever Red'. It was fun, and a good addition to an already exciting Marvel Universe. I will definitely follow the exploits of the Black and Red Widow's in future!