The She-Hulk Diaries

by Marta Acosta

[Leah]

When I was offered the chance to review The She-Hulk Diaries, it only took me a few seconds to decide, because who doesn’t want to read a Chick Lit book with added superheroes? It’s a no-brainer! Basically Marvel have come up with the idea to publish two (so far) Chick Lit novels about their superheroes. First up in Jennifer Walters/She-Hulk and the second is Anna Marie/Rogue. It’s genius, really. I can’t say I’m massively into superheroes, but I watch some and it is something I enjoy so to mix Chick Lit with superheroes is just fascinating and I can’t believe it hasn’t been done sooner.

The She-Hulk Diaries follows Jennifer Walters throughout a year of her life as she juggles being a high-powered lawyer with being She-Hulk. There’s a heck of a lot going on in the novel as Jennifer juggles being two very opposing (but still the same) people and I did find a lot of information pertaining to the case Jennifer was working on to go mostly over my head, but for the most part I enjoyed the novel and I really, really loved She-Hulk. If I were to be any superhero I would definitely debate becoming She-Hulk as I really liked her spunky devil-may-care attitude.

I definitely think Marvel’s idea is the right one, the novel didn’t blow me away, sure, but I could see where it was coming from and I definitely liked getting to know a bit more about the superhero world. I wish I had more time to read comic books, but for now these crossover novels will have to do! I suppose it’s just a matter of time to see if they’re popular enough to continue, I think they could be. I think it’s very much an untapped market, it just depends how many Chick Lit fans love an added dose of superheroes, but who doesn’t love a superhero? A good idea, and I definitely liked Jennifer (and She-Hulk even more) but it didn’t blow me away as spectacularly as I’d have liked, which was a shame.