- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.