ericadawn16 | Black Widow: Forever Red

I was SO EXCITED to read Black Widow: Forever Red, SO EXCITED!!!

I'd never read a Margaret Stohl book before...

So, spoilers

It was a like a total bait and switch. I wanted Black Widow, she gave me TWO TEENAGE BRATS!

Seriously?

I'm supposed to like Ava because she was experimented on like Natasha and the experiment was to link her with Natasha so she has access to all of Natasha's memories and kinetic memory, including physical moves. However, it's a one way street so Natasha can't feel or know Ava's thoughts.

No, no, no, no....just no...to infinity...no.

Naturally, Ava has been dreaming about this guy and happens to find him because FATE! It's a YA book so they immediately fall in love and make out and stuff.

Ava was dreaming about him because of her link to Natasha because he's actually...Natasha's brother.

No, no, no, no....

Natasha is extremely young in this book, like 24 or so since her brother is just 17 or so and it's just...

No.

Then, after setting up Alexi and the connections he shares with both of them...the author kills him off.

Natasha's brother literally gets man fridged so that she and Ava will have all this deep pain and shit...on top of bring experimented on and everything else...

0_0

No, that's stupid...but it got published.

(facepalm)

Of course, the link was severed also but why introduce her brother to just knock him off like that? What the fuck?

It was this weird hybrid of the MCU and 616 because it had Coulson and his fondness for expensive pens but he didn't go to "Tahiti" and there was no mention of his team. Plus, the Red Room was a huge factor in the book but THERE WAS NO DOTTIE UNDERWOOD! Unacceptable.

I thought we were going to get a reference when Natasha bought up handcuffs but it was regular corporal punishment, not sleeping habits.

There is also a lovely review on Good Reads where they point out every single one of flaws involving misspellings. There are MANY for a published book. I won't even accept a book with five or more mistakes and they PUBLISHED one!

I know that Natasha has a good sense of humor and knew the reference to War Games but would her inner voice actually use Yoda as a synonym for mentor?

With Spike on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, he LOVED pop references and it made sense, but here...I wasn't feeling it.

I know Ava is a girl and Magnus Chase is a boy but I felt like his homeless existence was more realistic than Ava who's homeless but has a permanent bunk at the YMCA, a backpack full of stuff she stole from SHIELD, A PET CAT!!! and no real problems except for some safety pinned clothes. Chase was also on the run but had to wear shoes rescued from the dumpster and go hungry a lot of the time. I didn't fully understand her friend either. I think we supposed to think she was homeless but actually, she just hated her step-mom and just hung out to avoid them?

At least the comic included with the Mockingbird issue acknowledged how homeless girls are a lot more at risk for things like sexual assault.

I didn't think LARPing was a mainstream term but they just used it on Heroes: Reborn so...whatever.

After the events of the book, there appears to have been a Benghazi-style hearing on what happened...it also seems inspired by Natasha facing the committee at the end of Captain America: Winter Soldier. Every chapter has a portion of the transcript at the beginning. It's like a teaser to get us more interested but it was just tedious and served no purpose.

Ava hates Natasha because Natasha rescued her, made sure SHIELD would take care of her and that she learned to fend for herself...but didn't tell her that her mom was dead or befriend her...that bitch.

(rolls eyes)

Poorly constructed excuse for tension between characters is...poorly constructed!!! ugh

Okay, I know I just said to go to Good Reads for all the mistakes but I can't let this one go.

page 47

"I told you, it's a collection. Not one thing. Not Taylor Stark. Not Jabba the Hut, not a single Avenger."

It's Jabba the Hutt, dammit. You're owned by the same freaking company.

She has Natasha being a prolific texter so she and I do agree on that in our writings. However, I did want NATASHA and instead, she keeps getting paired up with everyone else, even Tony Stark and we're supposed to believe that Ava was able to steal thousands of dollars from Tony's briefcase...

Right.

Why is Natasha conveniently not able to access Ava through their link?

1. So she wouldn't know where they were...

2. So Ava can make out and stuff with Alex without it being all weird and icky for his sister...

I might write some fanfic drabbles though. Natasha didn't recognize Alex as her brother because she had them both get their memories wiped for Alex' protection and turned over custody of her minor brother to Coulson who put him in the protection of an agent who pretended to be his mom.