Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo Review + Giveaway!

Wonder Woman: Warbringer (DC Icons) by Leigh Bardugo

Format: Paperback ARC, 369 Pages

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Pub. Date: August 29th, 2017

Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

She will become one of the world's greatest heroes: WONDER WOMAN. But first she is Diana, Princess of the Amazons. And her fight is just beginning. . . .

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.

Holy crap on a cracker, this book was freaking amazing! I am utterly speechless, floored, stupefied, and every other possible synonymous adjective. But am I surprised to be feeling this way after finishing this book? Of course not! I'm talking about Leigh freaking Bardugo here. My idol, my inspiration, and in my humble (and totally unbiased) opinion—the most awe-inspiring and talented author of our time.

I also should mention that I have been a long-time Batman fan (so of course, I'm dying for Marie Lu's installment in this series), but . . . I never got into Wonder Woman. Then this book happened. Bardugo truly brings the fierce Amazon to life, and not only that! She also empowers the other female characters by highlighting all of their different forms of strength that they possess, while also emphasizing that none of those strengths are any less valuable or important than the brute physical strength Diana was born with. As a whole, Wonder Woman: Warbringer is a lesson in feminism, sisterhood, love, loss, and holy hell—it's a damn masterpiece.

I will never be skilled enough to find the adequate words to describe what Bardugo's writing does to my soul, though I will keep endeavoring to try. However to Leigh herself, I can only say thank you. You continue to raise the bar higher and higher, and it's truly special.

Honestly, there is no other author that can move me the way Leigh does. She absolutely never ceases to impress. Definitely as soon as you are able—but especially if you are a Wonder Woman fan—you must get your hands on this outstanding book!

1) There is never a need to question why Leigh Bardugo is my favorite author. Her world-building, her biting wit, the wonderfully hilarious banter, and the overall depth of feeling in every sentence has me like this:

Every. Single. Time. Even when she writes something that hurts.

How does she do this? What is this sorcery? She is just a magical creature typing away on her laptop and sewing up my heartstrings in knots with every word. My god, people, if you haven't picked up any of Leigh's books, you are doing yourself a great disservice, and that needs to be remedied, immediately.

2) Can we talk about all of the sisterhood feels that are quite literally oozing from the pages of this book? I mean, the females in this story are all marvelous in their own right, but the bond that they all have with one another? It's nothing short of inspiring. Honestly, I really wish this was how all women regarded each another. We would all be a lot happier, too.

3) The phrase "strong-female character" has been grating on my nerves for a long time, even though I, myself, have used this in the past to describe female characters. I now realize how wrong I was to ever do that and Warbringer really encompasses why that phrase should be banished from our vocabularies. Renée Ahdieh said it best when she said, "there are so many different kinds of strength. There's strength of the mind, strength of the heart, and we need to give these things equal weight 'cause it isn't good to put these strengths below physicality," and this has stayed with me ever since. Warbringer definitely illuminates this by having women in many different roles, with starkly varying personalities, and with different strengths. Basically, it's reality made fiction, except in the real world, women have to fight to shine.

4) I know I already praised Bardugo for her amazing writing, but there needs to be a separate point solely focused the dialogue in this book because it's extraordinarily sassy and simply ingenious. In my opinion, it's always the dialogue that truly brings the characters off the pages and into our hearts, and that's exactly what happened in this book. I love these characters so, so much.

5) Hell hath no fury like a lady with something to prove, especially if that lady is Wonder Woman. My god, she was fantastic. She was bold, fierce, elegant, and she had a kind heart. No wonder she has been a feminist icon for so many years now. And honestly, I have never given her enough credit, but that all changes now. I really loved reading Leigh's take on this chapter of Diana's life. It was absolutely sensational, to say the least.

6) Diana and Alia are seriously friendship goals. I love that their friendship and bond are the core of this story, rather than romance. These ladies are are so amazing that they actually rival my feelings towards Nina and Inej from Six of Crows. Luckily, I always have room for more awesome fictional friendships such as these. If only we could get more stories about them . . . *fingers crossed*

7) I really should have been prepared for this twisting plot, but once again, Leigh Bardugo totally shocked and surprised me. What seemed to be a very straightforward story had a twist that I did not see coming. Bardugo is a magician, and she knows exactly how to draw your attention away from the details she wants to conceal, and to that, I say BRAVO!

8) Bonus points for capturing New York City perfectly. I especially love that Leigh included proper Subway etiquette. Also because of this book, I will never be able to go to The Sackler Wing of the Met and feel the same way about it. The plot in this part of the story was especially explosive . . . literally XD

You weren't actually expecting me to have anything in this section, were you?

"It's always going to be you and me against the world."

"I am immortal and you are a footnote."

"Sister in battle, I am shield and blade to you. As I breathe, your enemies will know no sanctuary. While I live, your cause is mine."

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