Hounds of Love

It's 1987 in Perth, Australia and murderous couple John and Evelyn roam the streets, looking for victims unbeknowst to their neighbors. By chance, they encounter Vicki Maloney sneaking out of her house to go to a party and lure her to their house with promises of cheap drugs. After toying with her a while, she is drugged and chained to a bed. Vicki has to think of every trick and strategy to escape their sadistic clutches. However, not all is perfect for the couple as Evelyn is obviously unhappy at the arrangement and abused by her husband. Can Vicki escape or will she never get out of that house?

Hounds of Love is a fascinating, hard to watch film that gives dimensions to the each character including Vicki, her mother, and the killer couple. Vicki does drugs, has sex, doesn't do well in school, and blames her mother for her parents' divorce. She has a lot of angst and anger mostly towards her mother, who took a big step down financially to leave her husband which shows it isn't frivolous. Her mother pushes her to be better and stop messing around in a harsh way that pushes her daughter further away and into rebelling. Her teenage transgression of sneaking out should have had a consequence like being grounded, not being abducted by sadists. Despite her lackluster grades, Vicki is quite clever and tries a variety of ways to escape and avoid the worst abuse by her captors. The audience is in Vicki's shoes the entire film, constantly waiting to see what horror awaits her.

Of the couple, John is the most straight forward. He is the driving force behind the abductions and is the only one that derives any real pleasure from it. When we first see him, he seems affable and nice when he picks up Vicki. Underneath that socially acceptable mask, he is cold, calculating, and cruel. Realizing that Evelyn wants to please him and alternately feels jealous and hurt about the abductions, he masterfully plays Evelyn and Vicki against each other so Evelyn will be too busy targeting her anger towards Vicki to rebel. Besides enjoying rape, torture, and absolute power over people, he keeps his home and appearance obsessively clean, which Vicki takes advantage of. The only glimpse of humanity of his is shown a few times in the film when a local gang demeans and harasses him for money. Despite his true nature, John allows them to abuse him and stays meek, only asserting his will when he has absolute power over his wife and his captive. John is an abhorrent person and the least relatable person in the film.

Evelyn is the character that pushes this film into exceptional territory. Emma Booth's portrayal combined with the writing makes her the most nuanced, memorable character. Her children were taken away from her and she is even barred from seeing them or even talking to them on the phone. Of course this doesn't discount her involvement in all the abductions, abuse, and murders, but she is also being abused by John. She hates the abductions, but struggles to live with it for John. At first, the abuse is in his rigid rules and high expectations for housekeeping that come with violent consequences. She feels some sympathy for their victims, but also feels in competition for John's attention and what she perceives as affection. She never lets her guard down, but she occasionally does something nice for Vicki. Her heartbreak when John kicks her dog to death and her sympathy for Vicki's mother is very real and raw. John escalates to physically abusing Evelyn and she remains supportive of him. She wants to be rid of Vicki and doesn't want to face that there will always be another captive girl as long as he is free. I found Evelyn fascinating as part victim and part tormentor.

Hounds of Love is a hard film to watch. The characters are all well acted and written with nuance. The vast majority of the violence (sexual and otherwise) is offscreen and often heard. It makes the film more watchable than putting everything in full view, but imagining what's happening and hearing the sounds is worse sometimes. Moments are incredibly tense, especially each time Vicki attempts to escape. No matter how well thought out her plan, John seems to be one step ahead. The slower pace allows for more character establishment and development which puts this film apart from others in the genre. I highly recommend this film that surprised me with the thorough way each character is portrayed and the restraint with the violent elements without losing any of the impact.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

Strange Practice

Greta Helsing runs a rather unconventional medical practice, treating the supernatural denizens of London and its surrounding areas. Her practice is modest and underfunded, but she works hard to make sure every needy patient gets what they need no matter what kind of being they are or how much money they have. She's called in on an emergency call when a vampire is stabbed with an odd knife with a weird substance that caused the wound to fester. She and her friends, who include vampires Ruthven and Varney, sort of former demon Fastitocalon, and human August Cranswell, figure out this attack is tied to a rash of increasing murders by the Rosary Ripper. Together, they will work to protect the supernatural and human community and stop the killer.

Strange Practice is a delightful and unexpected book. This world is basically our own world with a hidden world underneath of it populated by supernatural being including vampires, mummies, ghouls, demons, and even forgotton, eternal creatures. It's  not all rainbows and sunshine as many of these people eat humans, but their goal is to stay out of the public eye for safety. They, like everyone else, have medical problems from time to time and Greta Helsing (the Van was dropped long ago) continues the tradition her late father set in providing care to any and all. Although physical diminutive, she goes into dangerous situations and treats each of her patients with the utmost care and respect. What they eat or how they act is irrelevant. If they need help, Greta treats them even though her practice is underfunded and doesn't make much income. The way she treated the family of ghouls chased out of their home was particularly impressive. Her dreams for her practice are so unattainable due to money and aren't motivated by her own income, but what she can provide for her patients like a sun room and a 3D printer for mummies. When she is targeted by the Rosary Ripper, she could have easily stopped treating supernatiral beings and holed up for her own safety. Greta fought back for herself and her patients against the odds.

The supernatural characters are just as compelling as the humans. Lord Ruthven is one of Greta's one of the first vampires in literature, seen in Dr. John William Polidori's 1819 short story The Vampire. While he was fearsome in the past, Ruthven now battles boredom by restoring classic cars, renovating his home, and cooking. He's polite, cultured, very rich, and proves to be indispensible to Greta and her group. His home is used as their base because he's a powerful being with superhuman strength, hypnotic powers, and great intelligence. I love how he's just a normal person until he's angered or protecting his friends. Varney is also an early vampire in literature in 1847's The Feast of Blood. Unlike Ruthven, he feels a deep guilt about his existence and his food source with a constant stream of angsty thoughts. He wants to belong and has a bit of a crush on Greta which make him a bit more human. I enjoyed the differences between the two vampires and how they became friends through the experience. My favorite supernatual character is Fastitocalon, who appears as an unassuming, chronically coughing, grey complected fiftysomething year old accountant. Underneath all of that, he has the power to read and cloud minds at will. He was friends with Greta's father and one of her family's oldest friends. His combination of being completelu unremarkable and very powerful with a heart of gold is why he's the best.

Strange Practice is a promising start to a new horror and fantasy series that I hope has many more books to come. The characters are well drawn and memorable on both sides. The source of the Rosary Ripper proves to be surprising and a formidable threat to the world. The use of supernatural creatures as an allegory for real life groups looked down upon for inherent aspects is spot on. I look forward to seeing more Greta, more supernatural patients and friends, and a new threat to London. The only part I didn't really enjoy was Cranswell and the last minute romance at the end of the novel. Everything else made this book a fun read perfect for summer. Even the cover design and interior drawings (which I hope are in the finished copy) lent to the whimsical air of the book. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for the second installment Bad Company.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

Horror Movie Mini-Reviews: My Cousin Rachel and Absentia

* My Cousin Rachel

* spoilers *

Ambrose Ashley raised his orphaned cousin Philip like his own son. As his health failed, he moved to Italy for the more pleasant weather and had a whirlwind romance with Rachel, ending in marriage. Philip receives a disturbing letter from his cousin, saying that Rachel is poisoning and abusing him. An outraged Philip races to Italy, only to find that Ambrose has died. Rachel comes to stay with him and wins him over despite his initial distrust and suspicion that has him being outrageously rude and disrespectful to her. They form a close relationship and Philip would give her anything, even Ambrose's entire estate and business. When she refuses his marriage proposal, Philip spirals out of control, convinced that she will kill him as well.

Based on a novel by Daphne du Maurier, My Cousin Rachel is a Gothic story that is a more quiet mystery than horror, but the unease and tension are there. It shares quite a bit with Crimson Peak without the supernatural elements. Throughout the film, the mystery surrounding Rachel is if she's an opportunistic, greedy murderer or a liberated, independent woman. Rachel Weisz plays her excellently and almost every line out of her mouth could be completely genuine or a skilled liar, carefully constructing each one to get the reaction she wants out of Philip. There are also two ways to interpret her relationship with Philip. He assumes that she is as in love with him as he is with her and views their sexual relationship as consensual. I lean more towards the latter theory that she just wants to be independent in a world where women don't have that opportunity. She tells Philip of her desire to stay alone and support herself even if it meant tutoring children in Italian as spinsters would. Her view of their sexual relationship is one of coercion, where she felt obligated due to his generosity and social power over her.

This brings us to Philip, the most insufferable character ever. He is naive, bordering on idiotic. When Rachel gets there, he's irrationally rude to her, making him appear petty to those around him. He falls for her so hard and fast that he won't listen to anyone when they caution him to slow down and think before he declares his intent to marry and gives her all of his worldly possessions. His mercurial emotions dictate his extreme behavior, sharply constrasting with Rachel's calm and collected exterior. If he had only actually listened to her words instead of assuming he knew what she wanted. He also acts like she's crazy when she makes sure never to be in a room with him after he tries to strangle her. His privilege and gross actions combined with naivete make him a disgusting man willing to abuse that power. Even if Rachel is a murderer, I prefer her to Philip any day. The ending punishes Rachel for wanting above her social station and rejecting Philip's marriage proposal while Philip is rewarded with a loving wife (who saw him pursue Rachel over her) and family as if he hadn't caused Rachel's death. I take this film as condemning the society that would allow this to happen. While it is infuriating, the film does a great job keeping Rachel's role ambiguous (as it could be read many different ways) and includes gorgeous cinematography and costuming,

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins


* Absentia

Tricia's husband Daniel has been missing for seven years with no sightings, no communication, nothing. She's about to move on with her life after waiting for closure for so long. Her plan is to declare him dead in absentia, sell their home, movie into an apartment, start a new relationship, and have her baby. Her messy, unpredictable sister Callie comes to stay with her and help her pack. Callie notices that odd things happen around this tunnel near Tricia's house like a deranged homeless man and then a cache of stolen objects appear on her doorstep and then inthe house when she leaves some food for him. Are these weird but explainable events or something more supernatural at work?

Absentia isn't a flashy or gory horror film. It's much more quiet, subtle, and emotional. Although Tricia is pregnant and ready to start a new life with her boyfriend, she's stuck in the past with her husband and the life they had built together. Apparently, they had been fighting and things weren't going as well, but the complete disruption of her life with no resolution left her frozen, waiting. Disturbing hallucinations of her husband with monstrous aspects plague her as she struggles to move on. Her boyfriend, a police officer, is completely supportive and willing to wait until she's ready to start their life together. When her husband appears at their home after seven years, she brushes off his appearance as another hallucination indicative of stress and guilt. Only her boyfriend's reaction tells her Daniel is real.

Callie is Tricia's troublemaking younger sister. She runs constantly and remains secretly addicted to drugs. I find it ironic that her Christian impulse to feed the poor is the thing that brings something monstrous into their lives. She discovers the creature who has taken countless people is similar to those in myths, legends, and fairy tales that eat and abduct people. Or there could be a much simpler explanation based in the real world instead of the mind of a junkie who is high whenever something weird happens. The creature (if there is one) is well handled. The film is low budget, so any large scale CGI creature would look awful. Only shadows and spindly limbs are seen of it in the periphery of the frame. It also lends to the idea that it may be a hallucination. While all of the concepts are not quite fully realized, Absentia has wonderful performances from Catherine Parker and Courtney Bell that make this relatively simple plot much deeper. It's not Mike Flanagan's best movie, but it shows his ingenuity and impressive story telling.

My rating: 4/5 fishmuffins

An Enchantment of Ravens

Isobel is one of the most sought after portrait artists in Whimsy, a city between the human and fae lands. She lives there with her aunt Emma and her sister March and May, twin girls who used to be goats before the fair folk changed their lives. Isobel supports her family with her Craft and is paid in enchantments. Her patron Gadfly, a delightful and frivolous fae, warns her of the arrival of Rook, the prince of the Autumn Court. She becomes infatuated with him during the course of painting his infuriating portrait that always has something off around the eyes. Finally figuring out the detail, she sends along the painting only to find later that she depicted a deep, human sorrow in his eyes. He abducts her from her house and plans to take her to his realm to stand trial for the transgression, only to be taken way off course by fairy beasts, creeping rot, the Wild Hunt, and other assorted chaos. Will Isobel ever make it back home to her family? Will Rook ever gain back his people's respect?

An Enchantment of Ravens is my favorite read of this year. The writing is poetic, the worldbuilding dazzles, plus the characters and romance are well developed. Right from the beginning of the novel. I was sucked into the story right from the beginning because of Margaret Rogerson's unique world. Her take on the fair folk and the rules of her world are like nothing I've ever seen. Humans create Crafts like cooking, art, and music that the fair folk covet above all things. Fairies will die if they attempt to create anything of the sort, but surround themselves with these things anyway. The age of the Craft doesn't matter as fairies can glamour it to look as it did when it was new. The fae pay humans in enchantments that need to be carefully worded or they could ruin lives with their trickster ways. On the other hand, enchantments can provide food, protection, and other necessities for human life. Humans need to be cautious living in Whimsy because of fairy whims and all carry iron somewhere on them for protection.

The fair folk live for centuries and have no concept of time, but feel very little emotion. Human emotion is frowned upon and seen as weakness, opening up opportunites for other fae to take what they have. Despite this, the veneer of manners and composure are paramount to their kind. They have to respond to niceties like bowing, responding in kind to thank yous, and so on. The fair folk are beautiful, but alien, selfish, and cruel underneath their glamour. Each fae has one flaw in their glamour that sets them apart from humans whether it's fingers that are too long, emaciation, or height. The Spring Court is the only fairy court we see and it seems beautiful and fantastic at first until the horrific, cruel elements are revealed over time. The power of true names works both ways in this world where knowing it gives the person absolute power over another no matter if they are human or fey. Rogerson takes well known rules of fairies, gives them a twist, and adds her own unique ones to create a singular, detailed fantastical world.

The characters and their relationships are incredibly well drawn. Isobel is a practical, serious person forced to grow up early in life. She has been making portraits for the fair folk most of her life, so she has a healthy caution about them. Every time one comes in for a portrait, she's careful to be polite and as inoffensive as possible. The enchantments she earns are carefully worded because she knows their mischief could be disastrous to her and her family. Although her sisters are magicked goats, she loves them all the same and cares for them unconditionally. Over the course of the story, she demonstrates cleverness, ingenuity, and compassion. I love a heroine with a strong will, realistic familial connections, and good sense. All of her decisions are not always the best, but she has a good head on her shoulders that serves her well throughout the novel.

Her romance with Rook starts as a sudden infatuation based on his carefully crafted facade. When he shows who he truly is, Isobel understandably hates him because he's petty, vain, and inhuman. Over the course of their journey, they both reveal what's under their respective protective shells while fighting to protect each other and navigating fae lands infected with rot, fae society, and numerous enemies. Love kind of sneaks up on them when they weren't looking. Their declarations aren't poetic or idealistic and they disagree and see things they don't like in each other, but they grow to love by getting to know each other. I haven't read such a good romance in a while. The Good Law condemns fae and human lovers to death and one solution to this problem is the Green Well, which has the power to turn a human into a fairy. Isobel soundly rejects this because of all she would lose, namely her art. It's not just a interesting detail to flesh her out or be forgotten; it's an intrinsic part of her character that she isn't willing to compromise on, even in the face of the death. Her art is also used in integral plot points and even the finale of the novel.

I could write so much more about An Enchantment of Ravens because I loved every bit of it. I wanted to read it super fast to see what happened, but also wanted to savor the world slowly. I've been reading a lot lately and this one amazed me. I had to be left alone to read the last 100 pages so I could find out what happened with tears streaming down my face. I'm disappointed to see it's a stand alone novel, but I hope other stories will take place in that world. Margaret Rogerson has made me a lifelong fan with this one book and I can't recommend it highly enough.

My rating: 5/5 fishmuffins

It Comes at Night

While a fatal contagious disease ravages the outside world, former teacher Paul, his wife Sarah, and their 17 year old son Travis live in a remote house. They have strict rules and procedures for how to interact with the outside world, when to gather supplies, how to do chores, how much food to eat, etc. Their home is invaded by a lone man and they take the necessary precautions to make sure he isn't infected. His name is Will and claims to have a healthy son and wife in a house miles away. Paul goes with him to pick them up along with their farm animals to bring them back, cautious and suspicious the whole way. Is Will as he seems? Can Paul truly trust anyone outside of his own family?

It Comes at Night has polarizing reactions from crowds that witnessed myself and heard from other people. At the end of the film, someone behind me shouted "Boooooooring" and others agreed. It has a deceptive title, advertising that don't match the tone, and a slow, quiet, deliberate pacing. It's definitely not for everyone and I can understand the hate. I loved it. The outside world is not seen, but it's clear based that this is an apocalypse situation where the family is rigid in their rules to protect each other and what's theirs. At the start, Bud, Sarah's father, has somehow contracted the illness, devastating the family. Paul and Travis handle him with care in gas masks, gloves, and other protective clothing. They take him outside, shoot him, burn his body, and finally bury him. Travis is the most affected by the harrowing incident and dreams of his grandfather as a monster and himself becoming infected. Very little is shown of the disease beyond large sores, but they wisely never let it get farther for their own protection. Paul has found a way for them to survive and it has worked when the world around them crumbled. They never go out after dark unless it's an emergency. Each person keeps busy and contributes to shared resources. Life goes on even after tragedy.

When Will shows up, it's the middle of the night and he breaks into their house for food and water. Paul takes every precaution and ties him up outside for a day to make sure he's not infected. When he proves to be compliant and uninfected, Will leads Paul to his house with one mishap. A group of men attack them in the road, forcing Paul to kill them all to keep what's his and his life. This shows how the world is now. Paul isn't wrong to treat Will so badly, constantly training a gun on him and making sure he isn't planning to strike when the moment is right. They return with Paul's family without further incident and they live together in harmony, working together, for a while after that until one fateful night. It's hard to blame either side for what happens. Both are looking to protect their families and no matter how nicely they act together, trust can never truly be given anymore. Either side suspects the other of wanting to take all they have or wanting to do harm no matter how well intentioned. Travis sits in the middle of all of this as the most innocent, the most willing to trust and keep his humanity. He sits on the cusp of adulthood with all the hope in the world. The tragic ending for both sides shows that his hope has no place anymore.

It Comes at Night has very little music and builds tension throughout the film until the heartbreaking resolution. Neither side comes away unscathed and the most innocent people suffer the most. The film is not action packed or fast paced, but the emotions and the dimensions of all the characters make it one of the most realistic apocalypse movies I've seen. Some accuse it of being more of a drama as it focuses on the characters and their relationships over the disease or its horror elements. I think this take makes it even more horrific because these people seem real due to the writing and the excellent performances on all sides plus the lack of clear answers. I can understand each person's motivation which makes the ending all the more tragic. The ending scene shows the same as earlier in the film, that life goes on even after loss.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins

It

* spoilers *

Derry, Maine looks like a quiet, idyllic small town where nothing momentous happens. Oddly, it has higher murder rates than the most large cities despite the population difference. From before the city even had a name, weird, macabre events occured with terrifying frequency for about a year every 27 to 30 years. Because of It's influence, the town experiences just over a year of grisly children's deaths and escalating violence that culminate in some sort of large scale tragedy, sometimes with Derry citizens as the perpetrators. A few notable instances include the factory explosion near an Easter egg hunt leading to dozens of children's deaths, the destruction of the African American club The Black Spot full of people. the murder of a notorious criminal at the hands of a mob of Derry citizens, and the disappearance of a colony of 300 people before the city was established. I found these vignettes to be much more fascinating than the present day plot of the Loser's Club as children or as adults. I would have loved to see a short story collection detailing what happened during a choice years in It's life cycle.

It is an interesting creature whose favorite form is Pennywish the Dancing Clown. Although frightening clowns existed before it, Pennywise put the clown into a whole different level of horror. It takes the form of whatever secret fears we have that include a giant bird, wolfman, the mummy, a lecherous leper, giant aggressive leeches, and all manner of creatures. It lives in the sewers, so anywhere there are drains aren't safe. It can even use the voices of the dead to torment the living. Every single person in Derry has experienced some sort of supernatural event that scared them, but few ever talk about it. I love this aspect of the novel because idyllic looking small towns always have unspoken secrets. This story just adds a terrifying supernatural element. One small problem I had with It's forms were the inclusion of the pom pom buttons or a part of It's silver clown suit in each form meant to tie them together. However, if all the kids are seeing movie monsters and things out of their nightmares, it's safe to say they are from the same source without a visual cue.

The members of the Loser's Club are Beverly Marsh, Stan Uris, Bill Denbrough, Mike Hanlon, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kasprack, and Ben Hanscom. They met as a group during the summer of 1958 when they were 12 years old. Each character is well drawn and memorable, even the minor ones. Stephen King is always adept at making all of his characters feel real. The novel introduces them as adults and has each of them answering Mike's call, telling them to return to fight It. It takes an excruciatingly long time for essentially the same thing to play out for each character in order to give a window to their lives. It could have been accomplished by throwing them together and looking at how they interact and what stories they tell instead to keep the story movies forward instead of stagnating. At this point, we don't really have a reference for how they were before. I understand that King wanted the two storylines to echo each other in form, but it would have meant so much more if we had known how much they grew and how they changed over time. The two stories also have parallel expositions going on at the same parts of the novel that make for a long stretches of dull reading, but the ending has each of their fights with It and the escalating supernatural events that are much more interesting.

Although I enjoyed the book, Stephen King's books always have aspects I don't like such as the length of novel, the use of deus ex machine, and the treatment of women in the story. This book is over a thousand pages and could have benefited from a lot of editing. Some passages are repetitive and don't have a lot to do with the main story. I expect it could have been half the length and been a much faster paced story. When the Loser's Club are adults, they don't remember anything at all about their childhoods and are even missing scars that reappear when they are called. These memories only resurface when they are sorely needed and then fade away again by the end. They also feel a supernatural connection to each other and have knowledge that can't be explained by conventional means. This feels so contrived and badly reasoned. How can their entire childhood memories being gone escape notice? It seems that they only have a small amount of free will and are basically destined to fight It. I don't like heroes who are forced to; I like heroes who choose to. It seemed like their only choice was to go back or kill themselves.

The treatment of Beverly Marsh and other women in the story truly bothered me. Even as a twelve year old child, the descriptions about her are sexual in nature because of how she is viewed by her friends. However, these types of descriptions stay with her throughout the novel no matter who is with her and she's the only main character viewed in this way. The other women in the novel are seen in the same way, showing that women are seen as sexual objects. As a child, Beverly was beaten by her husband and then grew up to marry an equally abusive man. It seems telling that the only female main character is physically abused thoughout her life. The ending scene of her having sex with all of her friends as a twelve year old child as a means for them to "mature into adulthood" is nothing short of disgusting, disturbing, unnecessary, and incredibly unrealistic. The last piece of the misogynistic puzzle is Kay, described as a strong, feminist who supports Beverly. Beverly's husband Tom breaks into Kay's house and threatens to kill her unless she gives him Beverly's location. Kay stays strong until Tom threatens to multilate her face, basically saying that she was willing to die for her friend but proves too vain to live with a scarred face. It's completely out of character and a gross stereotype.

Stephen King's It has a lot going for it. A small town with a big secret, a macabre past, and the threat of horrific events happening far into the future. It is a singular entity that is horrific and also able to communicate directly with its victims. I wish It's true form was left up to the readers' imagination. Another of King's flaws is defining every aspect of the ending when it's not necessary like in Gerald's Game. It has enjoyable parts and well drawn characters, but it's incredibly bloated. I would tentatively recommend it if you are a fan of King's writing and you have a lot of time to read. I look forward to watching the new movie adaptation to see how they handle the problems I had with the story.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins

Wonder Woman: Warbringer

Diana lives on Themyscira with her mother and her sister Amazons. Formed from clay, she isn't really considered a full fledged Amazon and looks for ways to prove herself. During a race she is sure to win due to her practice and alternate route, a boat explodes off the coast of the island, so Diana has to decide to the leave the lone survivor to die and finish the race or save the girl and throw the race. She finally decides to save the girl Alia, but after leaving her in a remote cave, earthquakes wrack the island and sickness comes for the Amazons for the first time since they settled there. Diana suspects that Alia's presence on the island is the reason, so she goes to the Oracle with an offering to see how she can fix her mistake. It leads to a quest to the modern human world where Diana can prove herself, protect her charge, and save the world if she succeeds.

The beginning of the novel establishes Themyscira, the Amazons, and Diana plus her origins. Themyscira is a utopian society populated by only women of all different nationalities and sexual preferences who have chosen to live there after rejecting the wartorn, violent world of man. Some of them a resentful of Diana because she doesn't have the experience and hasn't proven herself as an Amazon, yet receives preferential treatment as Queen Hippolyta's daughter. Although Tek, the most vocal about this subject, has a point, she resorts to pathetically insulting teenage Diana overtly and covertly at every turn. As a result, Diana has to hide her true feelings, brush off the poor treatment, feel like she doesn't belong, and strive to prove herself as capable as much as she can. When Alia lands on the island, the storms, disease, and earthquakes are shocking on such an idyllic island and fill Diana with guilt. The Oracle brings the timbre of ancient myths as a powerful, dangerous mystic who gives useful information if approached correctly.

Diana is thrown into the modern human world without being totally ignorant of their technology or modern sensibilities. The island is somehow aware of all the technological advances and human history, so Diana's gaps are in actual interactions in this unfamiliar world. She has knowledge of cars, helecopters, war, disease, etc, but it's completely different to hear the noise of the city, sit in a moving car, and dodge lethal bullets. What I love so much about her character, especially compared to the cinematic version of her, is that she defends herself physically and verbally. She throws clever barbs when needed and translates modern sensibilities through the lens of her experiences instead of looking at everything cluelessly. The biggest adjustment to our world is the ease with which we lie. She's so used to people being genuine that it shocks her and makes her cautious in the future. Her abilities are a mystery to her since she's never had to use them to actually protect herself before and she pushes her limits time and time again. Her journey to prove herself is understandable and blossoms into a genuine desire to protect humanity and their world.

Alia comes from an affluent family with a Greek father and a Louisianan mother. She tries to escape notice and keep to herself as a way to avoid how she's inevitably treated due to her skin color. She also somehow always finds conflict surrounding but not including her. Her status as Warbringer brings violence and chaos wherever she goes, completely involuntarily. Her very presence will cause the next worldwide war if she doesn't either die or bathe in the waters of Helen of Troy's resting place. Alia thinks Diana is insane and part of a cult before Diana's proved right, but they find common ground in both of their disparate experiences. Both want to be judged for their actions rather than things they have no control over like origins, money, family, or bloodline. Alia is much more sarcastic and funny than Diana and has a point of view more relatable to the reader. She doesn't have physical strength, but strength of will and interesting ways of thinking through situations with her science background. By the end of the book, she develops into someone unafraid of attention, willing to fight for her friends and what she believes in.

After seeing the Wonder Woman film, I was curious to see how this book fits into that lore. They prove to be in completely different universes and most of the changes are ones I would have liked to see in the movie. So much of this book is amazing from the natural character interactions to the crazy awesome minor characters like Alia's best friend Nim, eccentric clothign designer. I especially loved her unique point of view seeing the world's patterns and finding meaning in visual art plus her killer sense of humor. Some plot points didn't feel right to me even though it fit the theme. The villain in particular seemed to come out of nowhere, but the ending is satisfying. Wonder Woman: Warbringer is an action packed book with friendship, heart, and characters struggling to find their place in the world. I would love to see another Wonder Woman book by Leigh Bardugo because she fundamentally understands Diana and creates a fantastical world grounded in reality.

My rating: 4.5/5 fishmuffins