Wonder Woman Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

Summary from Goodreads:

Daughter of immortals.

Princess 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 mortal. Diana will soon learn that she has rescued no ordinary girl, and that with this single brave act, she may have doomed the world.

Daughter of death.

Alia Keralis just wanted to escape her overprotective brother with a semester at sea. She doesn’t know she is being hunted by people who think her very existence could spark a world war. 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.

Two girls will face an army of enemies—mortal and divine—determined to either destroy or possess the Warbringer. Tested beyond the bounds of their abilities, Diana and Alia must find a way to unleash hidden strengths and forge an unlikely alliance. Because if they have any hope of saving both their worlds, they will have to stand side by side against the tide of war.

Review:

As I was waiting in line to purchase this book at the Boston Teen Author Festival, I was already reading a library copy. I knew I’d want to own this book, so I could re-read it, and also, I wanted Bardugo’s autograph on this one. A girl next to me in line asked me what I thought of the book. She said she liked the author’s other books, but tended not to like books about characters that already existed in some other canon.

So, in my head, I was thinking I have one chance to seriously sell this book and I gave it my all. I said, “Think about everything you already know about the Wonder Woman character, then add a seriously diverse cast, some LGBT representation, a kick-ass friendship story, and some serious levels of feminism and girl power. The girl in line seemed impressed. I think she’ll give this one a try.

This book was awesome. I don’t always love Bardugo as much as everyone else does. She is a very talented writer though and I always appreciate the level of research and world building she has. I love that this wasn’t the same story as the movie. I love that instead of risking the wrath of her Amazon sisters for a guy who’s plane crashes, Diana risks everything to save a girl. It’s not about helping a man stop further war. It was about saving a friend and preventing war. I know this seems like such a small difference between book and movie, but to me, this difference was everything.

I loved the friendship story. I loved watching Diana learn about the modern world. I loved watching her learn and grow from her friendship with Alia. I loved watching her center her power and strength by channeling her sisters. And I loved every scene where she kicked the butts of unsuspecting men.

This book had great side characters. I loved Alia’s best friend and crush. I loved the brother too. I found so much about him to be fascinating. And I was genuinely surprised by a certain twist with him. The world-building was awesome. I love books that take place both in the real world and in a fantasy one. Bardugo excels at writing mythology and all the Greek mythology here was awesome.

The pacing was super fast too. You go from one frightening scene to another. There’s fierce weather, shipwrecks, bombs at the MET (in NY), gun-fights, sky diving, mythological creatures, scenes with Greek Gods, and so much more. It was paced like a Rick Riordan book. But unlike with Riordan, it was all about girl power. After finishing it, I was like, “why couldn’t Bardugo have written the movie?” Though, I did have fun watching the movie too. Wonder Woman is my favorite comic book character too, so I was expecting really good things from this book. I’m glad my expectations were met and then some.

The YA books this year are killing it. Seriously, coming up with a top 10 list will be so hard at the end of the year. This book had everything: amazing world building, Greek mythology, great characters, feminism, action, romance, suspense, and friendship. I want more. Seriously though, will there be a book 2? I give it a 10/10.