Showing posts with label Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread. Show all posts

Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Top 5 Books of the Year! | Top 5 Wednesday

2014 has been a fantastic book year for me, not only in terms of what was released, but also for the sometimes slightly older books and series I discovered. I'm glad to have found these stories this year:

1. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Read my review here!


2. Zac & Mia by A.J. Betts
Read my review here!


3. Vicious by V.E. Schwab
Read my review here!


4. Blood Red Road by Moira Young
Read my review here and read about my experience meeting Moira Young here!


5. The Saga series by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Read my review here!


Honourable mentions:

Black Widow, Vol. 1: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmondson
War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Come Closer by Sara Gran
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

What's one of your favourite books you read in 2014?

Sunday, 24 August 2014

5-Book Challenge: Post-Apocalyptic Edition! | Bout of Books 11 Challenge

Ashley over at Falling Down the Book Hole is hosting today's final Bout of Books challenge! Using the following blurb as inspiration, we must pick 5 books we would grab if there was an impending apocalypse and we had to abandon our homes:

"It is 11:00 PM on a Sunday night. You are laying in bed thinking about all of the things you must do the next day. Tasks of the coming days consume your thoughts and while your mind is somewhere else you are caught off guard by a flash in the sky that is followed by a large wailing screech that pierces the air and shatters your bedroom window. Slowly you move to the window and what you see catches your breathe and causes you to stumble back a few steps. The aliens (at least you think they are aliens) have began to enter the city and destroy everything that is in their path. Through the window your view is consumed with destruction, screaming people and large flames that are dancing across the city at a fast pace. You notice that the creatures are heading in your direction and you realize you probably have about fifteen minutes before they reach your home. That means you have only about ten minutes to gather your belongings and escape before you are caught in the attack from the aliens invading the city."

I would take these books with me:

World War Z: An Oral History of the World by Max Brooks - This isn't just a book about zombies. This was thoroughly thought-out and if you stop for a moment to think about what you're reading, you realize that a lot of the theories and political reactions to an outbreak Brooks' writes about could very well be true. This novel would help me in an alien invasion because it'd give me ideas about where to seek safer shelter and how to react to new and dangerous situations.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (gah...or The Half Blood Prince, I'm not sure!) by J.K. Rowling - One of my favourite childhood series...how could I not? I've always loved getting lost in Harry Potter's world and these two are my favourites in the series. Reading either of these would help me take my mind off of the chaos around me.

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell - I would take this book with me so I'd always remember what kind of person I was before the invasion. I feel so much like the protagonist, Cath, that throughout the novel I felt like I was reading about myself. Having to survive after an invasion would surely change me as a person, and it'd be nice to have this around to remind me of what life was like before.

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories by Tim Burton - I love Tim Burton's art, poetry, movies...this book contains two of those things. The poems are so sweet and at the same time, quite morbid, which is a combination I love - it makes for some laughs! And after an invasion, I'm sure I'd appreciate some of those.

Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread by Nathan Edmondson - Natasha Romanoff is a badass. But not the kind that gets everything done cleanly - she makes mistakes, and they cost her. That makes her more relatable, I feel. Black Widow would inspire me to survive with her strength, intelligence and badassery.

What books would you take with you if there were an apocalypse?

Friday, 1 August 2014

"Black Widow: The Finely Woven Thread" | Book Review

Action. Intrigue. Interesting characters. Gorgeous artwork. That's just some of what you'll experience when you read Volume 1 of Black Widow's new standalone series, The Finely Woven Thread.

Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, is a spy seeking atonement for her violent past. She takes dangerous and important jobs according to her own moral standards. You might know her by her work with S.H.I.E.L.D. - she helped save New York from aliens a couple of years ago, no big deal.

A lot of us tend to think of action- and super-heroes as these infallible beings who don't make many mistakes and have everything figured out, in terms of fighting evil. Natasha Romanoff is not like that. She's a human being and she makes a lot of mistakes, ones that have dire consequences - when Black Widow messes up, people die.

Natasha is very self-aware: she knows she's not a superhero and acknowledges her faults and errors. She takes all these things to heart and learns from her mistakes. The fact that she doesn't complete every job perfectly and that she feels such guilt makes her very accessible as a character and also makes the stories seem more realistic.

Another great thing about this incarnation of Black Widow is that she's such a bad-ass. At one point, she falls from a building onto a car and her only reaction is "Ow". How cool is that?

The general overtone in this series is quite serious and action-packed, but it can also be quite funny at times.

The artwork is absolutely beautiful. The backgrounds are always so well-done and you can usually guess which continent, if not which country, Black Widow is on. There are some moments in this volume when Natasha is in a dark room and you can hardly see anything, but her hair is still bright red and prominent in the frame. I love moments like that in the artwork and I think it's creative. The series is all-around stunning.

If you've seen Black Widow in any of the Marvel movies and want to see more of her, you're looking for a great female character, or you're in need of an action-packed read, then look no further.

Who's your favourite female comic book character?

I. Love. Marvel.

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