Before he was Batman, he was Bruce Wayne. A reckless boy willing to break the rules for a girl who may be his worst enemy.
The Nightwalkers are terrorizing Gotham City, and Bruce Wayne is next on their list. One by one, the city’s elites are being executed as their mansions’ security systems turn against them, trapping them like prey. Meanwhile, Bruce is turning eighteen and about to inherit his family’s fortune, not to mention the keys to Wayne Enterprises and all the tech gadgetry his heart could ever desire. But after a run-in with the police, he’s forced to do community service at Arkham Asylum, the infamous prison that holds the city’s most brutal criminals.
Madeleine Wallace is a brilliant killer . . . and Bruce’s only hope. In Arkham, Bruce meets Madeleine, a brilliant girl with ties to the Nightwalkers. What is she hiding? And why will she speak only to Bruce? Madeleine is the mystery Bruce must unravel. But is he getting her to divulge her secrets, or is he feeding her the information she needs to bring Gotham City to its knees? Bruce will walk the dark line between trust and betrayal as the Nightwalkers circle closer.
Marie Lu has once again wowed me with her writing. Batman: Nightwalker was a fun and quick read and I enjoyed every second of it. It was intriguing to see another take on one of my favorite superheroes – even one that’s pretty much been done to death.
As for the characters, I loved Marie’s take on some of our favorite comic book characters, as well as the characters she created. She did amazing with Bruce and Alfred (my favorite sarcastic British bean) and their relationship. I also really love Dianne and Detective Draccon – they were both kickass woman. Though, Harvey I didn’t really care about; because it just wasn’t that important to the story?? And it’s pretty much irrelevant, but I <i> loved </i> that cameo of Gordon.
The plot was interesting and kept me hooked and wanting to read more. Though I will say that the Nightwalkers kind of felt a little bland to me and I didn’t buy the leaders’ motivation for what they were doing. I love some good and well written villains but for me to do that, I have to either understand them or know that they’re completely evil just because; and I didn’t get either of those vibes from them.
I loved all the gadgets in this book from the working out/training goggles to all the experimental things WayneTech was working on. It just felt completely like Batman.
Another thing that I really loved was how grief was touched on in this book. We all know that Bruce’s parents were murdered when he was a kid and so grief and loss are brought up in this book. I loved how Marie didn’t try to shy away from that or from social commentary throughout the book. Because there’s a few parts where it’s brought up how Bruce would have gotten it worse from the police if he hadn’t been white and rich.
Overall, I really loved this book. And if you like Batman or Marie Lu, I would definitely recommend picking this one up.
Rating: 5/5 stars
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