Catwoman: Soulstealer – Sarah J. Maas

Catwoman: Soulstealer Synopsis

Note: This review is spoiler-free!

When the Bat’s away, the Cat will play. It’s time to see how many lives this cat really has. . . .

Two years after escaping Gotham City’s slums, Selina Kyle returns as the mysterious and wealthy Holly Vanderhees. She quickly discovers that with Batman off on a vital mission, Batwing is left to hold back the tide of notorious criminals. Gotham City is ripe for the taking.

Meanwhile, Luke Fox wants to prove he has what it takes to help people in his role as Batwing. He targets a new thief on the prowl who seems cleverer than most. She has teamed up with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, and together they are wreaking havoc. This Catwoman may be Batwing’s undoing.

In this third DC Icons book–following Leigh Bardugo’s Wonder Woman: Warbringer and Marie Lu’s Batman: Nightwalker–Selina is playing a desperate game of cat and mouse, forming unexpected friendships and entangling herself with Batwing by night and her devilishly handsome neighbor Luke Fox by day. But with a dangerous threat from the past on her tail, will she be able to pull off the heist that’s closest to her heart?

Why did I pick it?

Wonderman wasn’t one of my favourite reads but as my main issue had been not really knowing much “back story” going into the book I thought I knew a little more about Catwoman, and that maybe I should give it a chance.

What I loved about it

I loved that the story moved from the perspective of two different characters rather than it just focusing on Selina. I suppose a slight negative to this was that I preferred Batwings chapters a lot more…. which I’m pretty sure wasn’t the point. It’s a bit like Sarah J Maas was given a character and thought, NOPE, I prefer writing about this other character thanks!

What I loathed about it

I seem to do more and more eye rolling when reading YA at the moment. Maybe I read too much of the stuff but there appears to be a trend of adding LGBT characters for the sake of it. I mean I’m all for LGBT themes in YA but when a character is introduced for the sake of it… *Eye roll* well of course her sister’s adoptive parents are gay and of COURSE they are of ethnic origin as well just for good measure. I mean how is it relevant, they aren’t even main characters, they are minor at best, why bother with the explanation. I just found it totally bizarre that it was even described and mentioned.

There’s also a “big deal” made about the fact that Batwing is rich and black, I say big deal, it’s mentioned completely out of context of the plot several times. Now although this is true of the comic character, unlike the references above, it’s not just there to be “trendy”. But then why bother including a paragraph about how he’s constantly being pulled over by the cops because he’s driving an expensive car. I get that this is an issue but the way it’s included in the book is like it’s one big box ticking exercise to appear relevant… sooooo yep, you guessed it, EYE ROLL!

It wasn’t particularly well written either. I really hate authors spending ages writing books, the wait sometimes can be excruciating, but the rate in which the author is churning out books at the moment disturbs me, they could be so much better if they were given more time and thought, that’s properly why her earlier books are better.

Thoughts

Not for DC fans but if you’re a die hard Sarah J Maas fan you’ll probably love it.

When and where can you can get it

You can purchase Catwoman: Soulstealer on Amazon today