WHITE WIDOW

A good Widow puts “aside emotion and silly wants in pursuit of a much greater goal”—but one of the best is confronted head-on with big feelings.

Headquarters has sent their best Widow-in-Training to the American Outpost to collect information on their relatively new program. Sixteen-year-old Yelena Belova has so far caused plenty of upheaval, mainly in the form of the physical damage she’s meted out to her sparring partners. Yelena thinks the girls’ training is too indulgent of emotions and should be more unforgiving and reminiscent of conditions in the field. Speaking of which, she’s keen to see some real action, and so she volunteers for a mission. The team’s objective is to destroy a “package”—but they aren’t told that they are to carry out an assassination, much less that their target is an 8-year-old girl, one who’s a “perfect replica” of Yelena at that age. Stunned and acting on instinct, Yelena escapes with the girl, whose name is Leni. Her new mission becomes protecting the emotionally expressive Leni and uncovering the bizarre conspiracy she’s stumbled into. This book is both an exciting chronicle that will please fans of the Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe character and a fun spy thriller that’s accessible to readers who are unfamiliar with her story. Alongside the sassy banter and hardcore fight scenes, the story meaningfully focuses on sisterhood and the power of emotional perceptiveness. The Marvel canon established Yelena as Russian.

A gripping read with broad appeal.