arley uinn avenous a dark otham novel with a feminist warrior

ew book awash in cra y action, humor, and superheroes

Forget about it.

By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER

ut it out of your mind don t worry about it. It s likely nothing, so let it rest. et it go and don t be afraid because, as in the new book arley uinn avenous by achael llen, fear is how they make you scream.

Being a first-year intern at otham niversity was going to be the best.

aving completed the university s gap-year program last year, arleen uin el was practically bouncing. She d decided on research, possibly psychology, as a career and first year program included mentorship and a chance to study some of otham s worst, most notorious criminal minds. he oker, woace, ing Shark, r. ree e, she could be assigned to any one of them at rkham sylum.

irst year was also going to be a bit of a relief. Sure, she d still have to put up with classmates like the erk who kept asking if she was straight now nope, still bi, today, tomorrow, last week and she d have to try to fit in, which was hard to do after what happened at the end of last year. hen, some of arleen s friends were attacked with a fear spray that made them scream and scream, and her best friend died from it. here was gossip but arleen had her research to enoy, she loved her mentor, and she was fascinated by alia al hul, who d tried to assassinate otham s mayor. alia was a great study-sub ect even though arleen wasn t technically supposed to ever speak to her.

ntil alia said that she knew who made the fear spray. She needed information for information, tit for tat, and she hinted that she knew the truth about Straw an, who was rumored to haunt rkham and who had a hand in the fear spray, so... So then arleen woke up in the hospital, the victim of a bad accident and amnesia. But was it an accident Were this guy, Win, and the adorable Ivy trustworthy nd the escape of otham City s worst, most violent criminals was arleen at fault et s say a movie theater mushed its film to a pulp and made a novel from the leftover cells. r they used the mush to paint a Ben-Dot artwork panel, but in words. hat s kinda how you could think of this book. s a part of the DC Icons franchise, arley uinn avenous almost screams graphic novel or comic book.

So what s the problem othing, as long as you know that before you pick it up because that s the sort of feel you ll get in what only looks like a regular novel. othing, if you relish a story that starts with action and peppers it with chaos before dropping readers into a land of dark monsters and crime. othing at all, if you ve read author achael llen s novel-before-this-one otherwise, you ll be awash in humor, feminism, superheroes, and scrambling to find your footing. Be warned. verall, if you love a funny, cra y-paced dark- otham novel with a feminist warrior, you ll devour arley uinn avenous. s for a bookmark... ah, forget about it.