Marvel's Black Widow: Forever Red

By: Margaret Stohl

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Enter the world of the Avengers' iconic master spy.

Natasha Romanoff is one of the world's most lethal assassins. Trained from a young age in the arts of death and deception, Natasha was given the title of Black Widow by Ivan Somodorov, her brutal teacher at the Red Room, Moscow's infamous academy for operatives.

Ava Orlova is just trying to fit in as an average Brooklyn teenager, but her life has been anything but average. The daughter of a missing Russian quantum physicist, Ava was once subjected to a series of ruthless military experiments - until she was rescued by Black Widow and placed under S.H.I.E.L.D. protection. Ava has always longed to reconnect with her mysterious savior, but Black Widow isn't really the big sister type. Until now.

When children all over Eastern Europe begin to go missing, and rumors of smuggled Red Room tech light up the dark net, Natasha suspects her old teacher has returned - and that Ava Orlova might be the only one who can stop him. To defeat the madman who threatens their future, Natasha and Ava must unravel their pasts. Only then will they discover the truth about the dark-eyed boy with an hourglass tattoo who haunts Ava's dreams....

Black Widow: Forever Red features all the heart-pounding adventure listeners expect from Marvel, written by number-one New York Times best-selling author Margaret Stohl. Uncover a new side of the Marvel Universe that will thrill loyal fans and newcomers alike, as Stohl reveals the untold story of Black Widow for the very first time.

©2015 Marvel (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The Black Widow

I truly enjoyed this story and feel that if Marvel were to adapt a story for a film this would be a great story to so that with.
really enjoyed finally getting some background on the Black Widow.

Wow!

Great story cant wait for the next one! I didn't see the ending coming, I didn't see the middle coming! Julia Whelan was phenomenal! I love when a narrator perfectly matches up with my expectations for a character. Overall great book!

Excellent insight & view into the Marvel Universe

The theme, the background, and accents within the performance all delivered a story with action, suspense, and strong emotion. As much an origin story as it is a historical trek into the life and psyche of a favored, and often overlooked, Marvel character !

I enjoyed it but it wasn’t what I expected.

I’ve seen a lot of people say that this Black Widow book didn’t focus enough on Black Widow. I think it might be easier to just change what you’re expecting going into it.

It is a Black Widow story told primarily from the POV of people around her. Her POV makes up about 1/3 of the novel. If you have ever listened to the Wolverine podcast it is similar to that type of storytelling.

None of this is to say that I didn’t enjoy it. I thought it was a good story, the writing was there, the characters kept my interest. At the end of it all I was still interested and excited to read the sequel.

My main complaint I guess is that I felt like this story should have been a sequel story and not the first book in a series. I think starting with something more Natasha centered would have been a better jumping off point instead of introducing other characters immediately. But I haven’t read the sequel yet so maybe it was a great set up.

Overall I enjoyed it and would recommend it if you’re looking for a Marvel fix.

marvel needs to make this a movie!

great story, love that character and insight to her backstory. marvel missed the boat by not making this a movie!

Marvel should make this a movie!

Couldn't put it down! I enjoyed it immensely! A must read for any Marvel Fan!

Disliked the voices

I didn’t like the voices the reader did. I enjoyed the plot and Natasha was great.

put me in mind of twilight

Ran too much like a teen novel with the avengers , even Black Widow, as a background

Really gave life to the character

I won't give this five stars because it didn't blow me out of the water, but for a comic book to novel transition, it's pretty good. This author really gave life to Romanoff, which is not an easy feat. The role of Russian spy has been thoroughly explored lately, and really poorly in a lot of other instances, but not here. The exterior characters do a great job of toning back the stereotypical spy story with their own problems. The narrator does a great job, though I'm not a fan of how she narrates for the males in the book. Picked this up because it was on sale, but definitely not disappointed.

Meh...

I'll give the author credit for the Russian and some good details that make the story more plausible. Overall? It's YA schlock. Soap opera. Natasha is present, but predictable and not much of an active character, much less a three-dimensional one. Lots of mouthy bravado, which doesn't seem quite right for her, but mostly reacting rather than making her own plans. The author is really more interested in the (17-year-old?) protagonist, who was so bland and flat that I'm struggling to remember her name. I'm sorry... Red Widow? The crossed hourglasses? Reminds me of Days of our Lives. Maybe there's a certain realism in the whole angst-filled, emo teenager thing, but she annoyed me rather than inspiring symphony. Being mad at Natasha isn't character or internal conflict. Having a tough life or being a victim isn't character or internal conflict. There is nothing remotely plausible about this story, though I suppose in comic-book stories that's to be expected. But this one is worse than most in terms of plausibility. Random teenagers with little if any real training or experience in any real combat can just somehow be super spies because they can tap into someone's brain? Just slap some label of "quantum entanglement" on things and somehow this is supposed to be plausible? That's just silly. Data or memories don't make a body capable of doing superhero things or superhero reactions. Data and memories don't make someone capable of thinking the way a trained specialist does. (Not that the author does a good job of portraying Natasha as particularly competent or skilled.) And even if you could transfer information or memories between brains, exactly how were these test subject kids supposed to be controlled and used by anyone? The premise of the story and the characters make no sense. But ultimately? The relationships didn't work for me. I admit to having prejudices in this matter. Whenever an author comes up with some sibling or counterpart protagonist or whatever for a well-known character, you can almost guarantee you're sailing into Mary Sue territory. And this was no exception. I hate people just introducing characters this way and just expecting a relationship with the banner character to be plausible and expecting me to care about the character simply by extension. Seriously. Both Eva (I think I remember her name now?) and Alex come across as Mary Sues, but Eva in particular. Natasha somehow has this sibling that's so much younger than her and supposedly cares so much and reacts in certain ways, even though there's next to no real interaction or history between the characters and it makes no sense for Natasha to have any blood sibling at all, much less that much younger? And these two teenagers just automatically fall in with each other? The romantic aspect of this just didn't sell. The characters weren't well-enough developed to be individuals, much less make sense as a couple. What happened to the main baddie was pretty anticlimactic. So I'm sure this would be satisfying to teens, but for more mature comic book story fans... Maybe not so much.