***Received the e-ARC from the publisher DC Link via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review***
Published Date: May 7, 2019
Publisher: DC Link
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Indigo
Synopsis:
You’ve never heard this Catwoman tale. There are no leather cat-suits, whips or cat puns. Instead, Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale is an original story about a young, lonely girl named Selina Kyle. Selina’s not the prom queen or cheerleading captain – she’s the other girl. The girl who eats alone at lunchtime and the girl whose home is filled with endless emotional and physical abuse.
From New York Times bestselling author Lauren Myracle (ttyl) and artist Isaac Goodhart, comes a poignant coming of age graphic novel about a troubled teen who leaves her turbulent home life behind for a new start on the dangerous streets of Gotham City. A powerful story about domestic abuse, survival and self-discovery, Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale is an important read for today’s teen (ages 13-17), and will hit stores everywhere books are sold on May 7, 2019.
Selina Kyle is fiercer than she knows. For 14 years she’s put up with her mother’s endless string of bad boyfriends, burying her resentment just below the surface. But when Dernell, her mom’s current boyfriend, proves crueler than all the others combined, Selina reevaluates her dismal life. There’s no way Selina and Dernell can live under the same roof, and since Dernell won’ leave, Selina must.
Life on the streets is rougher than Selina expects. In fact, it pretty much sucks – until by chance (or fate?), she falls in with a heist-happy gang of street kids like herself. What Selena doesn’t see coming is how appealing life in a pack can be, and how tempting it is to accept the comfort that comes from trusting others. But trust leads to vulnerability, and vulnerability leads to weakness – and Selina Kyle refuses to be weak. Selina soon learns that figuring out how to survive is simple compared to figuring out how to be.
Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale marks Myracle’s first graphic novel and will be published under DC Ink, DC’s new young adult publishing imprint.
Review:
Rating: 💜💜💜💜
I have always been fascinated by the story of Selina Kyle. I see her as being a complex and interesting character that I am always looking for stories that gives more of backstory about how she became Catwoman. This is the first graphic novel that I read which focus solely on Selina and how she slowly becomes into Catwoman. This was an interesting origin tale of Catwoman. The story is told when Selina is 14 years old and is going through many obstacles such as issues with her mother and her violent boyfriend.
If you are looking for a sweet story of Catwoman, then this would not be story for you because it is actually telling the story of all of the intense and abusive moments that molded Selina into becoming Catwoman. This story does have subject matter that can be triggering such as cutting, bullying and verbal/physical abuse. The author did a great job with writing about the triggering subjects in the comic.
I have enjoyed this telling of Selina aka Catwoman because the characters were well developed, the writing, and story was done very well. The best part of the whole comic is the artwork is amazing because you didn’t need a lot dialogue to follow the story and to know what was happening in the scenes. It was nice to see diverse characters in the comic but I would have like to seen more of some those characters. I thought it was great to see all of the stray cats following Selina around because it was showing her connection with them.
The backstory between Selina and Bruce was interesting part of the comic. It showed how Selina became friends with Bruce when they were small children and how they friendship change when they became teenagers. They do reconnect in the story and shows how much they both care about each other. I thought it was a nice touch to the story between Batman and Catwoman instead of them meeting as adults but as teens.
The other part of the story I thought was interesting was Selina’s “friendships” with the group of runaways who live in a warehouse and doing “jobs” for money. She finds the group when she befriend Ojo who teaches her how to scale/climb walls and building. After living on the streets was not working for her, she decides to take up Ojo offer to stay with the group and work with them. She meets a young girl name Rosie, who does not speak because of tragic event that happens to her and her family. It was nice to see how Selina’s personality changes from hard-ass don’t care person to someone who is kind and taking care of someone else that needs her help. This group becomes Selina’s family more than her mother was because they all look out for each other.
