One-Sentence Summary:
Presumably based on the Awakening movie, this is the novelization of a new Miraculous plot from the show.
My Thoughts:
I'm wondering how accurate to the movie this is, because the way this book is written is really interesting! First of all, Marinette actually knows Master Fu at the age of six, and Hawk Moth knows from the beginning that he has the miraculous. Marinette is aged up two years from the show, and Emilie was actually under a curse, not in a coma out of sickness from the broken peacock miraculous. There are also a lot of differences within first meetings and the like. Adrien freely goes to school with approval from his father, but he's actually held completely separate from the other students in the library. Marinette meets him there, not when he's trying to get gum off of her seat, and instead of hatred, they both immediately like each other (which is low key annoying). The first villain is sort of like Stoneheart, but not actually Stoneheart, just another gargoyle-like akuma. There really isn't much hesitation or failure like in the Stoneheart episodes, which I found both annoying and refreshing? Marinette finds out Adrien's identity pretty fast because Hawk Moth (still Gabriel Agreste) actually finds out oddly soon, so there's less Angst. I liked that there was a cute masquerade and all, but I didn't love the direction it took away from the TV show, especially if this is how the movie will go.
As a book, let's talk about it! This was very fast-paced and not incredibly written, but that's not unexpected considering this is in fact a chapter book about Miraculous. Whoops. I actually really liked it for what it was, though. We got some great Miraculous content, and I liked the dynamic of Adrien and Marinette. I was expecting something a little bit more juvenile, so I was pleasantly surprised when there was more relationship stuff and plot, despite how quick it was.
This book did make me veeeery cautious about the movie and the future quality of the movie if this is how they changed the plot, but I liked the book itself. Will I read more Miraculous books? Probably not, and if so, it'll be fanfic, but I would recommend this to people who want early insight about the movie and a closer perspective of the characters.
Disclaimer: I am not a middle grade reviewer, I am simply someone too old (not by too much) to watch Miraculous who still does.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
The Fiction Feature 