The Oracle Code

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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Dad once told me that even a hopeless situation doesn't always stop him. Not because he believes there'll be a miracle, but because giving up feels too final.

And pretending is a form of grieving, too.

The Oracle Code

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

After rereading this, I still rate it 3 stars. Although I noticed that the reason as to how she got paralyzed is unclear, although the summary said that she was shot, the scene shows us how she falls off a building. The accident was later referenced as being caused by her being shot. This leaves her paralyzed from the waist down. After these events, she spends a good chunk of the book processing what just happened to her. She isolates herself from everyone who approaches her and is trying to cope. As the book progresses, she starts to get friendlier and gets closer to Jana, who tells her sinister stories about Arkham. She starts to try to solve the mystery of why people are disappearing from the asylum. 

I liked this version a lot, although I would have loved to see more about her life after she started to accept her disability. I liked how the author didn't try to fix Barbara like other comics had done in the past. Not only did they not try to fix Barbara, but they gave all the characters shown to have a range of emotions. Overall, it was a good book and it was well executed as the art style also tended to reflect the tone of the story.

Our first glimpses of Barbara Gordon is of her hacking with her best friend in the middle of the night and her daring attitude. After a shooting accident though (where she came running to help her father), you only see a few shattered moments of what happened.
The next time we see Barbara she's broken and dealing with being handicapped from the accident.

Its right off the bat got you worried and caring about the protagonist while trying to piece together everything as she moves into a special rehabilitation center specifically for handicapped kids.

And then Barbara starts to notice and come across some odd and concerning things during her stay- things no one else sees as a problem or gives different chilling responses to.


The plot and story were intriguing and had a good mystery and suspense-feel. Which honestly kept me going more than the main character for some of the book.
We piece things together bit by bit, stakes rise, and I really liked the ‘reveal' and climax part the absolute most!!

Some of the side characters I wasn't sure about at first, if they were secretly evil or what, but as I got farther in it became clear and I was rather happy with the outcomes!

There was really no mention of Batman or anything. It's strictly about Barbara and her overcoming the biggest obstacle that she thought was never supposed to happen to her.
Going in, I had wanted at least a mention of the superhero we all know but then I honestly am much happier without it taking over Barbara's spotlight story.

4 stars!!

Full book review on blog: http://bookswithnoel.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-oracle-code-barbara-gordon-hackers.html