Welcome to Ink Spots, a quirky little corner of DC.com devoted entirely to all of our favorite Young Adult comics and fiction. In this new Book Breakdown, Kelly Knox is ready to be a freshman in college again as long as Harley Quinn is her classmate. But maybe not the other super-villains.
Harleen Quinzel is back and ready to kick butt—in college! After the deadly events of Harley Quinn: Reckoning, Harleen decides to buckle down and focus on her studies. It won’t be easy, though. Not only is she joining a sorority and starting a new internship at Arkham Asylum, but there’s also love in the air for the future Dr. Quinzel. Yet no matter how busy she is, Harleen can’t shake the knowledge that whoever unleashed pure fear on her friends last year is still out there…
Harley Quinn: Ravenous is the second installment in a trilogy of Harley Quinn young adult novels by Rachael Allen. Ravenous gets readers closer to Harley than ever, which is all you really need to hear to know that it’s worth your time. And I didn’t even tell you about Talia al Ghūl yet!
All right, all right, we know you want to know more, so read on for a breakdown of this just-released new book.
Cover Crackdown:
Like Harleen herself, this electrifying cover by Kevin Wada is a rebellion of color and a punch of personality. Bright red, yellow, and blue jump off the page, punctuated by Harley’s defiant expression and dynamic kick. Splashes of black paired with red diamonds bring Harley Quinn’s original costume to mind to tie it all back to the iconic character. Basically, this is everything you could want in a Harley Quinn book cover.
Image from Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (Art by Steve Pugh)
Tell Me a Story:
Nineteen-year-old Harleen Quinzel wakes up in a hospital bed. All she remembers is that she’s a Gotham University student who’s juggling school, a sought-after internship and a social life while working hard to reach her goal of going to medical school. When the doctors tell her there’s been a breakout at Arkham Asylum and she might have been involved, Harleen tries to put the pieces of her life together. Can she remember what happened before the fateful night that changed everything?
Image from Harley Quinn #1 (Art by Yoshitaka Amano)
Dialog Discussion:
During her internship at Arkham Asylum, Harleen is assigned to the doctor overseeing one of the most brilliant inmates in residence: Talia al Ghūl. Recently captured after a scheme gone wrong, Talia is oddly calm for someone in her position. Harleen can’t help but feel fascinated by her. When the two get an unauthorized moment alone together, their conversation might only last a couple of minutes, but it’s a revelation for both Harley and the reader.
Talia sees a kindred spirit in Harleen, even if Harleen doesn’t know it yet herself. She recognizes the darkness within the future Maid of Mischief and encourages her to embrace it. In their short talk they strike a deal, information for information, and it leaves our heroine’s head spinning.
Honestly, every interaction between these two is compelling. More of these two characters together in the DC Universe, please!
Image from Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
Most Embarrassing Moment:
There’s a particular moment in Harley Quinn: Ravenous that’s so deliciously awkward that I don’t want to spoil it completely for you. Suffice it to say that when Harleen Quinzel meets a certain Arkham Asylum inmate for the first time, things don’t go quite how you’d expect. When she hears the words, “You’re not like the other girls,” her cringe alert starts to go off. The conversation just gets more humiliating from there—and not for Harleen.
Chef’s. Kiss.
Image from HBO Max’s Harley Quinn
Most Crushworthy Character:
Harleen strikes up a conversation with a shy redheaded girl, and you probably already know where I’m going with this. That’s right, she meets one Pamela Isley: brilliant, beautiful, elegant and passionate. Pamela is a genius-level science student, like Harley, who had her own terrible incident with a misguided professor that left her transformed forever. The two find common ground and in time they become best friends. Could it grow into something more?
Image from Harley Quinn #17 (Art by Amanda Conner and Alex Sinclair)
The Final Word:
One of the most impactful themes of Harley Quinn: Ravenous is the importance of agency, something Harley lacked in her early days as a character when she was simply the Joker’s love interest and hype woman. Rachael Allen takes the origin we’re familiar with and puts not just the beginning of Harley’s story in her own hands, but also her future as well. Harley Quinn continues to evolve as a quintessential DC character, and I can’t wait to see where the finale of this journey takes her next.
Harley Quinn: Ravenous by Rachael Allen is now available in bookstores and libraries in print and as an e-book and audiobook.
Kelly Knox swoons over Superman and obsesses over every story told about the first meeting of the World’s Finest. When she’s not reading comics, she’s waiting impatiently for My Adventures With Superman. Find her on Twitter at @kelly_knox.
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NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Kelly Knox and do not necessarily reflect those of DC Entertainment or Warner Bros., nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.
