Cover Image: Squirrel Girl: Universe

Squirrel Girl: Universe

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

This was a wild ride from start to finish. Full of wit and charm, Squirrel Girl leaps from the pages and into my heart.

Was this review helpful?

The story was interesting and the supporting characters were well-written and actualised. I'm super keen to read more about this team of friends in the future.
This book is perfect for adults and young people and would make for a great family read-aloud.

Was this review helpful?

As a superfan of the fun graphic novel series, I thought I would be blown away by a novelization of my favorite Marvel heroine and her friends. Unfortunately, I did not find the fun in Palmgren's title. I love the series for its fast paced, sweet, and interesting storylines. I found this novelization less interesting. I will recommend to other Squirrel Girl and Marvel fans, because there is always the chance it was a me situation.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me free access to the digital advanced copy of this book.

Was this review helpful?

I should start this by saying SquirrelGirl is one of my absolute favourite superheroes so I was delighted to read another story featuring her. Overall I really enjoyed this book, it wasn’t a love “I must reread this book” kinda relationship but I had a good time reading none the less. I felt the author really captured SquirrelGirls energy and humour & there were plenty of moments to make you smile throughout. A nice solid mystery adventure, well worth spending time with if your a fan of Marvel superheroes or looking for a more relatable heroine

Was this review helpful?

Another gem from the Marvel Heroines series! Taking more obscure superheroines and bringing them to life - and I love it.

I really didn't know much about Squirrel Girl before I dove into this, but I assumed a lot from her look and name. And I wasn't wrong! But as with all of the ladies in this series, there's a lot more than just a cute rodent-based hero.

That sounds so odd when I say it like that :D

The Unbeatable Squirrel girl and her random assortment of low-tier companions find themselves hitch-hiking on a passing space whale, before being caught up in an intergalatic fracas as they try to get home to Earth... yeah, ok, this is well into the realms of the weird, but in a hugely fun, Douglas Adams-style way.

Squirrel Girl is immensely likeable, the story is told so well, and I honestly have never encountered such a well-told story that pokes gentle fun at superhero tropes.

There are parallels to the recent Guardians of the Galaxy movies, but largely in the sense that this is a motley crew in space. Squirrels are fun but also practical, and we sympathise with our heroine's frustrations and hopes as she just wants to get home and have a quiet day for once!

The only minor issue was that I needed to do a little Google-surfing to get details on some of the characters - perhaps the publisher could add a little Who's Who in the front of the book to get non-comic-readers up to speed?

I hugely enjoyed this and am glad to recommend.

Was this review helpful?

I have been provided with an advance copy of the new Marvel Heroines book Squirrel Girl: Universe by Tristan Palmgren and published by Aconyte Books, so here is the honest review I promised in exchange for the book.

So here is an important disclaimer which is always important to put out there first. I have a casual work contact with Asmodee to demonstrate board games for them in stores and at conventions. Asmodee being the parent company of Aconyte the publisher.

I am going to try my best to not let these things cloud my judgement in this review, but I accept that subconsciously it might.

Also, I won’t lie, I have looked at other reviews to see what others think, so there may be some influences from them in this book review. If I am going to quote them, I will attribute them. But if I forget to, or something is highly influenced by them, and you think I ought to attribute someone, let me know so that I can.

What is Marvel
Look at this point I would bore you with a bit of background to the game/universe, but lets not, you all know the Marvel Universe, if you don’t have you been living under a rock!

The Marvel Heroines series focuses on the female hero’s of the Marvel universe, the other books in the series so far have all be very very good!

The Story
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl aka Doreen Green, the heroine with the powers of a squirrel AND a girl, is one of Marvels most beloved modern characters, she is quirky, bubbly and fun, something which Tristan captures so well.

And above all else, she is a selfless hero who puts others before herself, and that’s where this story begins, as the Mad Thinker tries to relocate her adopted home of New York to the other side of the universe!

Taking action to prevent the entire city being moved, she takes action, but this ends up moving herself along with her trusty side squirrel Tippy Toe, fellow heroes Chipmunk Hunk, Koi Boy and Brain Drain, along with friends Nancy and Mary to a strange new world along with the Mad Thinker!

Hitching a ride on a passing Space Whale, turns out Koi Boy can communicate with stellar aquatic lifeforms too, and head to an alien space station, where they find themselves taken hostage on the frontline of a looming interstellar war that could claim the lives of trillions!

So just a perfectly normal week for THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL!!!!

Conclusion
This book took me ages to read, but that’s largely down to my brain injury giving me issues, but over the past couple of days I utterly devoured it, its an amazing book and captures the spirit of Squirrel Girl just right, as she sets out to prevent the war that to most seems inevitable.

That Squirrel Girl will stop this war against all odds, is never in question, its what she does, but how she gets there is fun!

The book is boisterous, fun and chaotic as well as super wholesome, and part of me wonders if this would be better targeted at young adults, but its juts as awesome for humans and squirrels of all ages!

There is literally nothing wrong with this book, its perfect, it has captured the spirit of the character perfectly and is a great example of what prose can do that comics can’t, especially in its beautiful descriptions of black holes and other stellar phenomena!

Also the Warhammer 40,000 and other sci-fi references are just *chefs kiss*!

I already bought the eBook to read again and Megan has gotten the paperback!

5 out of 5

Was this review helpful?

About as you’d expect from Squirrel Girl, crazy and fun! I’m a huge Marvel fan and they haven’t put many feet wrong in my eyes (except Endgame…undoing character journeys and taking Cap from me! Unforgivable!), and this is just more of the usual!

Was this review helpful?

Squirrel Girl: Universe by Tristan Palmgren

I adore Squirrel Girl. Ryan North’s run on the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is the epitome of what comics should be, and I am still so sad that it ended. I have read it through multiple times and read it with my oldest daughter. We also loved Shannon and Dean Hale’s Squirrel Girl novels. So I was very excited to get an eARC from NetGalley and the publisher of this new Squirrel Girl novel in exchange for an honest review.

I was so very disappointed by this book. It’s not bad, it’s just so, so boring. The author only briefly captures the joy and delight of the title character. Most of the story is a paint by numbers slog of a cosmic comic story where most of the characters are cyphers. With the possible exception of Brain Drain, none of Squirrel Girl’s supporting cast sounds like themselves at all, and they add nothing to the narrative. Maybe my expectations were too high? Perhaps, but that doesn’t make this book any less dull.

Was this review helpful?

I’m a massive marvel fan, I can’t lie but this book didn’t hit quite right to me I’m afraid!

I found my attention wandering and I couldn’t really focus on it, it just seemed to drag a wee bit. I also wasn’t really feeling the narrative style, and feel like it would have been more suited to an actual graphic novel like I could picture it playing out as a graphic novel but as a book I found it a little bit grating!

That could just be my brain though! Still it was an entertaining introduction to Squirrel Girl for me!

Was this review helpful?

This was a fun, delightful, and thrilling read! I enjoyed it immensely, and this was SUPER chaotic, but who doesn’t like a bit of chaos now and then?

And it’s Marvel, so OF COURSE it’s going to be messy. But fun messy. Just as we love it.

Was this review helpful?

Squirrel Girl is a super fun narrator! But what makes her fun (breaking the fourth wall, quippy quipps) also makes it a little hard as a prose book. In addition, the narration I think would have lent itself more to the visual side, as there were some time travel elements too. Overall, it's fun, it's engaging, I liked it!

Was this review helpful?

Squirrel Girl: Universe is a difficult story to digest, even considering that it is a science fiction book. It's full of detours, digressions, pseudo-scientific facts, in short, it's like unleashing a pack of cats in a room full of balls of wool... In the end what you have is a tremendous mess.
The story could be better developed, but the truth is that with so many twists and turns I got lost along the way, and in the end I'm not sure if they managed to save the Earth or in the end everything went to hell.
I thank the author, publishers, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book, and declare that the opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think of this book.

Was this review helpful?

Squirrel Girl is one of the most bizarre but also awesome superheroes. She’s so confident and a great role model I think. This adventure shows more of how awesome she is and fun for those who need more of her in their lives.

Was this review helpful?

I didn't know what I was getting myself into by reading this but wow I was pleasantly surprised. Squirrel Girl, originally a comic is now in a novel form. I believe this is done so beautifully that you wouldn't even notice. This is perfect for any Marvel Fan or any comic book fans! This was such an interesting read and I would recommend it so much!

Was this review helpful?

Squirrel Girl "Eats nuts and kicks butts" as she likes to say. She has all the agility of a squirrel, an irrepressible positive attitude, a tail, and the ability to talk to squirrels. She's in college studying Computer Science with her other goofy superhero friends. She mainly wins by thinking things through and winning opponents over. This is based on the comic by Ryan North and takes place after its end. I do think this is better written than the comic though.

After an opening threat to New York City, Squirrel Girl gets transported to the other side of the galaxy with her friends and the Mad Thinker and must find their way home. This book was a lot of fun. I love how it incorporates real science like relativity and the fact that hydraulics don't work in zero gravity. There is a reality bending character that at times may make your brain hurt if you think about it too hard. Squirrel Girl just doesn't know how to quit, even when things seem hopeless. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this one.

Was this review helpful?

Oh, my gosh, this was perfect. Palmgren does a great job capturing the characters and energy from Ryan North's run on the Squirrel Girl comic. Can't wait to share this with my kiddos!

Was this review helpful?

I love Squirrell Girl, full stop, so I’m up for anything that has anything to do with her. The author stays true to the tone of the comics - hooray! - which is SO fun. Lots of jokes, killer footnotes (hulk is my favorite part) and interesting fun facts. The plot itself involves a really complex adventure through space and maybe time? That kind of confused me but involved all of Squirrell Girl’s buddies - Nancy, Chipmunk Hunk,Koi Boi, Tippy Toe and even Brain Drain! I felt like I didn’t need to understand it to enjoy it. Thanks heaps to NetGalley for the advanced digital review copy, this was a treat! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Was this review helpful?

This is a fun and thrilling story. I just had to read this book in one day. I loved the pace of this book switching from medium to fast pace. I really enjoyed the humour that the book had it really made it more exciting to read. I loved that this book was aimed more for the YA market means that all ages can enjoy this story. I have never heard of squirrel girl before and felt like I got to know her well enough but still felt like I was missing something so I didn't fully connect with the character. It maybe more likely that she had a few annoying traits. I found her slightly annoying at times and somewhat flighty, ditty and inconsiderate. Maybe this was on purpose due to the younger audience. I did however enjoy the story line as it was quirky, exciting with some great adventures with some twists and unexpected events. The pace and excitement of this book definitely kept the pages turning. I thought it was well wrote with plenty of atmosphere. I really enjoyed the setting and description of this in the authors writing. I also thought it was great that there was a variety of different personalities and how well it all went together. I definitely recommend this book if you are a fan of marvel novels or sci-fi books based on quirky characters. 

Many thanks to the author and publishers for bringing this interesting marvel comic book character to life.
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, waterstones, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK where found and my blog today https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/squirrel-girl-universe-by-tristan-palmgren-aconyte-4-stars either under my name or ladyreading365 . All retail review links are on my blog

Was this review helpful?

I went into this knowing very little about Squirrel Girl other than reading about her in one Ms. Marvel comic so this was a great backstory on such a fun character!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

Was this review helpful?