Book Review: "Gamora and Nebula: Sisters-In-Arms" will break your heart

The Marvel Cinematic Universe excels at telling stories of brotherhood, be it familial or in the more spiritual sense. But in Mackenzi Lee’s Gamora and Nebula: Sisters in Arms, as the title suggests, it is sisters that take centre stage. 

Set years before we ever meet them, Gamora and Nebula follows the titular sisters on their separate, yet equally mysterious trips to the mining world of Torndune. Gamora has been sent there on a mission by an unknown entity, while Nebula arrives in pursuit of her sister. Both however, share the same goal: retrieve the heart of the planet. 

The action scenes and the state of the planet Tordune work just fine, and set the mood very well, but it is the fraught relationship between the two Daughters of Thanos that is the driving force and the beating heart of the narrative. I was rooting for the two of them to join forces, and cheered when it happened, only to realize with a sinking heart that I was only at the halfway point of the book and there was no way this could last.

The tragic - and toxic - thing about being a child of Thanos is that neither girl ever really knows where she stands. They definitely know where they stand with their father - Gamora is the favourite, Nebula is the one he detests. What neither of them know for certain is where they stand with each other. And the fault with that lies entirely with Thanos. He constantly plays the two of them against one another, preying on their insecurities to ensure that they play his game exactly as he wants them to. Both have become equally proficient weapons for him, but only one is allowed to flourish, while the other is left to languish in the dark, unwanted and forgotten.

Though the book isn’t technically about him, we do get some development of the Mad Titan himself, as seen through the eyes of his daughters. Interestingly, author Mackenzi Lee works in an aspect from the comic books that was entirely absent from the MCU movies, and that is Thanos’ relationship with Death - or Lady Death, as she’s called here. 

Lady Death is a shadowy, omnipresent being that never speaks yet seems to have an undue influence over Thanos and his actions. Her addition to the novel and to the MCU in general is a chilling one, and is a wonderful way to lure in both comic readers, and fans of the films, to tell a story that will satisfy both.

This story broke my heart in the best kind of way. Not only the tragedy of the relationship between Gamora and Nebula, but the struggles each faces at the hands of a father who enjoys messing with their heads and hearts for nothing short of his own amusement (and that of his deathly paramour). Their incessant competition with one another brought to mind Nebula’s line from the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie: “You were the one who wanted to win, and I just wanted a sister.”. That, if nothing else, is the thesis statement for the book as a whole.

There are parts of this story that shocked me with how dark and upsetting they were. Not that I believe it’s inappropriate for a Young Adult audience, it’s very in line with the kind of thing you would see in the MCU. But with it being a book, we have that added benefit of reading what a character is feeling at any given moment that really drives the emotion home.  

As someone who is very familiar with the MCU, I knew going in that no matter what happened, Gamora and Nebula would not walk away from this story as friends or even allies. What I was not expecting was to fall hook, line, and sinker for their shared hope that maybe this time they could be sisters for real, only to be absolutely crushed when things returned to the expected status quo. That’s how you know it’s a well-told story: when you know how it’s going to end, but it doesn’t stop you from enjoying the ride. 

Gamora and Nebula: Sisters-In-Arms is out June 1, 2021

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney/Marvel for an advance copy of this book for review purposes.