Summary:
When she was only seven years old, Harleen Quinzel witnessed her father being beaten up by thugs, and then arrested by the police. That night she ran away to the safest place she could think of: Coney Island amusement park. But there, pursued into the Funhouse by the men who brutalised her father, she beheld unimaginable horrors.
Years later, Harleen has put her past behind her and used her intelligence and ambition to escape her childhood of poverty with a career in psychiatry. Assigned to her first position at Arkham Hospital, she will discover, deep in the asylum, something dangerous and alluring, something quite unlike anything else she has ever known before: the Joker. Because why would you settle for love, when you could have Mad Love?
My Thoughts:
It was really interesting to me what her childhood was like, as she has always interested me in a deeper level than just a woman in love with a psychopath. On the night she runs to the amusement park, she is about to be sold to a pedophile when she runs away again and is rescued by her mother. Her parents get arrested by the police, and that is when Harleen's distrust of law enforcement starts. Why did they not try to catch who did this to her and her father? It seems to me as well that this is part of the reason why she believes that the Joker can be saved. Of course, she didn't save him, she just freed him and let him walk all over her for a while before she tries to start anew. Which, of course, doesn't work for long.
I do wish this book was longer.
I can honestly understand her hatred and distrust toward Batman now. Although she doesn't really seem to trust anyone.
My Rating: 4 stars
