Barbara Gordon is a teen hacker who is harmed when she gets in the way of a police chase. Her father, Commissioner Gordon, sends her to the Arkham Center for Independence for rehabilitation. Babs has trouble getting used to the center, but starts to make a few friends as she also suspects something weird is going on when a new friend disappears and she starts hearing strange noises at night. With her love for puzzles, she vows to find out what happened to her friend. The art is colorful and expressive, with lots of bright and dark colors, plus a motif of puzzle pieces when changing scenes. Babs is a dynamic character, and I hope there will be more books following this storyline.

**Publication date: March 3, 2020
**Read via NetGalley

This was not the Oracle/Barbara Gordon I’m used to. In this universe, Babs is in a wheelchair as a young teen after she is shot in a robbery, rather than as an adult post-Batgirl, post-Killing Joke. At first that ret-conning bugged me a bit, but after finishing the book it grew on me. Sure, this young Babs isn’t quite Batgirl or Oracle, but a lot of the major pieces are still there, and her actions are completely in character.
Most importantly, this book rings true to the underlying spirit of Oracle—a super hero in a wheelchair who isn’t solely defined by her injury. Initially Babs struggles to accept her new reality, but over the course of a mystery at her rehabilitation center, she is able to reorient herself. I especially appreciated that this graphic novel was written by a disabled author, and the tone of the book manages to be uplifting without drifting into the saccharine. I would heartily recommend this book to any teen, especially teen girls that are figuring out who they are after a major change.

Barbara Gordon is the daughter of Commissioner Gordon. After suffering in a terrible accident, Barbara goes to Arkham hospital for rehabilitation purposes. Barbara finds herself in the middle of a mystery - children are disappearing from the hospital. Barbara uses her hacking skills and her new friends to find out what is really going on.

The mystery in this graphic novel was very compelling, and Barbara was a well-developed character that helped propel the plot.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

The Oracle Code is a compulsively readable coming of age story focused on Barbara Gordon. This satisfying mystery focuses on Barbara's life in Arkham Center as she rehabilitates from a gunshot wound and learns how to embrace her new life in a wheelchair.

The most powerful part of the storytelling, for me, is the symbiosis between the story and the art. The motif of puzzle pieces recur throughout the narrative, linking various parts of the story and visually showing the reader how "Babs" is connecting the dots of the mystery. The art style is clear, and uses color and style to convey mood and character's emotion.

Two panels that are especially powerful convey Babs' panic and her friends' support (in the ARC, it's marked as page 150). This half-page is a beautiful representation of how panic feels as well as how friends can support loved ones needing emotional support.

I received this ARC via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Not the Oracle story that I grew up reading, but still an interesting new take on her background. This book was well written and kept me interested the whole way through. The art was great too!

Recommended to all teen and above DC fans.

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I'm a fan of Barbara Gordon in many iterations over many years... but found this story boring. It reminded me, at best, of a Scooby Doo episode.

This is a comic that takes place in the Batman universe, but it's very different from what Batman fans are used to.
The main character is Barbara Gordon, daughter of commissioner Gordon, future librarian, and future Batgirl. In this world, Babs is a teenage hacker until one night, out late with her best friend, she gets in the way of a very bad guy and is shot. The shooting leaves her paralyzed from the waist down. Commissioner Gordon, wanting to help his daughter as much as he can, sends her to the Arkham Center for Independence, a hospital that specializes in rehab for people with disabilities relating to their movement.
There she meets Jenna, a girl who survived a fire which killed both her parents. Jenna sleepwalks, and likes to tell ghost stories, but when Jenna disappears, Barbra realizes there may be a lot of truth to the stories her friend was telling her... and why are the doctors in this place so damn creepy?? Only Babs' hacking skills can figure out the puzzle.

A fun and intriguing mystery that follows a teenage Barbara Gordon through physical and mental rehabilitation at the Arkham Center for Independence. Not only does she have to pick up the pieces of her life, but she also needs to solve the puzzle behind the disappearance of some of the patients there. The plot kept me engaged and I enjoyed Barbara's character growth. I highly recommend this read!

I'm a DC girl through and through so I've been having a lot of fun reading all the new YA and Middle-Grade titles that DC has been putting out. I really loved this adaption with Babs aged down a little and adjusting to her new life in a wheelchair. The mystery element was fun and we got a whole lot of realism in there too. We don't get to see enough characters in fiction who live their lives in wheelchairs and Oracle is a fantastic one to spotlight. I really just loved this. It had all the Oracle vibes that I've loved before for a new and younger audience.

I was not very familiar with Barbara’s character, having known Batman from childhood. This was easy enough to follow, though, and the mystery was intriguing. Also good representation for physically disabled teens and also girls in STEM.