Enchantment
By: Orson Scott Card
I’ve been collecting fairy tale retellings recently and yeah for me for actually reading one! I was drawn to Enchantment (despite not being the biggest fan of Card) for one reason: the time element.
For Sleeping Beauty is out of time and Ivan (circa early 90’s) first goes back in time with her to her world and then she travels forward to ours. Getting a bit ahead of myself though.
Continue reading “A Fairy Tale Out of Time… in more Ways than One”
Grump The (Fairly True Tale of Snow White & the Seven Dwarves)
By: Liesl Shurtliff
Grade: A
I could not resist the Snow White tale as told from the POV of my favorite dwarf. Grumpy. Real name: Borlan. A dwarf who doesn’t actually like being unground all that much and has a deep fascination with the surface.
One day he gets his chance to break free and runs right into a certain Queen. The rest is finally, the true story.
Fierce Fairytales
By: Nikita Gill
Grade: A
I read Wild Embers by Nikita Gill earlier this year and immediately ordered Fierce Fairytales. The book is made up of poems, stories and illustrations “to stir your soul,” as the cover says! I seriously connected with the work so I guess you could say my soul was indeed stirred.
Spinning Silver
By: Naomi Novik
Grade: C
Spinning Silver was one of my most anticipated books of the year and unfortunately, it was a bit of a let-down. I loved Uprooted (the authors last novel) but I think this one could have used another pass at editing.
The Language of Thorns
Grade: A+
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Illustrated By: Sara Kipin
I was originally torn on whether to even pick this book up or not. It’s a book of six fairy tales set in the Grishaverse, three of which have been published previously. But in the end I’m thrilled that I did and it’s so beautifully illustrated if you’re at all interested in it I’d definitely suggest picking up the hardback version.
Geekerella
by: Ashley Poston
Grade: B
Geekerella is a Cinderella retelling featuring fandom, conventions, copious texting and the magic pumpkin actually being a Vegan food truck. The hardcover version of this book is just lovely and it’s been getting a lot of buzz from some of my favorite Youtubers so I thought I’d totally fall for the hype and give this one a chance.
Heartless
Author: Marissa Meyer
Grade: A
The origin story for the Queen of Hearts as told by Marissa Meyer! I really enjoyed Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series and I always love Wonderland so this was one of my most anticipated books in 2016.
Vassa in the Night
Author: Sarah Porter
Grade: A
The night’s are never ending. Her stepsister is driving her crazy. The magic talking doll she keeps secret has sticky fingers that are getting her into trouble. So when the idea of taking a midnight stroll to the local convenience store, where shoplifters happen to get beheaded, comes up Vassa actually jumps at the chance. It’s there that things get even weirder.
Winter: The Lunar Chronicles
Author: Marissa Meyer
Genre: YA/Fairy-Tale Retelling
Grade: A-
First off I did a little happy dance because I actually finished a series! (Don’t tell me if there’s going to be another one.)
The Lunar Chronicles has followed the story of Cinder the lost Princess of Luna as she makes friends, whom happen to bear startling similarities to fairy-tale characters we would know, and fights to take back her crown from the evil mind-controlling Queen Levana.
Each book has expanded on the universe and Winter brings it home to Luna (the moon) and adds the beautiful, kindly and kind of crazy Princess Winter to the mix and all the Snow White elements that go with the story. There’s even an apple.
This ones a long one and it jumps back and forth between the main points-of-view. These books at this point can pretty much be broken down into couples (Cinder and Kai, Scarlet and Wolf, Thorne and Cress and lastly Winter and her palace guard Jacin.) As much as I liked the book and the story it really did all come down to the love stories and it got kind of tiring. I was like I know, I know you love each other! You’re his Alpha! He’d do anything for you! I get it move on!
Actually, my favorite relationship in all the books might be the android Iko and Cinder. You know you have a friend for life when they take you apart and fix your wiring.
The dialogue and the characters are consistent but a couple of things stood out and kind of bugged me. One when Cinder is looking out over hundreds of people who are willing to fight and die for her and she’s like willing to take control of any of their minds, willing to sacrifice any of them but then she gets to one of her friends and the “main characters” and that changes. It’s an honest thought yes but it was also kind of cold and just bugged me.
Also there’s an act of (admittedly mind-controlled) violence within one of the relationships at the end that’s almost completely swept aside. It was pretty brutal and while I admit it was mind-controlled I would still imagine that realistically a person would have problems being around the person who actually did it. Very much not the case here.
It’s probably nitpicking in a book that I really did enjoy. Plus it’s called Winter and since it’s still hovering around eighty degrees where I live I’ll take what I can get.
Recommend: Yes. Despite my issues with the book I thought the ending more than held up and closed the series out very nicely. Plus, I finished a series! I finished a series!
FYI- It’s not very imaginative at all but I couldn’t help picture Regina from Once Upon a Time as Queen Levana. For what it’s worth I think she’d kill it.
Favorite Book of the Series- Going to have to go with the first: Cinder.
