Mediocre retelling
This review was previously posted on amazon on May 2, 2012:
I am a huge fan of fairy tale retellings, and have read a lot of them. This one falls into the middle of the pack. I enjoyed it, but didn't find it especially compelling. It is set in a modern world as opposed to a historical world, and it is sort of a pastiche, with elements from many fairy tales, although it obviously primarily focuses on the Sleeping Beauty tale. This will become apparent in approximately the first 10 pages, so it's not a spoiler by any stretch of the imagination.
I was very much underwhelmed for the first half of the book - so much so that I considered not finishing it. I am glad that I didn't, though, because I thought that the story picked up at around 40%.
The positives: I liked the world, and I liked the whole concept of the Marchen marks, and the curses community. I really enjoyed the way that the author organized the fairy tales/curses into different classes. I thought it was clever and unique.
However, there were some weaknesses. First, I am completely over the whole YA love triangle trope, which was a huge aspect of this book. Please, just once, could we have a YA romance that doesn't involve a love triangle? Please. (*** mild spoiler ***) Also I found the romance between Felix and Mira completely unconvincing. Completely. Unconvincing. I didn't like Felix, and so the attraction was a total mystery to me.
As far as the characters go, I liked several of the supporting characters quite a lot. I liked Viv - prickly and self-centered though she was, and Blue, and Jewel. I thought the ending was a bit convenient. I don't want to spoiler it, but it didn't ring true that a monumental problem could be solved quite so easily. I'm not unhappy about the ending, but felt that the author could've ended the book in a more convincing fashion.
***Addendum to Review***
This book has not fared well in my memory. I remember very little about it, and have pretty much ruled out reading the sequels unless someone reviews them in such a way that I am convinced that the weaknesses in this book are not present in the next.
8
