"Never start a book at seven o'clock in the evening."
That's supposed to be one of those book worm no brainers.
Well, I didn't take heed, and at 5:30 am, eyes burning, I collapsed into bed with the feeling like I'd just run a marathon, trying in vain to sleep and all the while praising the genius of Marissa Meyer.
You see, when you write a fairy tale retelling, you have to be a really good writer. Cause, even if it's not 100% accurate to the original folk tale, there are elements, or classical parts that make it to every retelling. Otherwise, why would you even bother making it a retelling at all, if not to keep some of the elements, the themes, the magic. Point being, writing fairy tale retellings, you run the unavoidable risk of being *lowers voice to hushed whisper* predictable.
Yes, I predicted a few things, but I'm writer. That's normal for me. Yet I couldn't. Put. It. Down. I tried so hard. I was like, seriously Hannah, it's going on three, you need to sleep, but my brain would not put it away. I even shut off my iPad at four and said, I'm going to bed, and after about three minutes of tossing and turning under my blankets, I was bolting upright and lunging for my iPad, ripping it off the charger and bringing up the kindle app.
Marissa has a very bold premise here. "Cinderella cyborg?" I shut this down for a long time, telling myself, 'no, I don't even like science fiction.' But I read it and fell in love.
I love the characters. I love the setting. I love ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE ANTAGONIST OH MY GOOSE SHE IS SO SUPREMELY EVIL I WANT TO UNLEASH MY INNER DEAMON AND CLAW HER EYES OUT. *coughs* anyway, yeah, I loved this book. Very clean, very good, just over all awesome.
Highly recommended to teens.