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howlinglibraries's Reviews (1.85k)
It's time for another unpopular opinion review! This book was literally the single biggest reading disappointment of the year for me. I really wanted to love this story. It was being marketed as a twisted fairytale, and those are my aesthetic for sure - the spookier and darker, the better - but this fell short in so many ways. Please remember that these are just my opinions! You are more than welcome to disagree or tell me your thoughts, but please do so respectfully. ❤
→ genre marketing & writing ←
Marketing led me to believe that this was going to be the typical high fantasy world we see in fairytales. My first disappointment was in learning that the setting was modern-day New York, and the first half of the book straddled the line between contemporary and urban fantasy, at best.
The story doesn't pick up as an actual fantasy tale until after the halfway mark, and when it does, the writing immediately becomes much less enjoyable. Anyone who knows my reading tastes knows I love flowery prose, but many of the descriptions in the fantasy "half" of this book go far past flowery, straight through whimsical, and land smack-dab in nonsense.
→ Alice ←
Let me put it this way: The Hazel Wood is my 200th read of 2017, and there have only been two narrators out of the entire other 199 titles that held a candle to how terrible Alice is. She starts the book off poorly, rambling about her anger issues without giving us any reason as to why she's talking about them. As it progresses, she expresses actual, unwarranted physical violence towards other characters (including attempting to kill them via vehicular manslaughter because she feels guilty for her own poor choices).
She shouts and snaps constantly, has no respect for anyone (besides her mother), and judges everyone she meets hyper-critically. Her judgmental nature even borders on ableism when she meets a character who has been driven to a broken mental state by entering the Hazel Wood: Alice has several internal monologues about how little she trusts the woman's hygiene and the state of the woman's home's cleanliness, solely because she doesn't deem the woman "sane enough".
Even when she enlists the help of Finch, she is incessantly rude, critical, and offensive towards him. When she is finally called out on her offensive nature, she deflects, makes excuses, and has a general disregard for any harm she has caused. In one scenario, when he remarks on her misogynistic speech, her actual comeback is, "Oh, my god, Finch, go get a liberal arts degree" (I read this three times in hopes of making sense of it before deciding that she learned her snark from old men in facebook comment threads).
Beyond all of the ways in which Alice's character is incredibly harmful and is rarely - if ever - challenged for most of her behaviors, she's also just not well-written. She's hypocritical, self-contradicting, and outright boring.
→ Finch ←
Finch is introduced in a way that gave me actual optimism for the story: he's a classmate of hers who is kind and welcoming, seeks her friendship, and offers to face certain danger to help her find the Hazel Wood and her mother. Unfortunately, my optimism started to falter when I learned that Finch, the single black character in the story (in New York City, no less), is commented on multiple times as being unattractive and "a waste of wealth" - never challenged.
That was the first red flag - in a book with no commentary on anyone else's features, the single person of color is the only unattractive one? - but it worsens when Finch, despite being a very present figure throughout the story, is never fleshed out. He feels incredibly one-dimensional from start to finish, though some of this may just be to blame on Alice's refusal to let him speak for more than thirty seconds without telling him to shut up.
It felt like there was some small attempt to have a dialogue on racism and privilege when Finch talks to Alice about being afraid of racial profiling, but it's thrown away when Alice immediately insinuates that his father's wealth negates any racism he faces, and then further derails the conversation every time he tries to speak to her about it. By the end of the book, I resigned myself to the feeling that Finch was, in every shape and form, a Token Black Character™. His entire character arc felt so bad to read.
→ fairytales ←
Literally the only redeeming aspect of this book, for me, was the occasional time when we would get to hear one of Althea's tales. Sadly, they're incredibly few and far between - I think we only got two full tales in the entire book. I enjoyed those stories, and would probably read a bind-up of them, but within the context of the entire book, they weren't enough to salvage it.
→ FINAL THOUGHTS ←
This book was just a total disaster from start to finish for me, and the only reason I didn't DNF it at the 40% mark was because I was so desperately hoping it would improve by the end. I would more than likely not pick up any future books by Melissa Albert, and cannot, in good faith, recommend this story to anyone.
Thank you to Flatiron for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
You can find this review and more here on my blog!
"I wanted that distance. I wanted that uncaring, 'here's your blood and guts and your fucked-up happy ending' fairy-tale voice."
→ genre marketing & writing ←
Marketing led me to believe that this was going to be the typical high fantasy world we see in fairytales. My first disappointment was in learning that the setting was modern-day New York, and the first half of the book straddled the line between contemporary and urban fantasy, at best.
The story doesn't pick up as an actual fantasy tale until after the halfway mark, and when it does, the writing immediately becomes much less enjoyable. Anyone who knows my reading tastes knows I love flowery prose, but many of the descriptions in the fantasy "half" of this book go far past flowery, straight through whimsical, and land smack-dab in nonsense.
I did get it, I did. And the shame of it boiled into something darker. Before my brain could catch up, I jerked the wheel and turned the car off the road, sending us rattling toward the trees.
→ Alice ←
Let me put it this way: The Hazel Wood is my 200th read of 2017, and there have only been two narrators out of the entire other 199 titles that held a candle to how terrible Alice is. She starts the book off poorly, rambling about her anger issues without giving us any reason as to why she's talking about them. As it progresses, she expresses actual, unwarranted physical violence towards other characters (including attempting to kill them via vehicular manslaughter because she feels guilty for her own poor choices).
She shouts and snaps constantly, has no respect for anyone (besides her mother), and judges everyone she meets hyper-critically. Her judgmental nature even borders on ableism when she meets a character who has been driven to a broken mental state by entering the Hazel Wood: Alice has several internal monologues about how little she trusts the woman's hygiene and the state of the woman's home's cleanliness, solely because she doesn't deem the woman "sane enough".
Even when she enlists the help of Finch, she is incessantly rude, critical, and offensive towards him. When she is finally called out on her offensive nature, she deflects, makes excuses, and has a general disregard for any harm she has caused. In one scenario, when he remarks on her misogynistic speech, her actual comeback is, "Oh, my god, Finch, go get a liberal arts degree" (I read this three times in hopes of making sense of it before deciding that she learned her snark from old men in facebook comment threads).
Beyond all of the ways in which Alice's character is incredibly harmful and is rarely - if ever - challenged for most of her behaviors, she's also just not well-written. She's hypocritical, self-contradicting, and outright boring.
Maybe Finch wasn't trying to be the sidekick in my story. Maybe he was trying to start one of his own.
→ Finch ←
Finch is introduced in a way that gave me actual optimism for the story: he's a classmate of hers who is kind and welcoming, seeks her friendship, and offers to face certain danger to help her find the Hazel Wood and her mother. Unfortunately, my optimism started to falter when I learned that Finch, the single black character in the story (in New York City, no less), is commented on multiple times as being unattractive and "a waste of wealth" - never challenged.
That was the first red flag - in a book with no commentary on anyone else's features, the single person of color is the only unattractive one? - but it worsens when Finch, despite being a very present figure throughout the story, is never fleshed out. He feels incredibly one-dimensional from start to finish, though some of this may just be to blame on Alice's refusal to let him speak for more than thirty seconds without telling him to shut up.
It felt like there was some small attempt to have a dialogue on racism and privilege when Finch talks to Alice about being afraid of racial profiling, but it's thrown away when Alice immediately insinuates that his father's wealth negates any racism he faces, and then further derails the conversation every time he tries to speak to her about it. By the end of the book, I resigned myself to the feeling that Finch was, in every shape and form, a Token Black Character™. His entire character arc felt so bad to read.
→ fairytales ←
Literally the only redeeming aspect of this book, for me, was the occasional time when we would get to hear one of Althea's tales. Sadly, they're incredibly few and far between - I think we only got two full tales in the entire book. I enjoyed those stories, and would probably read a bind-up of them, but within the context of the entire book, they weren't enough to salvage it.
→ FINAL THOUGHTS ←
This book was just a total disaster from start to finish for me, and the only reason I didn't DNF it at the 40% mark was because I was so desperately hoping it would improve by the end. I would more than likely not pick up any future books by Melissa Albert, and cannot, in good faith, recommend this story to anyone.
Thank you to Flatiron for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
You can find this review and more here on my blog!
I have heard all of the stories about girls like me, and I am unafraid to make more of them.
This anthology isn't so much a collection of stories as it is a collection of experiences. Carmen Maria Machado writes beautifully; her voice is so incredibly unique, and no matter the content of the tale, she transports you right into the scene - for better or for worse. I'll do my best to give you my thoughts on each story, but at the end of the day, this is the sort of collection that I highly recommend you simply pick up for yourself.
→ The Husband Stitch ★★★★★ ←
The anthology opens with a peculiar retelling of a classic horror legend: the woman with the ribbon around her throat, if you're familiar. The narrator carries us through her life: through meeting her significant other, wedding him, giving birth, the woes and beauties of motherhood, and more.
She explores the paradox of being a woman who is proud of embracing her sexuality, while still, at times, noting the shame that society places upon her for it. She portrays the struggle of motherhood, and trying to do one's best despite all of the many obstacles that may cross a mother's path. Most of all, she explores feminism, and the fact that a woman, no matter how much she loves her partner or her child(ren), remains her own property at the end of the day. When a woman allows another human being to claim "ownership" of her, she loses herself.
"Why do you want to hide it from me?"
"I'm not hiding it. It just isn't yours."
→ Inventory ★★★★☆ ←
While the first story is metaphorical, the second story is literally an "inventory", or a history, of the narrator's sexual partners and relationships. This entry to the collection is incredibly explicit, but woven into the stories, we learn of a world coming to a halt, and an apocalyptic reality setting into place thanks to an unstoppable disease. Machado builds up a lovely but inescapable sense of impending dread.
→ Mothers ★★★☆☆ ←
The third entry begins with our narrator being handed a baby created by herself and her former female lover, and frankly, beyond this point, the rest of the story is a combination of beautiful, poetic narrative, and absolute chaos in the form of one of the most genuinely unreliable narrators I've ever read. If you enjoy unreliable narration and being left to piece things together for yourself, this will be right up your alley, but it was just a little too blurry and grey of an ending for my taste. One thing I will give Machado the utmost credit for in this story, though, is the incredible way she writes an abusive relationship. There were so many lines that were brutally familiar, but so cathartic, because they felt so raw and genuinely.
There was no way for me to tell her that we are so close, we are so close, please don't do this now, we are so fucking close.
→ Especially Heinous ★★☆☆☆ ←
This was my least favorite entry in the collection, though that doesn't mean it was bad. This one details an alternate universe of Law & Order: SVU in which there are ghosts of dead prostitutes with bells for eyes, doppelgangers dead-set on ruining lives, affairs, lost memories, and a character falling somewhere between mentally unwell and possessed. It follows several "seasons", with each "episode"'s synopsis ranging from a sentence to a paragraph. It was actually an incredibly unique idea, and I loved the metaphors being presented, but it overstayed its welcome and I found myself drudging through the last several pages.
→ Real Women Have Bodies ★★★★☆ ←
Out of all of the stories, this was the toughest for me to rate, because I felt like it could be interpreted so many different ways, and I found myself second-guessing what it meant to me. Our narrator, a dress shop employee, lives in a world where women keep disappearing. They don't vanish into thin air; instead, they simply wake up one day to find their bodies fading, until they become translucent, and then are gone for good. At first, I believed it to be a commentary on society's expectations of women in general, but at one point, the story explains that women are fading younger and younger, and suddenly, I was reading a story about a world in which women lose their value as they lose their youth, and their worth is "lost" earlier with each passing generation. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
Soon, I'll be nothing more, too. None of us will make it to the end.
→ Eight Bites ★★★★★ ←
As someone who has struggled with disordered eating, I have vowed to always be honest in my reviews, but to be especially candid when it comes to ED rep, because it so easily goes awry. Let me preface this first, though, by saying that I have never seen a representation of an eating disorder that is as raw, and authentic, and flawless as what I read in this short story. I felt like I was gasping for air at times. The story follows a woman who, after years of struggling with her weight, decides to have gastric surgery to assist her weight loss. She comes from a line of women who are "too large", and even reminisces on her mother's disordered habits from her youth, though she doesn't seem to grasp how her self-loathing has alienated her own overweight daughter, too. What follows her surgery is brutal, and familiar, and heartbreaking, and so cathartic.
"You are unwanted," I say.
→ The Resident ★★★★☆ ←
This was another tough one to rate, because it felt so incredibly personal; I literally, at multiple times, thought, "Am I reading an autobiography?" It tells the story of a writer who goes to a writer's retreat in an area where she once had a childhood "incident" with her Girl Scouts group, but we are left guessing as to what the incident was for most of the tale. In a nutshell, it's a story of learning to accept who you are and how you feel about yourself, as well as the world around you.
"Do you ever listen to yourself? This is crazy, that is crazy, everything is crazy to you. By whose measure?"
→ Difficult At Parties ★★★★☆ ←
Machado rounds out the ending of the book with a story about a woman who has suffered sexual assault and is trying to find her place in the world again with her new traumas. She wades through the police search for her attacker, as well as desperate attempts to become intimate with her lover once more, and ends up seeking comfort in pornographic films. This is a bizarre, tough read, but it's important, and like every other story in this collection, it painted a scene that served as a reminder of just how brutal life can be for women in this world.
→ final thoughts & rating ★★★★☆ ←
If I average everything up, I only actually gave this collection 3.88/5 stars, but overall, it felt like a 4- or even 4.5-star read. It is unapologetically feminist, queer, candid, and authentic. It is brutal at times, cathartic at others, and most of all, it is important. Be aware that it comes with nearly every trigger warning I can think of, but do yourself a favor and pick up a copy.
I really enjoyed the first two Fables volumes, but god, this one bored me to tears. I skimmed massive chunks of it because I just couldn't get into the story of it at all. It was nice to finally see some of the predictability of Bigby and Snow's interactions come to fruition, but otherwise, I was not a huge fan of this volume. The art changed every so often, and one of the illustrators was not my cup of tea at all - I honestly could barely even recognize the horrific features given to Bigby for that section of the volume.
Meh. I have volume 4 checked out from the library anyways, so I'll give it a try and see if I want to continue the series.
Meh. I have volume 4 checked out from the library anyways, so I'll give it a try and see if I want to continue the series.
"Things growing just live in us," she said.
I should have reviewed this weeks ago when I finished it, but I didn't know how. This book nestled itself so deep into my heart, and left me speechless every time I tried to put my thoughts down in words. Anna-Marie McLemore is a brilliant, beautiful artist who has painted the most lovely images, and sculpted the most precious lives, in this story.
In this family, broken hearts were passed down like lockets. And Estrella had been enough a fool to think she could refuse the one meant for her simply by not opening her hands.
The Nomeolvides women are cursed to lives of growing beautiful things outside of them, while everything beautiful inside of them is turned to dust by heartbreak and loss. The imagery of their heartache is painted so brilliantly that I spent the majority of my time reading Wild Beauty trapped somewhere between rapture and sorrow.
You see, the women have been cursed by the land that shelters them: each time a Nomeolvides woman falls in love, she will lose her to lover - either he leaves, or disappears. In the beginning of our story, all five of the youngest generation learn that they have each fallen in love with the same girl, and so, they decide that none of them can have her. Things change when a strange young man is returned from the ground for the first time, and the cousins must determine if a doomed love is worth it.
He was the chance that the raw will of La Pradera was stronger than the curse they passed down like antique lace.
Though Estrella, too, begins the story in love with the same young woman her cousins have fallen for, it's quickly evidenced that something is blooming between her and Fel, the boy she pulled from the ground. These two are so precious and wonderful together, and I just wanted to protect them from harm so badly! Their exchanges range anywhere from silly banter to the most adorable moments of endearment and intimacy, and I loved every bit of it.
Estrella had fallen in love twice. They had been different not because one was a woman and one was a boy, but because one was Bay and one was Fel.
More than anything, this book is diverse: it is beautifully queer, with lovely brown women (and men) who I can say absolutely nothing negative about. I obviously cannot speak for the racial representation as it isn't my place, but I can speak for the bisexual rep, and tell you that it moved me to shameless tears. It was one of the purest and most authentic representations of my sexuality that I have ever come across, and so much of what was said rang so true. If anyone asked me for a brilliant representation of bisexuality in fiction, I would immediately point them to the passage I pulled this quote from. <3
What shamed a girl was, in a boy, so often worth showing off.
Not only is Wild Beauty beautifully diverse, but it is also feminist as hell. There are multiple instances in which the Nomeolvides women express their frustrations at the double standards facing them, and I found myself grinning and nodding along at more than one of the comments registered against the sexist ideals forced upon women.
"Then wreck me," he said.
Not to be silly or dramatic, but this book wrecked me. It put me into the first - and worst - book hangover I've had in a long time, and as I'm writing this review, all I want to do is dive right back in and read it all over again! Anna-Marie McLemore has instantly been placed on my "auto buy" list and I can't wait to read more of her work. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for granting me this wonderful ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I should have reviewed this weeks ago when I finished it, but I didn't know how. This book nestled itself so deep into my heart, and left me speechless every time I tried to put my thoughts down in words. Anna-Marie McLemore is a brilliant, beautiful artist who has painted the most lovely images, and sculpted the most precious lives, in this story.
In this family, broken hearts were passed down like lockets. And Estrella had been enough a fool to think she could refuse the one meant for her simply by not opening her hands.
The Nomeolvides women are cursed to lives of growing beautiful things outside of them, while everything beautiful inside of them is turned to dust by heartbreak and loss. The imagery of their heartache is painted so brilliantly that I spent the majority of my time reading Wild Beauty trapped somewhere between rapture and sorrow.
You see, the women have been cursed by the land that shelters them: each time a Nomeolvides woman falls in love, she will lose her to lover - either he leaves, or disappears. In the beginning of our story, all five of the youngest generation learn that they have each fallen in love with the same girl, and so, they decide that none of them can have her. Things change when a strange young man is returned from the ground for the first time, and the cousins must determine if a doomed love is worth it.
He was the chance that the raw will of La Pradera was stronger than the curse they passed down like antique lace.
Though Estrella, too, begins the story in love with the same young woman her cousins have fallen for, it's quickly evidenced that something is blooming between her and Fel, the boy she pulled from the ground. These two are so precious and wonderful together, and I just wanted to protect them from harm so badly! Their exchanges range anywhere from silly banter to the most adorable moments of endearment and intimacy, and I loved every bit of it.
Estrella had fallen in love twice. They had been different not because one was a woman and one was a boy, but because one was Bay and one was Fel.
More than anything, this book is diverse: it is beautifully queer, with lovely brown women (and men) who I can say absolutely nothing negative about. I obviously cannot speak for the racial representation as it isn't my place, but I can speak for the bisexual rep, and tell you that it moved me to shameless tears. It was one of the purest and most authentic representations of my sexuality that I have ever come across, and so much of what was said rang so true. If anyone asked me for a brilliant representation of bisexuality in fiction, I would immediately point them to the passage I pulled this quote from. <3
What shamed a girl was, in a boy, so often worth showing off.
Not only is Wild Beauty beautifully diverse, but it is also feminist as hell. There are multiple instances in which the Nomeolvides women express their frustrations at the double standards facing them, and I found myself grinning and nodding along at more than one of the comments registered against the sexist ideals forced upon women.
"Then wreck me," he said.
Not to be silly or dramatic, but this book wrecked me. It put me into the first - and worst - book hangover I've had in a long time, and as I'm writing this review, all I want to do is dive right back in and read it all over again! Anna-Marie McLemore has instantly been placed on my "auto buy" list and I can't wait to read more of her work. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Thank you to NetGalley and Feiwel & Friends for granting me this wonderful ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Warning: spoilers ahead for previous Lunar Chronicles books! If you haven't read Cinder and Scarlet, you may want to stop here.
Cinder is stranded in space with Thorne, Scarlet, Wolf, and Iko. The wedding is only days away, Luna has attacked the people of Earth, and Queen Levana's search for the runaway cyborg is in full force. The fate of Cinder, her friends, Emperor Kai, and the world itself lies in their plan to stop the wedding and dethrone Levana. Things get a lot more interesting when they enlist the help of a young Lunar shell named Cress: the girl from the D-COMM chip Cinder found weeks prior. Cress is a hacker and a prisoner, living in a small satellite orbiting between Earth and Luna. When she decides to go rogue, Cinder attempts a rescue mission, but an enemy intervention sends the entire trip to hell as it separates the Rampion's crew. Will they find one another in time to continue their plan to halt the wedding, or will Levana become the Empress of the Eastern Commonwealth?
5 stars! All. Day. Long! This was easily my favorite so far of the series. These books just keep getting better! Cinder and her little band of misfits are such endearing and complex characters, and Cress makes an amazing addition to the group. Cress herself is an adorable and humorous character, between her social awkwardness, obsession with Thorne, and overall sweet demeanor. The crew being scattered from one another raised a lot of tensions and kept me tearing through the book from start to finish.
I don't feel like there is much I can say beyond what I've already said, without major spoilers, but let me tell you that, if you have enjoyed Cinder and Scarlet, it is absolutely imperative that you pick this book up at your next possible opportunity. I am so sad to be over halfway through this series, but I'm sure that won't stop me from devouring the next title as well.
Cinder is stranded in space with Thorne, Scarlet, Wolf, and Iko. The wedding is only days away, Luna has attacked the people of Earth, and Queen Levana's search for the runaway cyborg is in full force. The fate of Cinder, her friends, Emperor Kai, and the world itself lies in their plan to stop the wedding and dethrone Levana. Things get a lot more interesting when they enlist the help of a young Lunar shell named Cress: the girl from the D-COMM chip Cinder found weeks prior. Cress is a hacker and a prisoner, living in a small satellite orbiting between Earth and Luna. When she decides to go rogue, Cinder attempts a rescue mission, but an enemy intervention sends the entire trip to hell as it separates the Rampion's crew. Will they find one another in time to continue their plan to halt the wedding, or will Levana become the Empress of the Eastern Commonwealth?
5 stars! All. Day. Long! This was easily my favorite so far of the series. These books just keep getting better! Cinder and her little band of misfits are such endearing and complex characters, and Cress makes an amazing addition to the group. Cress herself is an adorable and humorous character, between her social awkwardness, obsession with Thorne, and overall sweet demeanor. The crew being scattered from one another raised a lot of tensions and kept me tearing through the book from start to finish.
I don't feel like there is much I can say beyond what I've already said, without major spoilers, but let me tell you that, if you have enjoyed Cinder and Scarlet, it is absolutely imperative that you pick this book up at your next possible opportunity. I am so sad to be over halfway through this series, but I'm sure that won't stop me from devouring the next title as well.
When Linh Cinder escapes her prison cell with the help of Dr. Erland and a newly-convicted criminal, Captain Thorne, the Commonwealth is turned upside down. Queen Levana is threatening war if the cyborg princess isn't found, and all Emperor Kai can do is sit idly by and watch in turmoil as the girl he found himself falling for runs from her execution. Meanwhile, Scarlet is determined to find her grandmother, who has gone missing; Scarlet is convinced it is a kidnapping, and sets out in search of finding and bringing home the only family she has left in the world.
---
5 stars! I loved Cinder, as my review of it from a few weeks ago will tell you, but Scarlet was leaps and bounds better. Maybe it was because I was already attached to Cinder's character and the world Meyer presents, but I didn't feel that Scarlet had the same slow start that Cinder had. I love a good fairytale retelling, but this was my first Little Red Riding Hood retelling in book form, and it did not disappoint.
The book takes turns switching perspectives between Scarlet and Cinder primarily, with a few chapters from the Emperor and even one from the Queen herself. If you have a problem with shifting POVs, this may bother you, but I found it well-done, especially during the second half when the writing style helped to build suspense. This title showed off Meyer's skill for writing fight scenes, which never felt boring or overdrawn, but at the same time, were long enough to keep me on the edge of my seat a few times. Much like the first book in the series, the romance was light enough to pique my interest without turning it into a love story; first and foremost, these books have held up (in my opinion) as sci-fi/fantasy stories, which is a breath of fresh air in a genre that is, admittedly, mostly overrun with romance.
As far as the characters go, while I like Cinder alright, I adored Scarlet's character. She's sassy and smart, and has her priorities in order. Captain Thorne is also a pretty delightful new character with his sarcasm and jokes, and *SPOILER*: *END SPOILER*
All in all, this was a delightful read that pulled me even further down the rabbit hole that is The Lunar Chronicles, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next title.
---
5 stars! I loved Cinder, as my review of it from a few weeks ago will tell you, but Scarlet was leaps and bounds better. Maybe it was because I was already attached to Cinder's character and the world Meyer presents, but I didn't feel that Scarlet had the same slow start that Cinder had. I love a good fairytale retelling, but this was my first Little Red Riding Hood retelling in book form, and it did not disappoint.
The book takes turns switching perspectives between Scarlet and Cinder primarily, with a few chapters from the Emperor and even one from the Queen herself. If you have a problem with shifting POVs, this may bother you, but I found it well-done, especially during the second half when the writing style helped to build suspense. This title showed off Meyer's skill for writing fight scenes, which never felt boring or overdrawn, but at the same time, were long enough to keep me on the edge of my seat a few times. Much like the first book in the series, the romance was light enough to pique my interest without turning it into a love story; first and foremost, these books have held up (in my opinion) as sci-fi/fantasy stories, which is a breath of fresh air in a genre that is, admittedly, mostly overrun with romance.
As far as the characters go, while I like Cinder alright, I adored Scarlet's character. She's sassy and smart, and has her priorities in order. Captain Thorne is also a pretty delightful new character with his sarcasm and jokes, and *SPOILER*:
Spoiler
Iko's return had me absolutely grinning, as I am head over heels in love with the little android who thinks herself a human girl.All in all, this was a delightful read that pulled me even further down the rabbit hole that is The Lunar Chronicles, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the next title.
I generally love anthologies, but this one was difficult for me to rate, because I absolutely loved about half of the stories, and could barely finish the other half. I decided on a solid 3/5, but want to throw in a disclaimer that there are a few titles (like the ones contributed by Rainbow Rowell and Stephanie Perkins) that are so enjoyable on their own that I'd still urge anyone to check the collection out.
5/5 ⭐️️
This book has been on my TBR list for years, so I finally picked it up, and it did not disappoint! I loved the idea of a futuristic retelling of a fairy tale. I found parts to be predictable, but that didn't stop me from tearing through it. Did anyone else desperately want an Iko of their own after reading this?
This book has been on my TBR list for years, so I finally picked it up, and it did not disappoint! I loved the idea of a futuristic retelling of a fairy tale. I found parts to be predictable, but that didn't stop me from tearing through it. Did anyone else desperately want an Iko of their own after reading this?