Fairy Tale Retelling

Cinder

Cinder.jpg Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Publication Date: January 3, 2012
Read Date: January 11, 2017

Series: The Lunar Chronicles
Book #1

Amazon, Goodreads

Forgive me for bringing up Heartless again, but after reading that, I felt the need to devour everything Marissa Meyer has ever written. It was my personal goal to finish this book in one sitting, and that I did. I don’t regret one single minute. I loved this whole concept, fairy tale story meets The Terminator meets Star Wars. Inititally, when I first heard about the series, it didn’t sound too great to me. Sci-fi isn’t the easiest genre to get into, but this was perfect.

Cinder is a cyborg. What’s crazy is the struggle to fit in with a society that looks down on them while being perfectly fine with using the technology for their own benefit. Cyborgs just happen to have that technology inside of them as well as in the products they use. I would think that being a cyborg would make you cooler than your peers. Don’t feel like bringing a purse? I’ll just throw my lip gloss in my calf for when I need a touch up. Where did I leave that screwdriver? Oh, that’s OK, I have a spare in my palm. On top of all that usefulness, her user interface connected to her brain can show her news feeds, comms (text messages), and it can tell when someone is lying. She doesn’t even need to wear the Samsung VR for that. Yet this whole package of awesomeness is considered inferior. These people need a reality check. These robot parts have either saved humans’ lives or are making their lives easier (no more amputees), it doesn’t make them less human (just more robot/awesome).

“I think I have some oil in my calf if you’d like me to fix that wheel.” So thoughtful.

Cinder’s wit was right on point with the sense of humor I adore.

“I don’t actually remember anything from before the surgery.”
…”The cybernetic operation?”
“No, the sex change.”

“Speaking of eye surgery, do you realize you’re missing tear ducts?”
“What? Really? And I thought I was just emotionally withdrawn.”

Prince Kai was definitely adorable to me. I was excited whenever he showed up because I adored how assertive he is. Like when trying to get Cinder to go to the ball with him:

“Maybe you would change your mind? Because I am, you know.”
“The prince.”
“Not bragging,” he said quickly. “Just a fact.”

Swoon.

A complaint I had read prior to reading this was the lack of world building in a place that sounds absolutely fantastic. I can see that point of view. Marissa Meyer has actually grown in her writing skills because the world building in Heartless, her most recent novel, is superb (here I am, bringing up that novel again). Regardless, this book is clearly a series, it looks like the world will continue to be built amongst the books, which is nice because I am not a fan of information dumping. I can only handle so much before I need to go back and reread whatever the heck I just read.

This is an awesome spin on a fairy tale with a heroine who is very self-sufficient and is growing to become bad ass. There’s nothing like a heroine who decides to save the man, instead of being the damsel in distress. You go, girl.

five-stars

Heartless

heartless Heartless by Marissa Meyer

Publication Date: November 8, 2016
Read Date: January 5, 2017

Amazon, Goodreads

I haven’t had a book hangover quite like this one gave me in…I don’t even know how long. Too long. I couldn’t even think about picking anything else up when all I wanted to do was to be transported back to Wonderland.

My exact thoughts that I wrote down after reading the book were: I am so profoundly sad. Heartbroken; though my heart is more than broken, it’s actually gone. Which is eerily similar to what happened in the book.

I’m pretty sure I cried a couple of days after finishing this because it was just so good that I kept thinking back on it and then ended up becoming really sad all over again.

I know that so far all I’ve done is make you think that this book is sad, and that you probably don’t want to be sad when finishing a book, but that’s where you’re wrong. This made me feel so much emotion that I 100% plan on reading it again.

I purposefully went into this book without knowing too much about it. I knew it was a book in Wonderland, but I, shockingly, did not realize it was an origin story for how the Queen of Hearts came to be. I was perfectly content without having that information until I screwed it up for myself halfway through when I went on Goodreads to see if everyone else loved it as much as I was loving it. I tried to distance myself from the work then, knowing that it couldn’t have a happy ending, but I wouldn’t have ended it any other way. It was perfect. I wish it wasn’t a standalone book so I could get more from Wonderland and all of the awesome characters.

The Cheshire cat is awesome! Please allow me to share my favorite quotes from the book… all of which so happen to be from the Cheshire cat. Don’t worry, they’re not spoilers–they’re just incentive to read this.

Abigail told me that once she dreamed about a big glowing crescent shape hovering in the sky…and the next morning Cheshire showed up, all grinning teeth hovering in the air and begging for a saucer of milk. Years later and we still can’t seem to get rid of him.”

Cheshire’s head spun upside down. “How slow you are tonight. I was speaking of the rumors surrounding the new court joker.”
She perked up. “No. I haven’t heard anything about him.”
“Neither have I.”
She furrowed her brow. “Cheshire, that is the opposite of a rumor.”

“It is a dangerous thing to unbelieve something only because it frightens you.”

“Why, yes, I would enjoy a cup of tea. I take mine with lots of cream, and no tea. Thank you.”

“I’m only saying that you might be the King’s wife, but who is to say you couldn’t also have more clandestine relations with the Joker?” (This in particular is what I had been wondering for myself throughout the whole book–it would kind of be a way to solve the problem. It’s not like kings and queens have never done it before!)

Unashamedly, almost all of the quotes I marked were Cheshire quotes. Such a clever cat. Here’s another quote (not from Cheshire!) that specifically speaks to me as an editor.

“Sir Hare?” asked Catherine.
“Haigha,” said the March Hare. “Rhymes with mayor, but spelled with a g.”
She stared, not sure how Hare could be spelled with a g. Before she could ask again, Jest settled a hand on her shoulder and whispered, “I’ll spell it for you later.”

Moving on, I loved watching how Cath went from the girl who could dream up six impossible things before breakfast to being all “Off with its head!” I thought it was perfect. Instead of thinking of the Queen of Hearts as this awful character, I will forever think of her as the girl who only ever wanted to open up a bakery with her best friend. She never stood a chance. Also, I loved how we learn just why she hates white roses–I would too.

In my notes, I wrote heavily about how perfect this was through my tears. I’ll just leave this at bringing up how clever it was to throw it other stories, such as “The Raven” from Poe, and “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater.”

I just read this…but after writing this review, I think I might just read it all over again.

five-stars

As Old As Time

as-old-as-timeAs Old As Time by Liz Braswell

So when I was at Barnes and Noble recently, I walked in and saw this beauty (no pun intended). There’s just something about a really cool cover; the fact that it was a Beauty and the Beast telling made it a win for me. The internet connection is always awful at my Barnes and Noble location, though, so I wasn’t able to check reviews before buying it. Wish I had been able to, because they weren’t the greatest. I am, however, not going to let those reviews affect my own.

I put down the book about halfway through after flipping to the end to see what the point of all of it was. It’s basically an exact telling of the Disney movie, word for word, in the chapters that have to do with Belle and the Beast. The other chapters are devoted to Maurice and meeting and then loving Belle’s mother, who is a powerful Enchantress. Those scenes weren’t very compelling, and if I want to read the scene-for-scene version of the Disney movie…I won’t. I’d rather just watch the movie. (Side note: which is why I won’t pick up the screenplay versions of movies coming out.)

Anyways, I don’t really care about Maurice falling in love, so that makes the chapters not devoted to the retelling of the movie boring. There are a couple of things I liked, though, which were the explanations as to why we never hear about Belle’s mother (could she have been enchanted to forget?) and if Belle might end up suffering from Stolkhom Syndrome, which she recognizes and disagrees with (love that it’s brought up). I noticed that a little after halfway through it starts going off track from following the movie to a T, but I longed stopped caring.

I was expecting an imaginative retelling, not something that was an exact telling with a romance involving crazy old Maurice peppered in.

one-star

Sneaky Snow White

sneaky-snow-white Sneaky Snow White by Anita Valle

While I absolutely loved Sinful Cinderella, I did not love Sneaky Snow White. The big difference for me was that despite Cinderella being selfish and bad, she still had reasons for me to empathize with her. She had some redeeming qualities that made sense, so I actually cared what happened to her when evil started to get its clutches on her.

Snow White…had no redeeming qualities. She was never the sweet girl who was supposed to rule the kingdom. She never had a great relationship with her father, she didn’t get the chance to know her mother, but that didn’t give her a redeeming quality anyways. She was selfish and naive, fully believing that the only way she could keep Hunter loving her was by using a Love Apple, enchanted to keep their love going forever. If she had faith in their love and nurtured it instead of taking from it, she would have seen that she didn’t need the apple, but never did she think that way. She only ever cared about her own happiness, whether it made Hunter happy or not.

So I didn’t care what happened to her one bit as opposed to what happened to Cinderella. I honestly think I pushed through this one because of the scenes with Cinderella. That, and I know with how strong Sinful Cinderella was, there’s got to be a great chance that the future installment Rotten Rapunzel can be just as great and I don’t want to be behind.

two-stars

 

Sinful Cinderella

sinful-cinderella Sinful Cinderella by Anita Valle

THIS STORY. I absolutely loved it the moment I started reading it. I even told a few of my friends about it right after I started it because I needed them to read it too. It’s a short story, which does have its disadvantages. While I love a quick read, there were some things I wish could have had more development, but because of what we have for the length, I can’t really complain.

I’ve seen some reviews that wish she could have been more evil, and I was completely inclined to agree with that point of view, except that it would counteract the white magic. She has to be good to get more white magic, which is how she makes herself more beautiful,and to do something bad would take away the magic she needs. So she actually can’t be more evil at all.

I just really loved this story. The different twists that were put on the Cinderella story are crazy and dark and awesome. I don’t even want to go in more detail because it’s so short that everyone should read it.

five-stars