This was another really great entry to this series. This was such an interesting take on the story of the The Frog Prince and I love how elements fromThis was another really great entry to this series. This was such an interesting take on the story of the The Frog Prince and I love how elements from that story were mashed with elements from other Fairy Tales. The world Megan Morrison has created for this series is so interesting and detailed and I really hope this isn't the last book in the series. There is so much more that could be explored and so many interesting stories that could be told. Personally, now that Jack and Rapunzel have a boat, I'd love to see a take on The Little Mermaid.
Like both previous books, this book was surprisingly dark and serious at times. Even though I was expecting that, I was seriously shocked by some things in the book. Like, I was not expecting to have such scary depictions of child abuse. While I've definitely read worse things in other books, if I was the intended audience of this book (8-12?) I probably would have been pretty freaked out. Nothing was gratuitous and it was impactful and necessary to the story, but it was definitely not what I expected from a book with such a cutesy cover.
The reason why I'm giving this 4 stars instead of 5 was that I didn't love all the characters that I think I was supposed to love. I loved seeing Rapunzel and Jack again and I liked Syrah and his growth, but everyone else was a little bit meh. Particularly one character, Deli, who was clearly supposed to be this amazing character who's just super amazing but I didn't care for. She was great on paper and if I describe her she sounds like an awesome character, but when she was actually on page I was kind of just waiting for her to leave.
This series is up there with some of the best Middle Grade series I've read. I definitely recommend it to people that like this genre. I plan to re-read the first book at some point since it's my favorite in series and a 5-star read, but I probably won't end up re-reading the whole series. I'm a bit too old fully fall in love with these but I know that if I had read these when I was younger they'd probably be some of my absolute favorite books....more
This was...not great. In fact, it wasn't even good. I absolutely love Ella Enchanted so, while I knew this likely wasn't going to be as amazing as it,This was...not great. In fact, it wasn't even good. I absolutely love Ella Enchanted so, while I knew this likely wasn't going to be as amazing as it, I had high hopes. Gail Carson Levine is a talented author so I don't know why this book sucked so much.
I'll start with the good. Firstly, the writing was good. Very simple, but also very readable. It made me want to continue with the story even when it was dragging. The other good part about this book was the world. It was great to see more of Frell and to learn some more about characters that we already know.
Unfortunately that brings me to my first negative: the characters. I didn't really like anyone. Lady Eleanor was fine I suppose, but I only really cared about her because of how tragic her story is. Other familiar characters, like Sir Peter, Eckbert, and Mandy felt like they were only put in for the sake of connecting this to Ella Enchanted. They could have easily been replace with other characters and it wouldn't have made a difference. More importantly, I didn't even care about the protagonist! There isn't anything wrong with Evie, but she was kind of dull. If you take away all the orge-urges she has like being hungry and smelly, does she have that much of a personality? All I can remember about her is that she likes to heal people -- and I just finished this book yesterday.
The absolute worst part of this book was the ending. I had a feeling that things were going to end up like they did but I was really hoping that the author would surprise me. (view spoiler)[I am genuinely upset that Evie married Wormy. I thought that this book was going to be about how you should only marry when you want to marry and that you should never feel pressured to have a romantic relationship with anyone. Instead we get served with a message that Evie was in love with her childhood friend this whole time and she should have just married him when he first proposed. What kind of moral is that? I'm all for the friends-to-lovers trope -- it worked really well in Ella Enchanted -- but this wasn't the book it should have been used in. (hide spoiler)] There are so many things that could have happened with the story and the author chose to bring it to the worst possible place.
Would I still read Gail Carson Levine books? Ya, probably. I'm getting a bit old for Middle Grade but I usually enjoy it and I really enjoy her writing style. This was really bad book, but hopefully it was just a miss and the next book the author comes out with won't be nearly as horrible....more
This could have been great. This is a re-telling of Snow White set in NYC during the great depression. Sadly, there wasn't much to this book. It was mThis could have been great. This is a re-telling of Snow White set in NYC during the great depression. Sadly, there wasn't much to this book. It was mostly pictures and not much text. The plot was very jumpy and it ended quite suddenly. It just wasn't a great book....more
Re-read: November 2020 This book reverted me back to being 17. I’d like to think that I’ve matured as a reader since then, but clearly I haven’t. This Re-read: November 2020 This book reverted me back to being 17. I’d like to think that I’ve matured as a reader since then, but clearly I haven’t. This book clearly reverted me back to being 17 because I was grinning like an idiot whenever Jest, a somewhat generic ~mysterious~ love-interest, said anything remotely charming. I don’t even like him that much (he’s fine, but not the most fleshed-out character) but inner me was swooning whenever he called Cath pretty in flowery terms. I truly am charmed too easily and I need to raise my standards.
In addition to the somewhat generic (though charming) love-interest, this book is so classic YA in terms of character motivations. The characters were constantly doing stupid things because of ♥love♥ but it’s so entertaining that I didn’t care. Also, even though people made stupid decisions, all the decisions were consistent with their characters. So they didn’t just make dumb decisions because the plot called for it. A lot of them were in difficult situations and even though I personally might have made different decisions than them, I understood why they made the choices that they did.
I was pleasantly surprised by how well-crafted this story was. At the beginning it seems like it’s just going to be a basic story about a girl that doesn’t want to be queen and has a forbidden romance, but there were actually quite a few twists! (view spoiler)[Since this was a re-read, I knew that there was a fight scene at the end and that Cath eventually lost her heart. I also didn’t trust Sir Peter, though I didn’t remember the details. Somehow, I had completely forgotten about Jest and Hatta’s secret mission, the prophecies, and the Jabberwock! I don’t know how I forgot all this considering that it was the entire second half of the book, but it was kind of nice to be continually surprised during a re-read. (hide spoiler)] Though the romance is a huge part of the book, I liked how there was a lot more plot as well.
Even though he’s only a supporting character, Hatta was definitely my favorite (though Ches was a runner up!). He was more than a bit rude to Cath, but I think that was understandable. From an outsiders perspective, Cath did seem like she was just playing with Jest’s heart. (view spoiler)[Obviously, he was also rude to Cath because he was in love with Cath, but I think he would have been nicer about it if Jest had fallen in love with anyone other than Cath. And in the end he obviously just wanted Jest to be happy. He tried to warn Cath not to go through the door and he followed Jest even though he knew he was going to go mad. Also, his crush on Jest was so obvious I can’t believe I missed it the first time I read this. (hide spoiler)]
I wouldn’t say that this was as good as the Lunar Chronicles, but honestly, I think this is probably as good as Cinder. There are definitely some flaws and somewhat cliché tropes that the story lies on, but this was so much fun to read that I can’t not rate it 5 stars. I definitely think I’ll be re-reading this sometime in the future.
Original Review This book was, too put it simply, amazing. I absolutely loved it. I think I like it too much to write an actual review, so I'm just going to write down some bullet points on what I loved.
- Hatta is one of my new favorite characters ever!!! I loved him to bits. (view spoiler)[The ending killed me. When he went crazy and admitted he was in love with Jest I just... [image] (hide spoiler)]
- The world building in Heartless was phenomenal. I read Alice in Wonderland in preparation of this, and I think that Marissa Meyer did a great job in portraying Wonderland in the same way that Lewis Carroll did. Everything was so weird and illogical, and yet it seemed so normal. There are talking animals and food that can make you shrink, but it seems commonplace and completely normal.
- The ending was definitely the best part of the book. That's not to say that the rest of the book wasn't enjoyable, but for the first half of the book, it's more like a 4-star book than a 5-star book. Still really good, but it's not as compelling as the ending.
- I really loved Chess. He was so much fun to read about, and I wish he had more lines, because I adored every scene with him.
- Cath's decent into madness/evil was really well done! When you first meet Cath she's super sweet! Well, she's not always the nicest, but she mostly is. She went crazy pretty quickly, but as I was reading the book, there were little hints that she already had a semi-violent nature. (For example, she imagines a party guest choking to death.)
- I liked Jest, but I didn't love him. I think I was so focused on the world building while reading this (I love Wonderland!) that I didn't focus as much on him, so maybe I'll find him more swoon-worthy then. He was really nice though, so that was great. I'm not a huge fan of "bad boys".
Basically, I loved this book and thought it was near-perfect. I definitely recommend it!...more
I think Calamity Jack was better than the first book in the series. It had a more consistent pace, and a larger cast of characters. Of course there weI think Calamity Jack was better than the first book in the series. It had a more consistent pace, and a larger cast of characters. Of course there were a ton of characters in Rapunzel's Revenge, but they were all very minor characters who were only an active part of the story for a few pages. Pru and Freddie on the other hand were actually important characters, and were there throughout the entire book. The writing style is still simplistic, and the plot is still cliché, but if you enjoyed the first book in the series, you'll definitely enjoy this one....more
This was a really fun book. It's western re-telling of Rapunzel, and in this version, Rapunzel saves herself, no prince required. (Although, I really This was a really fun book. It's western re-telling of Rapunzel, and in this version, Rapunzel saves herself, no prince required. (Although, I really enjoyed the Prince's cameo.)
I didn't give this 5 stars because I felt that it dragged a bit in the middle, and that the ending was a bit rushed. I think the graphic format really worked for it since there are lots of action sequences, but because it's extremely visual, you lose the character development that could be done in a traditional book.
This book is Middle Grade, and you can definitely tell. It's missing the depth that's required (or should be required) in adult novels, and it seems more juvenile that YA books. That being said, if you know that it's a MG novel, and you like MG writing (like I do), you'll still really enjoy it....more
Most of the stories in this collection read like really bad fanfiction. There was probably only one or two stories that I actually enjoyed, DNF at 75%
Most of the stories in this collection read like really bad fanfiction. There was probably only one or two stories that I actually enjoyed, and they were closer to a 3/4 star read than a five star read. I really, really liked the concept for this collection, but the execution was terrible. I ended up DNFing it because it was due back at the library and I didn't care enough about it to finish it.
(view spoiler)[Also, why was Sherlock a girl in the Moriarty story? I get why you'd want to write a Moriarty/Sherlock story, but why make them straight? It would have been just as good if they had been a gay couple. The story wasn't very good as a whole, but it would have been better if there had been a bit of diversity. (hide spoiler)]...more
Re-read: June 2020 As I turned the last page in this book I thought, "Wow, I don't understand this book." And that's completely true. I feel like I'm mRe-read: June 2020 As I turned the last page in this book I thought, "Wow, I don't understand this book." And that's completely true. I feel like I'm missing some of the deeper meanings -- especially at the very end. Usually this would annoy me, but for some reason, it doesn't. The parts I understood were really interesting and the parts I didn't were so beautifully written that I didn't mind that I was confused. I definitely understood the story better than I did the first time I read this, so I'm hopeful that I'll fully get the story on my third read through.
This is a very odd book, but I'd still consider it to be one of my favorites. It's not for everyone and I understand why some people rate it so low, but I love it.
Original Review Words cannot describe how much I love this book. The more I think about it, the more I love it.
I don't know how to accurately describe this book; it's one of the weirdest books I've ever read. It's almost like a short story collection, except with an overarching plot. It's very...odd. Essentially, it's about an author, Mr Fox, and his muse, Mary Foxe, writing themselves into different stories. Then there is Mr Fox's wife, Daphne, who believes her husband is having an affair with Mary. It's kind of complicated, and it's also sort of a re-telling of the fairy tale Blue Beard.
Even though I was confused for 70% of the novel, I kept reading on. Why? Because the writing is amazing. It's beautiful and hypnotic. Helen Oyeyemi has a gift. She could write a book on the life cycle of a slug, and it would probably be beautiful. Her writing is dream-like and fits the fairy tale-esque plot.
I would recommend this book to everyone. It's amazing, and is definitely one of the best books I've read all year....more
This book was so good! I didn't know anything about Baba Yaga going into this book, so it was really cool to learn more about her. The art wasn't amazThis book was so good! I didn't know anything about Baba Yaga going into this book, so it was really cool to learn more about her. The art wasn't amazing, but I think it was really pretty and worked well with the story.
Re-Read: August 2024 I read this while re-reading the rest of the series (I read the stories of each character prior to the book where they were introdRe-Read: August 2024 I read this while re-reading the rest of the series (I read the stories of each character prior to the book where they were introduced) and it was a load of fun! Most of the stories are just fun snippets that fans will enjoy, but other stories (specifically The Princess and the Guard and The Keeper) add a lot of context and plot to the series. I wish other book series had short story collections like this. It's a really fun to revisit favorite characters in a low-stakes, plot-irrelevant way.
Re-Read: December 2021 I loved this, it was brilliant and perfect, and I don't want to hear a word of criticism on that opinion. [image]
I will admit that I completely skipped The Little Android because I just don't have any interest in the story, but other people like it so I guess it must be ok. The other stories were amazing though, so they more than make up for my lack on interest in the Little Mermaid retelling. Lunar Chronicles fans should 100% pick this up. The stories add a lot to the characters and the world building, and in general they're just really good and interesting.
Something Old, Something New (the wedding story) isn't my favorite in the collection, but I loved it because we got to see the Rampion crew all together and all of the couples had some really adorable moments. Even Iko and Kinney had a cute moment that I never noticed before! So ya, this was awesome and I'm so happy that I decided to re-read the collection + the entire series. I will now need to have the strength to not immediately start Cinder again because tbh I kind of want to.
Re-read: November 2018 Still loved this! I loved all the stories! (Except for The Little Android. If I'm honest, I actually skipped that story. I just wasn't feeling interested at the time.)
My favorite stories were Glitches, The Princess and the Guard, and Something Old, Something New.
Original Review 5 BILLION STARS!!! This was absolutely amazing and perfect. I loved each of the novellas.
The Keeper - 5 stars I loved seeing young Scarlet! She was just as I imagined her. Overall, a great story.
Glitches - 5 stars Definitely one of my favorites. It was nice seeing Cinder before she got all cynical. The only bad part was that it reminded me of how much I loved (and miss) Peony.
The Queen's Army - 5 stars This was much more sentimental than I expected, but still amazing. I think the author did a great job developing Wolf's (or Ze've's) character in so few words. And I loved seeing how the mutant operatives were trained.
Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky - 5 stars Possibly my favorite, solely for the reason that Thorne is in it. He's my favorite character :)
Sunshine - 5 stars Shells aren't allowed to read? What? Anyway, I loved this story so much! Young Cress was just as I imagined her. Optimistic, sweet, and incredibly naive. It was really interesting to see Luna from her POV, since we normally see it from a completely negative light, and not from an idealistic POV.
The Princess and the Guard - 5 stars Pure. Perfection. It made me love Winter even more than I already did. Marissa Meyer managed to add in so much character development in so few pages. And it was great reading about all the things that were mentioned in Winter, but never actually seen (ex: how Winter got her scars). It was absolutely amazing.
The Mechanic - 5 stars I've always loved reading scenes from different people's POV. It was really interesting to find out exactly what Kai was thinking during his first meeting with Cinder.
Something Old, Something New - 5 stars No spoilers here! But this story was amazing. I loved it <3
This book is a movie-to-book adaptation of Tim Burton's movie "Alice in Wonderland". I know that some people really dislike the movie, but I actually This book is a movie-to-book adaptation of Tim Burton's movie "Alice in Wonderland". I know that some people really dislike the movie, but I actually really enjoyed it. Since I liked the movie, I also enjoyed the book. Almost nothing was changed and almost all the dialogue was exactly as it was in the movie. You don't get anything extra from reading this novelization, but if you like the movie, it's a pretty fun read. ...more
Meh. This book was meh. I mean, it was OK, but it wasn't special at all. I wasn't exactly wowed by the writing, and the art wasn't my style. Meh. This book was meh. I mean, it was OK, but it wasn't special at all. I wasn't exactly wowed by the writing, and the art wasn't my style. ...more
Re-Read: July 2024 This book was even more horrific than I remember it being. I'm not sure if that has to do with me getting older or if I'm just forgeRe-Read: July 2024 This book was even more horrific than I remember it being. I'm not sure if that has to do with me getting older or if I'm just forgetting how terrible Levana is. I feel bad for her in a sense (unlike Channery, I think Levana could have been a decent person if she had a better upbringing) but by the time this novella ends, she's well and truly unredeemable.
Poor Everett :(
Re-Read: October 2021 Why did this book low-key make me want to cry? Levana is a full-blown, 100% sociopath, but I still felt kind of bad for her! She's completely evil, but she's also so sad and feels so alone. Sure, she feels alone because she'll literally murder anyone that goes against her will, but since the book is from her perspective it's still sad to read about.
I'm super excited to re-read the rest of the series! I'm reading the short stories in conjunction with the rest of the series, so it should be a fun time :)
Re-read: November 2018 This is how you write a villain's story. While I usually find that novellas are pure fan-service (not that there's anything wrong with that), feel like Fairest is a necessary addition to the Lunar Chronicles series. Knowing Levana's backstory enriches the series and makes Levana's motivations much more clear and understandable.
Even though I sympathize with Levana, I'm glad that Marissa Meyer didn't try and make her a sympathetic villain. Levana is still evil. She's crazy and has been for a number of years, but it was illuminating to see what happened to her and to figure out why she is the way she is. While the series would still be amazing without this book, all the books improve with the context that Fairest gives us. We already knew that Levana was evil, but now we learned the true extent of her ruthlessness. We also get to see that she is very intelligent, and that makes her an even more formidable villain for Cinder and the rest of the Rampion crew.
(view spoiler)[I think one of the more fascinating parts of this book is Levana's relationship with Everett. I think that she truly loved him in her own twisted way, even though she eventually murdered him. She seemed genuinely heartbroken when he died, and she still wears his wedding ring. I also found it super interesting that Levana felt...something when she murdered Selene. I don't know if she truly felt any remorse, but she did seem to have some sympathy and horror. She's just so cutthroat that she pushed passed it. (hide spoiler)]
Levana is one messed up Queen and I loved reading all about her.
Original Review I never thought that I'd feel sympathy for Levana. Don't get me wrong, she's still a crazy sociopath, but I do feel bad for her. She had a lot of bad stuff happen to her. Her parents didn't like her, she fell in love with someone who didn't love her back, and she grew up with all the Lunars of the court judging and gossiping about her since she was a little girl. Oh, and that her sister was crazy evil. (view spoiler)[I mean, she held her sister in a fire to disfigure her face! (hide spoiler)]
Ya, Levana's sister was way worse than Levana. Channary (Levana's sister) was 1000% more evil, manipulative and spiteful than Levana. [image]
Well, it's true. Levana's sister and Cinder's motheris was a terrible, terrible person. This may be just me, but I always thought that Cinder's mom was a pretty good person. Maybe I read over the part where she was described, but I always thought that she was the nicer one of the two sisters.
I don't want to go into too much detail on what happens to Levana, but you can really see how Queen Levana became the Lunar that she it now. Sure, she was probably always a little bit crazy, but if certain things hadn't happened to her, she might have turned out to be a much better person.
The non-depressing parts of this book were that we got to see young Cinder, Winter and Jacin, and younger versions of lots of the other minor characters.
AND WE GOT THE FIRST TREE CHAPTERS OF WINTER!!!! [image]
Re-Read: January 2022 I still completely love this book <3 I wish it was longer!!!
Re-read: November 2019 Why This Book is Amazing - A strong protagonist -Re-Read: January 2022 I still completely love this book <3 I wish it was longer!!!
Re-read: November 2019 Why This Book is Amazing - A strong protagonist - The best, most vain wizard you've ever read about - Some of my favorite supporting characters - A super interesting and unique magic system - Phenomenal world building - It's super funny - It's so much fun to re-read! (view spoiler)[I caught a couple more clues that Calcifer/Howl left around regarding their contract :) (hide spoiler)]
I really, really love this book. It's probably one of my favorite of all time. It's not completely flawless, but I think it's as close to perfection as a book can get.
Original Review I've read this book once every year since 2014. I don't plan to read it every year. It just happens. There's something about this book that I just love so much. I love the characters, the writing, the plot; basically, I love this entire book. I can't wait to continue reading this series :)...more
I was a bit worried when I started this. I loved the other two Princess Academy books, and I was worried that this one wouldn't live up the previous tI was a bit worried when I started this. I loved the other two Princess Academy books, and I was worried that this one wouldn't live up the previous two. As usual, I was wrong.
While this book is certainly different then the other two, it still has the great social commentary that the other two books had. Even though this book is Middlegrade, it has some wonderful social commentary. I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling the book, but the subtle criticisms of our society really made the book.
And that ending was freaking amazing. And then the epilogue!!! [image]
[image] In conclusion, just do yourself a favor and read this awesome series. ...more
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