Reviews

Evil Thing by Serena Valentino

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kmaries2017's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

mbenzz's review against another edition

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4.0

Not being a fan of Cruella or the '101 Dalmation's' movie, I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did. I considered skipping it, but having read all the other books in the series, I just couldn't bring myself to do that.

This book is completely different from the previous six in this series as it's a 100% stand-alone story. You can read this book without reading any of the others and still get the exact same experience as someone who's read them all.

There's no Odd Sisters (which was kind of refreshing) and no magic (maybe a little bit of a curse, but that's up to the reader to decide). Princess Tulip and Prince Poppinjay are mentioned only as characters in Cruella's favorite childhood fairy tales. Other than that, this is ALL Cruella.

I love what Ms. Valentino did with Cruella's childhood. The dynamic between Cruella and her mother really sets the stage nicely for her behavior later in life. I really liked the intense and very close friendship Cruella enjoyed with Anita as a child and into their teens. It made their later relationship much more tragic.

The only thing I was a bit bummed about was the ending...it felt very rushed. We go from normal fun-loving Cruella (who has bursts of anger and impatience) to all of a sudden...BAM! Crazy, off-the-rails, straight-up-lost-her-damn-mind Cruella. It was kind of jarring. The Cruella at the end, who was quoting the lines in the movie, felt like a completely different person than the one I had just spent an entire book reading about. Much more dramatic and obnoxious. It was a struggle to picture her behaving that way...but I suppose madness will do that to a person.

Overall though, much to my surprise, this is one of my favorite books in the entire series. It doesn't have that other-worldly fairy tale vibe to it, but it's a really good story and gives Cruella a layer of humanity she seemed to be otherwise lacking.

I definitely look forward to whatever comes next in this series. I've really enjoyed it thus far.

*** I received this book for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

eemillers15's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

shaunie991's review against another edition

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5.0

5 stars on the narration by Susanne Blakeslee alone.

zsabretooth's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

annettebooksofhopeanddreams's review against another edition

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4.0

After the previous Villain Tale I was quite curious how Valentino would continue. The Odd Sisters felt a little like an ending, although it had an open end with room for more. I was therefore quite excited to pick up this book. Also because I always found Cruella a fascinating character. I never really liked the movies, but Cruella as a character was a different story. Because I always felt there had to be a story there.

In this book Cruella tells her story. Even though this book is not part of the ongoing timeline, Valentino manages to add some nods and hints towards the other villain tales. But just because it's not really a part of that ongoing timeline it felt even more like a Villain tale than all the others. After all, literally ALL the focus was on Cruella. This was, from start to finish and without anyone else stealing any of the spotlight, her story.

And I liked how Valentino managed to make Cruella, who is very much a stereotyped cartoon character, into a real human being. Of course we know throughout the story where she will end up and who she will eventually become and I think that was exactly why the story was in a way also somehow sad. Because if push comes to shove, all this version of Cruella ever wanted, was to be loved by her mother.

Although the book tells us in the end what does eventually happen, most of the book is original material. We learn about Cruella's childhood, about her time at school, how she and Anita became friends and how she and Anita were driven apart and we learn about all the tragedies Cruella had to deal with. In the afterword Valentino explains exactly what I had felt myself so strongly. Cruella was quite clearly not born bad. Life made her eventually who she became and one different choice and everything would have been different.