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sav_22's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Xenophobia, Ableism, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Drug use, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Bullying, Drug abuse, Death, Forced institutionalization, Hate crime, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Colonisation, Torture, Medical content, and Outing
creativelifeofliz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
What a rollercoaster. I enjoyed the interweaving of fairytale retellings into this book and I'm very curious to see where the second half of the duology goes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Bullying, Blood, Child abuse, and Gaslighting
Minor: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Classism, Kidnapping, and Self harm
charley34's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Murder, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, and War
bluberrybooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
2.75
I enjoyed this book untill the king reviled his plan to everyone.
I liked the relationship between Alyce and Aurora. I liked the tension that was building. The story writing was great untill the end.
A lot of events happened that came out of nowhere. Kal being evil got example, we get no hints that he is was a villain at all. I thought a lot happened at the end that I wish didn't. This book was very disappointing to me.
Sage is also only tied to Indeguous communities. Unless the author is Indeguous, it shouldn't be included in the story fiction or not.
I enjoyed this book untill the king reviled his plan to everyone.
I liked the relationship between Alyce and Aurora. I liked the tension that was building. The story writing was great untill the end.
A lot of events happened that came out of nowhere. Kal being evil got example, we get no hints that he is was a villain at all. I thought a lot happened at the end that I wish didn't. This book was very disappointing to me.
Sage is also only tied to Indeguous communities. Unless the author is Indeguous, it shouldn't be included in the story fiction or not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Murder, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail
empap's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Kidnapping, and Violence
2ndbooktotheright's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings: blood, racism, bullying, child abuse, murder, torture, homophobia, medical trauma, kidnapping (adult), drug use, death of a parent
Rating: 4/5 stars
Malice is marketed as a reimagining of the classic European fairy tale, “Sleeping Beauty.” But this time the princess falls in love with the evil fairy. As a truly American child of the 90s, this pitch had me picturing a flawless young woman telling her three well meaning caretakers she’s “off to pick some berries” when, instead she’s running off to tryst with a horned woman that dresses like Morticia. Thankfully, I wasn’t exactly right. This story is so much more than that.
This story follows Alyce, the “evil fairy.” She is a descendant of the Vila, a dark branch of the fae of Heather Walter’s world. In Briar, this is not OK. There are centuries old prejudices that Alyce must deal with on a daily basis. Throughout her life she is shunned, manipulated, and abused by nearly everyone around her, until she meets Princess Aurora. Aurora doesn’t fear Alyce, or the dark power she wields. Together Alyce and Aurora work toward breaking the curse that has doomed the princesses of the realm to die on their 21st birthday for centuries. As the weeks progress, so does their relationship. Then, as you would expect, the shit hits the fan sometime during the 11th hour.
Heather Walters tells this tale beautifully. Her characters are real and imperfect and fully flashed out. Her world is well-built with a rich history, distinct cultures, interesting magic systems, and realistic, if a little over simplified, politics. I loved learning about the people and history of this realm as well as experiencing the evolution of the relationships Alyce has with different characters. I also loved the fact that the ending was not what I was expecting.
The only real issue I had with this book was that it felt too long. It seemed like Walters spent too much time reinforcing the personalities of several of her characters and the “otherness” of Alyce. Several times throughout the novel I felt like I wanted to say to her “I get it. [Insert character name here] is a bullying asshole. Can we move on?” It also felt like there were some scenes that, while they added depth to certain characters, it wasn’t strictly necessary, and could’ve been left out. While I loved the fleshed-out nature of her characters, I don’t think it’s required that I feel some kind of sympathy for every antagonist, at least every female antagonist.
My other nitpick is one I have with many books. I find it odd that books tend to focus, almost exclusively on one gender. In this case, there were hardly any men, even as side characters. Briar is a matriarchy, and all the magic in Briar was held by women, but there had to be more than four men there. Right? I mean, human reproduction requires it. I just don’t understand why an imaginary world can’t have an equal number of complicated and powerful men and women.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Child abuse
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, and Torture
girlonbooks's review against another edition
dark
sad
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
EDIT: I have updated my rating now that it has been CONFIRMED that there will be a sequel. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
👿👿👿👿 (three four stars, as rated in angsty little teenage chaos demons that are literally gonna snap ANY MINUTE NOW!)
I was given a free advanced reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I have wavered between giving this book 3 and 4 stars (👿) for the better part of the day. While there's much I really did like, there are also things that let me down and I'm equally invested in both feelings! So three stars it is for the time being since that feels like a middle-ground rating. But WHO EVEN KNOWS what I'll be feeling tomorrow. Or in, like, 20 minutes....
Here's the thing this book has going for it: if you treat someone like a villain long enough they are going to become one. It is LITERALLY the trope as old as time in fantasy fiction and we canonize basically every character it happens to. {{*cough cough* The Joker, Daenerys Targaryen}} Buuuut for whatever reason we, in the *real* world go round and round in circles with it like there's no possible solution. We call kids thugs and delinquents and then punish them for lashing out. My heart genuinely ached for Alyce at portions of this book because I have seen what she went through reflected in the stories of so many kids who never were given a shot in this world. We may not have the "Grace Laws" of Malice's world, but we have the prison industrial complex, and neither were designed to "protect" anybody but the powers that be. Incidentally, I'd like to see both of em burned to the ground 😏🔥 BUT I DIGRESS!
It is for this reason that I am going to give this book the benefit of the doubt. The whole of the story, admittedly, was inconclusive. As with something like The Joker, Malice reads more like an origin story than a retelling. But we as readers were not really given enough context to fully appreciate the after of this origin story. It just.... ends? And in the spectacularly unsatisfying and dramatic manner of GoT, at that. I can empathize with this story, I just am not convinced it was conveyed to me effectively. I need to emotionally connect with Alyce so much more near the end but found myself mostly annoyed with her. Also, I get tired of stories where everyone is out to get the MC. That just isn't realistic. Everyone has somebody. Alyce needed her somebody. And this story didn't really even give her that.
So, all that being said, I choose to treat this like the start of a series because I guess it could still be turned into one? 🤞🏻 And in that case, I would say that it's downright terrific. To read what occurs AFTER all this and then delve into the "origin" story could have drastically improved my experience. And thinking about how much I still want to know about this world and it's characters, I am actually mad that there's not more for me to read. HARUMPH! (Now I'm the one that's angsty....)
Content warnings for this book: torture, child abuse, bullying, ostricization, forced medical experimentation, kidnapping, manipulation, brainwashing, forced servitude, state-sanctioned execution, authoritarianism, general themes of violence, death of a parent
👿👿👿👿 (
I was given a free advanced reader copy of this book by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!
I have wavered between giving this book 3 and 4 stars (👿) for the better part of the day. While there's much I really did like, there are also things that let me down and I'm equally invested in both feelings! So three stars it is for the time being since that feels like a middle-ground rating. But WHO EVEN KNOWS what I'll be feeling tomorrow. Or in, like, 20 minutes....
Here's the thing this book has going for it: if you treat someone like a villain long enough they are going to become one. It is LITERALLY the trope as old as time in fantasy fiction and we canonize basically every character it happens to. {{*cough cough* The Joker, Daenerys Targaryen}} Buuuut for whatever reason we, in the *real* world go round and round in circles with it like there's no possible solution. We call kids thugs and delinquents and then punish them for lashing out. My heart genuinely ached for Alyce at portions of this book because I have seen what she went through reflected in the stories of so many kids who never were given a shot in this world. We may not have the "Grace Laws" of Malice's world, but we have the prison industrial complex, and neither were designed to "protect" anybody but the powers that be. Incidentally, I'd like to see both of em burned to the ground 😏🔥 BUT I DIGRESS!
It is for this reason that I am going to give this book the benefit of the doubt. The whole of the story, admittedly, was inconclusive. As with something like The Joker, Malice reads more like an origin story than a retelling. But we as readers were not really given enough context to fully appreciate the after of this origin story. It just.... ends? And in the spectacularly unsatisfying and dramatic manner of GoT, at that. I can empathize with this story, I just am not convinced it was conveyed to me effectively. I need to emotionally connect with Alyce so much more near the end but found myself mostly annoyed with her. Also, I get tired of stories where everyone is out to get the MC. That just isn't realistic. Everyone has somebody. Alyce needed her somebody. And this story didn't really even give her that.
So, all that being said, I choose to treat this like the start of a series because I guess it could still be turned into one? 🤞🏻 And in that case, I would say that it's downright terrific. To read what occurs AFTER all this and then delve into the "origin" story could have drastically improved my experience. And thinking about how much I still want to know about this world and it's characters, I am actually mad that there's not more for me to read. HARUMPH! (Now I'm the one that's angsty....)
Content warnings for this book: torture, child abuse, bullying, ostricization, forced medical experimentation, kidnapping, manipulation, brainwashing, forced servitude, state-sanctioned execution, authoritarianism, general themes of violence, death of a parent
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Kidnapping, and Violence
Minor: Torture and Child abuse
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