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beforeviolets's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Thank you so much to Bold Strokes Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!
A powerful retelling of The Winter’s Tale with an emphasis on tragedy, faith, judgement, and resilience.
Before I get into things I loved about this book (and there were lots of things I loved about it), I just feel I need to share my two big complaints with it.
Firstly: trigger warnings. This book is filled with jarringly dark and gruesome material completely sans trigger warnings, which I found to be really dangerous, especially considering that this book is YA. That being said, the full list of TWs will be at the bottom of this review.
Secondly: the marketing. This book should not have been YA in the first place. The writing is done in a style that feels more adult in nature and the content is incredibly dark and confronts some really heavy issues. And though I do not believe that certain themes should not be considered off-limits for younger audiences, I think they do need to be written about differently depending on the age of the readers. The book is written with an assumed retrospective awareness that comes with adulthood. Teenagers won’t have the same contextual understanding of “right” and “wrong” that adults do, and this could be again, REALLY dangerous. As an adult myself, I was able to see the lack of support and the learned behavior that affected these characters’ perspectives and actions and why they were irresponsible or ill-informed, but younger audiences will not be able to plug into that in the same way without proper explanation or education included in the text.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the book itself.
The retelling is done INCREDIBLY well. Two Winters masterfully deconstructs and recreates The Winter’s Tale in a profound and relevant context. It simultaneously honors the initial text while making contemporary changes for additional layers of meaning.
The things I specifically loved about it:
In The Winter’s Tale, I found a big issue with the way that Leontes makes unhinged, life-ruining decisions on the behalf of others without reason and is then later on forgiven just due to the passing of time. In this version, Tes (aka Leontes) is shown to be a good and kind person who earns and deserves the respect of others, and instead of being active in the downfall of those he loves, he is shown to be someone far too young with far too much responsibility on their shoulders. When he can't take anymore, he breaks under the pressure, accidentally causing these awful events to occur through indirect action and impulse, rather than just out of what seems to be pure evil in the initial text. It makes his redemption not only feel earned but necessary and wanted.
Though I am not Christian and therefore can’t fully understand the religious comparisons made in this retelling, I still found them to be a wonderful choice and parallel. The constant comparison of the characters to Mary/Jesus/Judas/etc. elevated the themes of faith and betrayal, making the relevancy of their actions feel timeless and fateful. The timelessness in particular also helped push along the discussion of the function of time and serves the purpose of the work as a retelling. Another reason why I found the religious aspects and the theme of faith to be incredibly powerful is the way it directly relates to the religious discussions in The Winter’s Tale. In Winter’s Tale, Apollo’s oracle is consulted, and when the prophecy is rejected by Leontes, it kickstarts the tragedies, implying that the rejection of faith is the downfall of humanity. This book looks at that critically, instead harshly illustrating the ways that religious institutions can cause just as much, if not more harm, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ individuals and sex education. Instead of praising blind acceptance of faith, Two Winters makes its characters question everything they are taught to believe by their religious society, and especially its figureheads.
Two Winters is likely one of the most careful retellings I’ve seen done, with nearly every action, intention, and character found in a parallel in the text. Even Mopsa is mentioned - even if she’s a car lol!
Lastly, a quick list of nitpicks:
-For a book written by what seems to be a white author, this book comments on race a LOT. It didn’t seem to be done in a harmful manner, but it still was not the author’s place to comment on it as much as she did.
-The writing was frivolous and tangential at times, and lots of little lines or moments just frankly didn’t need to exist and took up unnecessary space without serving the story.
-The MC’s father died at war and worded it saying that he “[wasn’t] even fighting the bad guys,” which obviously overly simplifies the complexities of war and refers to an entire nation as “bad guys.”
-Florizel is my favorite character in The Winter’s Tale and says such BEAUTIFUL and heart-melting lines such as "For I cannot be Mine own, nor anything to any, if I be not thine. To this I am most constant, Though destiny say no”, but his counterpart in this book at one point literally says "“ever since I saw you try to play Zip, Zap, Zop, there’s been… something about you.” All I can say is that he deserves better.
Overall, a worthy read, I just wish my expectations had been set up differently.
TW: teen pregnancy, death, child death (semi-off-page), car accident (on-page), gun violence, suicide (accident, semi-off-page), blood, death of parent (father, past, brief), bullying, religious bigotry, victim blaming, homophobia/biphobia, transphobia (a SC is kicked out of their home), deadnaming (brief), racism (discussed, brief), pedophilia (off-page, brief), alcoholism, underage drinking, abandonment, animal excrement, infidelity (kiss)
A powerful retelling of The Winter’s Tale with an emphasis on tragedy, faith, judgement, and resilience.
Before I get into things I loved about this book (and there were lots of things I loved about it), I just feel I need to share my two big complaints with it.
Firstly: trigger warnings. This book is filled with jarringly dark and gruesome material completely sans trigger warnings, which I found to be really dangerous, especially considering that this book is YA. That being said, the full list of TWs will be at the bottom of this review.
Secondly: the marketing. This book should not have been YA in the first place. The writing is done in a style that feels more adult in nature and the content is incredibly dark and confronts some really heavy issues. And though I do not believe that certain themes should not be considered off-limits for younger audiences, I think they do need to be written about differently depending on the age of the readers. The book is written with an assumed retrospective awareness that comes with adulthood. Teenagers won’t have the same contextual understanding of “right” and “wrong” that adults do, and this could be again, REALLY dangerous. As an adult myself, I was able to see the lack of support and the learned behavior that affected these characters’ perspectives and actions and why they were irresponsible or ill-informed, but younger audiences will not be able to plug into that in the same way without proper explanation or education included in the text.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the book itself.
The retelling is done INCREDIBLY well. Two Winters masterfully deconstructs and recreates The Winter’s Tale in a profound and relevant context. It simultaneously honors the initial text while making contemporary changes for additional layers of meaning.
The things I specifically loved about it:
In The Winter’s Tale, I found a big issue with the way that Leontes makes unhinged, life-ruining decisions on the behalf of others without reason and is then later on forgiven just due to the passing of time. In this version, Tes (aka Leontes) is shown to be a good and kind person who earns and deserves the respect of others, and instead of being active in the downfall of those he loves, he is shown to be someone far too young with far too much responsibility on their shoulders. When he can't take anymore, he breaks under the pressure, accidentally causing these awful events to occur through indirect action and impulse, rather than just out of what seems to be pure evil in the initial text. It makes his redemption not only feel earned but necessary and wanted.
Though I am not Christian and therefore can’t fully understand the religious comparisons made in this retelling, I still found them to be a wonderful choice and parallel. The constant comparison of the characters to Mary/Jesus/Judas/etc. elevated the themes of faith and betrayal, making the relevancy of their actions feel timeless and fateful. The timelessness in particular also helped push along the discussion of the function of time and serves the purpose of the work as a retelling. Another reason why I found the religious aspects and the theme of faith to be incredibly powerful is the way it directly relates to the religious discussions in The Winter’s Tale. In Winter’s Tale, Apollo’s oracle is consulted, and when the prophecy is rejected by Leontes, it kickstarts the tragedies, implying that the rejection of faith is the downfall of humanity. This book looks at that critically, instead harshly illustrating the ways that religious institutions can cause just as much, if not more harm, especially when it comes to LGBTQ+ individuals and sex education. Instead of praising blind acceptance of faith, Two Winters makes its characters question everything they are taught to believe by their religious society, and especially its figureheads.
Two Winters is likely one of the most careful retellings I’ve seen done, with nearly every action, intention, and character found in a parallel in the text. Even Mopsa is mentioned - even if she’s a car lol!
Lastly, a quick list of nitpicks:
-For a book written by what seems to be a white author, this book comments on race a LOT. It didn’t seem to be done in a harmful manner, but it still was not the author’s place to comment on it as much as she did.
-The writing was frivolous and tangential at times, and lots of little lines or moments just frankly didn’t need to exist and took up unnecessary space without serving the story.
-The MC’s father died at war and worded it saying that he “[wasn’t] even fighting the bad guys,” which obviously overly simplifies the complexities of war and refers to an entire nation as “bad guys.”
-Florizel is my favorite character in The Winter’s Tale and says such BEAUTIFUL and heart-melting lines such as "For I cannot be Mine own, nor anything to any, if I be not thine. To this I am most constant, Though destiny say no”, but his counterpart in this book at one point literally says "“ever since I saw you try to play Zip, Zap, Zop, there’s been… something about you.” All I can say is that he deserves better.
Overall, a worthy read, I just wish my expectations had been set up differently.
TW: teen pregnancy, death, child death (semi-off-page), car accident (on-page), gun violence, suicide (accident, semi-off-page), blood, death of parent (father, past, brief), bullying, religious bigotry, victim blaming, homophobia/biphobia, transphobia (a SC is kicked out of their home), deadnaming (brief), racism (discussed, brief), pedophilia (off-page, brief), alcoholism, underage drinking, abandonment, animal excrement, infidelity (kiss)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Bullying, Car accident, Child death, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicide, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Excrement, Gaslighting, Medical content, Outing, and Racism
Minor: Deadnaming, Infidelity, and Sexual content
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