Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen

11 reviews

tacochelle's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm really split on this book. It takes the Nutcracker story and turns it into a sort of gothic morality tale. The actual nutcracker retelling only takes up a quarter of the story, the rest dealing with the consequences of that night. Drosselmeyer is a sorceror feared by the community, who blesses/curses a set of twins at their christening, naming one Light and the other Dark. The twins were fairly close to each other, despite their parents and acquaintances constantly favoring Clara (the light one)over Natasha (the dark one). The night of their 17th birthday, Clara is publicly engaged to Natasha's lover at the family's big party, and Drosselmeyer's gifts sends the two to the titular Kingdom of Sweets, where everything seems to be made for Clara, and Natasha is kind of neglected. Here, Natasha makes a choice that drives a wedge between the two in a deal with the Sugar Plum Fairy. Her actions give her the future she thought she wanted, but at a terrible cost.

Johansen is very good at worldbuilding for the most part. The descriptions are the highlight of everything here, fully realizing the setting from the industrial city they live in to the candy-coated nightmare realm of the Kingdom of Sweets. It's enough details to paint a gorgeous picture, but vague enough to create a sort of dark fairytale mood - at least until the very end. Throughout, there's little details, like mentioning Dracula multiple times, and various European countries, where you know it's kinda set in a turn of the century, Eastern European country, and I would have been fine with that. Then the last few chapters reveal that this is actually Russia before the revolution and implies that the magical events in the story directly lead to Lenin taking over. It was such a buzz kill for me. Completely took me out of the story, what little was left. It doesn't even fully make sense, either. Little details like calling the ruler a King instead of a Tsar make it feel anachronistic to the time period.

The characters are all deeply flawed. And not always loveable. I'm generally fine with that. But the twins are the fucking worst, really letting some guy get between them? Natasha is deep in the I'm-not-like-other-girls mindset, and it feels like half the time she is criticized for it by the narrative, while the other half backs her up. The trope is really overplayed, but at least pick a lane and be consistent. It gets really slut-shamey at points, and again, half backs it up and half criticizes it. Against her own twin, even! I get everyone's life is different, but as a identical twin myself, I could not get over that. Personal preference really, but it's almost all you see in media that one twin is always jealous of the other, and it gets old real fast. Clara is no better, she is just as self-centered as her twin, but in the way that she tries to willingly be blind to other's problems. It's implied that Drosselmeyer could help Natasha get a good proposal for marriage, and that would be her only chance to avoid life in a Convent because their society is so deep up his ass with the whole dark twin shit that they do not want her. He gives the choice to Clara, who is also implied that she could easily get her own man at any time, by her own charisma and beauty, but she takes the opportunity Drosselmeyer offers. And then cries when her twin is upset about it. Neither really grows out of their major flaw, despite endlessly being punished because of it.

The ending kind of justifies their remaining character flaws, as it both gives the twin a kind of happy end, as well as an end that they rightly deserve for all their bs. But it would have worked better if it kept with the almost timeless vibe of a fairytale about the consequences of greed, jealousy, and vengeance. But solidly grounding this in the gd Russian Revolution ruins that and introduces far more complicated issues than the story actually handles.

I'm giving this 3 stars because overall I enjoyed this. Johansen does write well, and I was very engaged with the book, reading it in one sitting. But the negatives really stick with me in a way that I can't forget or forgive easily.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Murder, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, Infidelity, and War

sburchart's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

2.0

This really isn't a retelling - more like the inclusion of a few Nutcracker elements towards the beginning that take a backseat to a story about characters nobody wants to root for and that never quite figures out what it wants to be. Horror story with a poorly explained magic system? A story about twin sisters reconciling? Russian historical fiction? Not sure what the marketing department was doing trying to spin this as a fantasy Christmas read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Death

Moderate: Abortion, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Alcoholism

lauren_shilling's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

I want to start off by saying that this book is beautifully written. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and very very immersive. However, that was really the only thing I really enjoyed about it. I felt like the plot was kind of all over the place. If the plot had only been the first half of the book, I would have probably given this 3.25 stars, but everything that came after the halfway mark bored me to tears. I also really couldn't stand the main character. She was very thoroughly an "I'm not like other girls' character, and in a way that put down other women, particularly Clara, who enjoyed things like collecting dolls and who cared and enjoyed caring about her appearance. Natasha, the main character, kind of made it seem like these were bad things and her lack of interest in them made her better than Clara, which bothered me. By the end of the book, this is supposed to have been changed and show that Natasha has changed as a person, but it felt almost lazily done, and it wasn't good enough for me. The reason I kept reading was because, as I said, the writing was gorgeous, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: War and Incest

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Mental illness, Dysphoria, Grief, Infidelity, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Body shaming, Classism, and Torture

vj_thompson's review against another edition

The beginning is what got me. It was hard to read and get through. The story in the beginning is straight up depressing. I wanted it to get to the plot a lot quicker.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Pregnancy, Bullying, Infidelity, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Blood and Sexual content

maregred's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Infidelity

Moderate: Mental illness, Body shaming, Confinement, Violence, Classism, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Misogyny, Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Blood, War, Pregnancy, and Death

chasingpages1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Child death, Classism, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Infidelity, Stalking, Alcohol, Body horror, Kidnapping, Torture, Bullying, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Sexual content, Violence, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Incest, War, Infertility, Gaslighting, and Pregnancy

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Gaslighting, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, Misogyny, Death, Drug use, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Infidelity, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

An intriguing and compelling story built from the world of The Nutcracker yet vastly different from the story told in that ballet. This wasn’t what I expected but I still found myself enjoying parts of the story. My biggest issue with the story is the writing style made it less accessible than other books I tend to read. It read like a classic novel and I had to look up several words in order to understand certain passages. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Toxic friendship, War, Toxic relationship, Murder, Classism, Confinement, Infertility, Miscarriage, Stalking, Child death, Grief, Addiction, Abandonment, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexism

devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Misogyny, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexism, Violence, Murder, Classism, Confinement, Child abuse, Blood, Death, Gore, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Bullying, Incest, Alcoholism, and Slavery