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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
I didn't really like it that much. I thought it will be more about Ursula....
I love Ursula, but, alas, this was not the Ursula novel I desperately wanted it to be.
What annoyed me about the book was that it was not a "standalone," which I really feel like the books in this villain series should be in order to give each villain's potentially complex backstory and motives their full due. About half the book was focused on follow-up to events from the previous book in the series, [book:The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince|17428643], which I wasn't really invested in. Overall, it felt more as if the author was more interested in continuing the story with the auxiliary characters that she had made up for the series than really delving into Ursula's story, which felt somewhat tangential to the story Valentino seemed to REALLY want to tell about the "odd sisters" machinations regarding the various villains in the Disney-verse. Overall, this gave the book a somewhat disjointed feel of two stories being told in parallel, one about Ursula's perspective of The Little Mermaid, one about Valentino's own characters that never appear in the Disney movies and thus don't garner a ton of investment from me.
Despite these issues, I still gave the book three stars because the parts that were focused on Ursula's backstory, especially her relationship with King Triton, were well done. The book was also a fun, quick read and an enjoyable bit of escapism. The writing is passable, and despite my disappointment with this series (and other Disney novel spinoffs overall), I know I will keep reading them because, well, Disney.
What annoyed me about the book was that it was not a "standalone," which I really feel like the books in this villain series should be in order to give each villain's potentially complex backstory and motives their full due. About half the book was focused on follow-up to events from the previous book in the series, [book:The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince|17428643], which I wasn't really invested in. Overall, it felt more as if the author was more interested in continuing the story with the auxiliary characters that she had made up for the series than really delving into Ursula's story, which felt somewhat tangential to the story Valentino seemed to REALLY want to tell about the "odd sisters" machinations regarding the various villains in the Disney-verse. Overall, this gave the book a somewhat disjointed feel of two stories being told in parallel, one about Ursula's perspective of The Little Mermaid, one about Valentino's own characters that never appear in the Disney movies and thus don't garner a ton of investment from me.
Despite these issues, I still gave the book three stars because the parts that were focused on Ursula's backstory, especially her relationship with King Triton, were well done. The book was also a fun, quick read and an enjoyable bit of escapism. The writing is passable, and despite my disappointment with this series (and other Disney novel spinoffs overall), I know I will keep reading them because, well, Disney.
Was more of a continuous story of the weird sisters from the last book and two side story's with Ursala being the smallest story of all in her own book.
dark
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
This was a different take on the story of The Little mermaid and the evil witch Ursula. A story of evil being overcame by caring and love.
I've come to learn that this series really isn't for Disney fans who expected the stories in these books to stay somewhat true to the stories we know and love. I think I'll likely stop reading the series here, which is unfortunate, because I own the next 5 in it. This book felt like it was written about the three sisters rather than about Ursula. It felt like Ursula was a side character, and Ariel was but a blip in this story. I felt like setting this one down and not picking it back up again.
dark
fast-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
This book took me FOREVER to read. I wanted to like it, I feel like it’s trying too hard. I didn’t read the others in the series and now I won’t. I wanted to know the background of Ursula and I got a skimmed version (repeated a few times) about how she and triton are siblings but Triton let her go adrift and she was saved by a human. The human became a father figure who was then killed because Ursula turned out to be a monster.
Not impressed.
Not impressed.
3.5 - Another epic twisted tale by Valentino. I enjoyed Ursula’s tale more than Beast’s. The author included more and stronger backstory on Ursula and Triton’s history, which implied stronger motive for The Little Mermaid story lightly sewn throughout the book.
Similarly to The Beast Within, Poor Unfortunately Soul followed the Disney movie but the script of the movie was a background story. The primary story focused on Princess Tulip, Nanny, and the Odd Sisters in their searches for love and their sister, respectively. The story was told in a shifting 3rd person limited perspective - meaning that sometimes you could hear the thoughts and see motives of one character but, in the same scene, you could hear the thoughts of another character (without it being an omniscient perspective).
This was much more of a “villain story” than the previous book. Due to the dark nature of this book, fueled by Ursula’s vengeance, I don’t think I can recommend this to kids younger than Junior High age. The odd sisters kill their own friend after they discover the sea witch betrayed them. They chant a spell to “kill the witch, make her bleed.” The descriptive language surrounding Ursula may be disturbing or agitating for some kids.
Similarly to The Beast Within, Poor Unfortunately Soul followed the Disney movie but the script of the movie was a background story. The primary story focused on Princess Tulip, Nanny, and the Odd Sisters in their searches for love and their sister, respectively. The story was told in a shifting 3rd person limited perspective - meaning that sometimes you could hear the thoughts and see motives of one character but, in the same scene, you could hear the thoughts of another character (without it being an omniscient perspective).
This was much more of a “villain story” than the previous book. Due to the dark nature of this book, fueled by Ursula’s vengeance, I don’t think I can recommend this to kids younger than Junior High age. The odd sisters kill their own friend after they discover the sea witch betrayed them. They chant a spell to “kill the witch, make her bleed.” The descriptive language surrounding Ursula may be disturbing or agitating for some kids.