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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
mysterious
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really enjoyed this retelling of Swan Lake. I knew very little about Swan Lake’s story, so I went into this with no real preconceptions. This wonderful LGBTQ and polyamorous fantasy version is worth listening to and it makes me want to learn more about the original story. The audiobook is narrated by Danni Deguire. She did an exemplary job, and I would like to hear more work from her. I love reading and hearing LGBTQ stories but am not a big fan of polyamory as I’m too jealous to share my darling loved one. But I really like how everyone’s feelings and individuality are respected in this book. We need more of this in our own society. I recommend this audiobook.
This was a good, short romance story with magic, action, politics, betrayal and growth. I liked the open nature of the world, the acceptance of LGBTQ+ relationships and identities, even in royal arranged marriages! I enjoyed the general plot line, especially the duplicitous, self-questioning of the MFC, and the magic background. The political side was less intricate as the Princen was mostly absent from the court, running to save their missing bride, and showed little interest in getting the necessary contextual information before jumping in to the situation.
The typical evil sorcerer villain was enriched here by the relationship with the MFC, her trust in him, the background we were given beforehand. It was really well done, and allowed the MFC to play a reluctant double agent role, leading to romance and questioning of her whole life. Though there were moments when she refused to acknowledge information right in front of her nose, she usually came around. The final battle was well written and constructed, the development of the different character's roles, their magical growth, their character growth, their increasing confidence all shone through and it was really well done!
The romance, while central to the plot, did not overtake the book. It was not sexual, it was sweet and innocent. The acceptance all the characters have of each others needs was well done, though it doesn't end up as polyamory in the end, which I had thought it might, instead it was more of an open marriage situation? Still, it was nicely written, if a little sudden in places.
A nice read! Short, sweet, with magic, action and a happy ending!
The typical evil sorcerer villain was enriched here by the relationship with the MFC, her trust in him, the background we were given beforehand. It was really well done, and allowed the MFC to play a reluctant double agent role, leading to romance and questioning of her whole life. Though there were moments when she refused to acknowledge information right in front of her nose, she usually came around. The final battle was well written and constructed, the development of the different character's roles, their magical growth, their character growth, their increasing confidence all shone through and it was really well done!
The romance, while central to the plot, did not overtake the book. It was not sexual, it was sweet and innocent. The acceptance all the characters have of each others needs was well done, though it doesn't end up as polyamory in the end, which I had thought it might, instead it was more of an open marriage situation? Still, it was nicely written, if a little sudden in places.
A nice read! Short, sweet, with magic, action and a happy ending!
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The best way I can describe this book is to point readers towards those semi-viral Tumblr posts about queer feminist retellings of fairy tales, where all dialogue is barebones and the plot hurries along with the knowledge that these are only outlines of characters you know anyway, it's fine. If that sounds appealing, then maybe you'll like this flat, lifeless fanfic-of-a-fanfic story (in the sense that a fanfic can skip some establishing information assuming the reader is familiar with the source material, and this skips that the whole book), which meanders on almost 300 pages without managing a single shred of chemistry between anyone.
We did it folks, polyamory can't save this one.
We did it folks, polyamory can't save this one.
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
The writing style was unpolished and juvenile, and dialogue seemed to consist entirely of characters stating directly what they are feeling and their though process at all times.
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I go back and forth on whether or not I'm unfairly biased against this book. To be clear, I originally picked this up when I was really hoping for something else (a different retelling of Swan Lake) and also, I only got around to reading it when I was in the middle of Hurricane Helene, so my power was out and I couldn't just download something else. My mood was also rather bad because, you know, I was in the middle of a hurricane. It's been a few days since then, and my irritation with the book has only faded somewhat.
As a rule, I don't have any interest in disparaging fanfiction. I write and read it happily. So, when I compare this work to a fanfiction, to be clear, it's not intended to slight fanfiction as a whole. But this work is remarkably poorly written. The spelling, grammar, etc. are horrendous. I edit my fanfiction more closely than anyone edited this piece, which is just an embarrassment. Half of the fanfic I've encountered, though clearly written by authors who are running on caffeine and a prayer with no traditional education in writing, sometimes with no traditional education in the language they're writing in, even, is written with more care than this. If it was a fanfiction, I would just go on to a different work. But I paid money for this. Even if it's published independently, I find it remarkable how poorly this was looked over, considering how many indie books I've read that have been just fine.
For some godforsaken reason, the author is allergic to any sort of contraction, which is bizarre, and also makes the dialogue even more flat and unappealing than it already is. Everything is just flat and lifeless.
The characters have promise, but they feel like paper dolls going through the motions. I was hopeful for the romance, but the most intriguing thing there is what's going on betweenKatya and Ivan, which feels like it really doesn't fit with the book. It was a bizarre choice when it would have made, I think, much more sense for Ivan to have a parental role in Katya's life to extend themes of living up to or failing to meet the expectations of one's parents, and what that means.
Before I get into that too much, I might should discuss Swan Lake more, as it feels like the author really had no care to actually interact with the original material and a lot of the audience is unfamiliar with the original story. I don't think this is inherently a bad thing, but I often found myself wondering what drew the author to Swan Lake at all, and why they didn't just write something else like they seemed to want to. In the end, all that remains of Swan Lake are swans and maybe a vague aesthetic leaning. Well, also useless dance sequences that feel quite vapid.
Swan Lake tells the story of Odette who is a princess transformed into a white swan by the evil wizard, Baron Von Rothbart. Prince Siegfried is Odette's love interest. Odile is the daughter of Von Rothbart and the iconic black swan. Honestly, if you've ever seen the Barbie movie, you'll have a pretty good understanding of what's going on.
In this work, Yi Zhen is our Odette, Katya is our Odile, Ivan is Von Rothbart, and Alexis takes the place of Siegfried. As mentioned before, however,Katya is not made Ivan's daughter, but rather, his romantic partner. I don't think this is a bad change, because it was the most interesting thing in the book to me, but it did make it feel as if the author was writing what wanted to be two different stories: One about Katya and Ivan, and one that would have benefited more from Katya and Ivan having a father-daughter relationship rather than a romantic one.
The idea of taking this story and turning it into a queer romance is very appealing, as is the poly aspect. But a lot of the choices made just don't make sense to me. Like theKatya/Ivan romance, it's as if the author couldn't decide what ideas to keep and what ideas to throw away, meaning there's a whole lot of nothing here.
I feel similarly about the representation in the book. To be clear, I love stories that take time to tell us about people who have historically been pushed out of the spotlight, but I don't like when this rings hollow. I think true representation means treating these characters with care. That doesn't mean a book has to be too serious or spend a million pages discussing the identities of said characters, but here, it really feels like the author just kept throwing anything they could thinl of into the mix without really considering why they were doing it, what it added to the story, etc. In the end, it feels as if they're patting themselves on the back for including everything they could think of, but they've put no actual care into most of this representation. It doesn't have to "add" to the story, but it feels pretty incoherent in the end. Once again, there's a clear lack of direction or editing.
I feel like Yi Zhen is given the most care overall, as far as representation of her culture, but in the end, I was mostly just sad that we got the story we did and not a story that delved deeper into Zhen's life.
The magic system seen here, if it even deserves to be called that, also shows the same issues. Everything is there, so nothing is meaningful. The author at the last minute also throws in some nonsense about science and magic, which is entirely unneeded and adds nothing. It seems to connect to some other book they wrote, which only makes it more obnoxious to me, to be quite honest. Convince us to read your other work by writing a good book, not by advertising an entirely unrelated story in this one.
All in all, I'm just not impressed with this.
As a rule, I don't have any interest in disparaging fanfiction. I write and read it happily. So, when I compare this work to a fanfiction, to be clear, it's not intended to slight fanfiction as a whole. But this work is remarkably poorly written. The spelling, grammar, etc. are horrendous. I edit my fanfiction more closely than anyone edited this piece, which is just an embarrassment. Half of the fanfic I've encountered, though clearly written by authors who are running on caffeine and a prayer with no traditional education in writing, sometimes with no traditional education in the language they're writing in, even, is written with more care than this. If it was a fanfiction, I would just go on to a different work. But I paid money for this. Even if it's published independently, I find it remarkable how poorly this was looked over, considering how many indie books I've read that have been just fine.
For some godforsaken reason, the author is allergic to any sort of contraction, which is bizarre, and also makes the dialogue even more flat and unappealing than it already is. Everything is just flat and lifeless.
The characters have promise, but they feel like paper dolls going through the motions. I was hopeful for the romance, but the most intriguing thing there is what's going on between
Before I get into that too much, I might should discuss Swan Lake more, as it feels like the author really had no care to actually interact with the original material and a lot of the audience is unfamiliar with the original story. I don't think this is inherently a bad thing, but I often found myself wondering what drew the author to Swan Lake at all, and why they didn't just write something else like they seemed to want to. In the end, all that remains of Swan Lake are swans and maybe a vague aesthetic leaning. Well, also useless dance sequences that feel quite vapid.
Swan Lake tells the story of Odette who is a princess transformed into a white swan by the evil wizard, Baron Von Rothbart. Prince Siegfried is Odette's love interest. Odile is the daughter of Von Rothbart and the iconic black swan. Honestly, if you've ever seen the Barbie movie, you'll have a pretty good understanding of what's going on.
In this work, Yi Zhen is our Odette, Katya is our Odile, Ivan is Von Rothbart, and Alexis takes the place of Siegfried. As mentioned before, however,
The idea of taking this story and turning it into a queer romance is very appealing, as is the poly aspect. But a lot of the choices made just don't make sense to me. Like the
I feel similarly about the representation in the book. To be clear, I love stories that take time to tell us about people who have historically been pushed out of the spotlight, but I don't like when this rings hollow. I think true representation means treating these characters with care. That doesn't mean a book has to be too serious or spend a million pages discussing the identities of said characters, but here, it really feels like the author just kept throwing anything they could thinl of into the mix without really considering why they were doing it, what it added to the story, etc. In the end, it feels as if they're patting themselves on the back for including everything they could think of, but they've put no actual care into most of this representation. It doesn't have to "add" to the story, but it feels pretty incoherent in the end. Once again, there's a clear lack of direction or editing.
I feel like Yi Zhen is given the most care overall, as far as representation of her culture, but in the end, I was mostly just sad that we got the story we did and not a story that delved deeper into Zhen's life.
The magic system seen here, if it even deserves to be called that, also shows the same issues. Everything is there, so nothing is meaningful. The author at the last minute also throws in some nonsense about science and magic, which is entirely unneeded and adds nothing. It seems to connect to some other book they wrote, which only makes it more obnoxious to me, to be quite honest. Convince us to read your other work by writing a good book, not by advertising an entirely unrelated story in this one.
All in all, I'm just not impressed with this.
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think this book was very imaginative, and a really cool concept with a cool world added to a classic story. I found that some plot points fell a bit flat, but it's also difficult when altering a classic story to have a third person in a relationship. The idea of two swans was cool.