Reviews - Malice | The StoryGraph

4.55k reviews for:

This is the book that made me want to start reading again. Ever since I saw the cover art and heard the title for this, I've been obsessed. I didn't even know anything about the plot, but I had to read it. Major kudos to everyone involved with that.

Review breakdown:

Writing: Great writing, but too much writing about things I didn't care about. (I know world building and non-plot things are some people's jam, but I found myself uttering to please move on more than once.)

Characters: Bias alert! Maleficent (original disney animated version) and Ursula (little mermaid) were my absolute favorite characters as a kid. The MC in Malice was hard no for me (especially in book 2.) I didn't start enjoying this book until our LI appears. I didn't get enough time with the two of them to get onboard with their relationship, and I wasn't really rooting for them.

Plot: A curse threatens to kill the princess if she doesn't get her true love's kiss before her next birthday. The story is from the villain's pov, so we get a lot of her story instead of the princess's story, and I genuinely wasn't that interested in the villain's story.

What would make this an extra star read for me: More time between our love interests so we can see them falling in love.

Vibes: I almost gave up on this book after 2 hours, but came back to it because of my earlier stated obsession and need to know what happens. Vibes were just meh for me.

delilah_t's review

4.0

4.5 stars. I had so much fun reading this book that I read it in one day. As a retelling of a fairytale, written from the POV of the villain, it was refreshing and totally helped with getting out of a reading slump. One of my favourite parts of the story is how the author contradicts the original fairytale and emphasises how weird it is to expect your true love’s kiss from a complete stranger, and hope it works… Didn’t expect to relate a bit too much to the main character but overall is a pretty good book and worth a shot.

Fav quote: “ History is written by victors.”

alyssakate24's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

micahhxx's review

3.0

“Don’t let them make you into their monster.”

oh I absolutely hated the ending because why did they do the Daenerys spin to her story because now she’s doing too much…she did exactly what Hildi told her not to do let’s be serious

kayliesreads's review

4.5

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

sirpandacat's review

3.5

dark emotional mysterious

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

cslazinski's review

3.0

What if the evil fairy wasn't evil? What if True Love isn't what it is expected to be?

Neither Alice or Aurora expect what happens in this retelling of Sleeping Beauty. They are both locked into the roles expected of them by society, but as the story progresses they are able to break free from society's expectations and chart their own paths.