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A review by librarydanielle
Briar and Rose and Jack by Katherine Coville
1.0
Briar and Rose and Jack is a mangled retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, and Beauty and the Beast? Briar and Rose are twins, but Briar is ugly and Rose is beautiful. (One thing that bothered me is how it opens up with their mother, the queen focused on "creating something beautiful" by giving birth. NO.) Their parents decide that they can't let it out that they had an ugly baby so announce that Rose is the heir and Briar is a ward. This is really gross. They spend Briar's entire childhood ignoring her and letting her be abused by the rest of the kingdom. She is beaten by the bishop and the king's response is that she needs to not attract his attention. The only love she gets is from Rose, the kennel dogs and her fairy godmother. The only thing that makes Briar special is the gifts her fairy godmother finagled for her (by switching her with Rose during the Sleeping Beauty fairy scene). (Of course, the only thing that makes Rose special is that she's pretty soooo....)
The story is also told in third person present tense, which was not a good fit at all. Katherine Coville uses awkward language that is stilted and the vocab is way out of place for a middle grade book. Phrases that would fit in a high school textbook appear sprinkled throughout what is supposed to be a fun fantasy.
I did like the premise, and the team of children who band together to problem solve an issue that the adults seem to be ignoring, but it was not well executed.
Spoiler
Even Jack, who is supposed to be in love with Briar only falls in love with her because of the fairy's gifts of dance and song.The story is also told in third person present tense, which was not a good fit at all. Katherine Coville uses awkward language that is stilted and the vocab is way out of place for a middle grade book. Phrases that would fit in a high school textbook appear sprinkled throughout what is supposed to be a fun fantasy.
I did like the premise, and the team of children who band together to problem solve an issue that the adults seem to be ignoring, but it was not well executed.