A review by rosienreads
The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin, Olga Grushin

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

3.0

 13 and a half years after Cinderella’s happily ever after, we find her standing at a crossroads, making a deal with a witch to kill Prince Charming. Throughout this book we explore the years leading up to that pivotal moment and the aftermath, complete with asides about the lives and drama of her pet mice and their descendants. 

This book held so much promise and the first third upheld it. The crossroad scenes established strong characters and blended dark and stormy nights with a touch of humour, and I was so intrigued as to how the story would play out. I kept wanting to come back to it. Then it started to go downhill. 

Cinderella proved to be a character with little substance, despite the promise at the start. She was incredibly passive with little personality and while it was intentional within the context of the plot, it was incredibly frustrating to read and I stopped caring about her very quickly. Her story with Prince Charming was also predictable and his character was very one dimensional as well. These were both such a shame as the author proved she could write engaging and multi-faceted characters through the various side characters and, by the end, I was far more interested in them than the main story. 

 The story itself does a beautiful job of exploring fairytales, playing with the magic and structure as well as taking a look at them through a feminist lens, and I did really enjoy this aspect of the novel. However, avoiding spoilers as best I can, there was a twist towards the end that completely detached me from the story and I could not get back into it again. 

The Charmed Wife has some really strong elements, but ultimately these were too few in comparison to the rest of the book. It says a lot that I was far more invested in the mice side-plot than the main story. I don’t particularly enjoy reading books about miserable people, and the book was not quite what I was expecting from the summary, even if I did thoroughly enjoy the first part of it. While others may appreciate the nuances of this book a lot more, The Charmed Wife was not for me. 

I received an ecopy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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