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A review by bookandcoffeeaddict
Malice by Heather Walter
4.0
Two parts Sleeping Beauty and one part Cinderella, Malice is a richly detailed dark Sleeping Beauty retelling with a heroine who simultaneously manages to also be the villain. As the saying goes, villains are the heroes of their own stories and this is Alyce’s villain origin story as told by Alyce.
As a result of their allyship with the light Fae of Etheria, the kingdom of Briar is gifted with the Graces, random girls in the kingdom born with the golden, magic-bearing blood of the fae. This blood is used by the Graces to make elixirs for the rich nobles of the kingdom, granting them beauty, youth, wit, charm, etc.
Alyce is not like those Graces. Dubbed the Dark Grace, the blood running through her veins is the green of the Vila, the dark enemies of the light Fae. Alyce is raised to never forget she is lesser than the other Graces, her magic only useful for hexes. Unlike the three other Graces she lives with, Alyce doesn’t wear beautiful gowns or get invited to events. She’s not even given a room in the main house or allowed to use the well-appointed Grace parlor when receiving patrons.
And then one fateful day, there’s a ball at the palace for princess Aurora, the last living heir of Briar, cursed to die on her twenty-first birthday if she doesn’t receive her true love’s kiss. But Aurora is not the kind of princess to accept her fate lying down. She’s fascinated by Alyce’s power and enlists her help to find a way to break the curse. And when Aurora looks at her without fear or disgust in her eyes, Alyce decides she’s willing to do anything for this beautiful girl who doesn’t see her as a monster.
And it all goes to hell from there.
A mysterious man in a tower who claims to know Alyce’s true origin. A damsel in distress as beautiful as she is smart and stubborn. A ruthless king desperate for power.
It’s easy to see how Alyce gets overwhelmed when trying to juggle the expectations of so many people, but she’s kind of hard to watch as her wrong choices corrupt her good intentions and pave her way to ruin. I’m not sure I would say Alyce as a main character is “likable” in the traditional sense, but she is interesting and compelling. She lets her jealousy, anger, and need for revenge drive her and performs mental gymnastics to justify her decisions.
The worldbuilding in this is breathtaking in its scope and attention to detail. With the amount of history, backstory, peoples, kingdoms, etc., the story could have easily felt weighed down with info, but the author does it masterfully, weaving it seamlessly into the story as it’s told.
With interesting characters, a bittersweet romance, and absorbing worldbuilding, Malice is an original take on Sleeping Beauty that’s never boring or predictable as it follows the morally grey main character on her path to villainy with the best of intentions (well, at least not the worst of intentions). I won’t spoil the ending, but I can’t wait to see where the author takes the story in the next book.
As a result of their allyship with the light Fae of Etheria, the kingdom of Briar is gifted with the Graces, random girls in the kingdom born with the golden, magic-bearing blood of the fae. This blood is used by the Graces to make elixirs for the rich nobles of the kingdom, granting them beauty, youth, wit, charm, etc.
Alyce is not like those Graces. Dubbed the Dark Grace, the blood running through her veins is the green of the Vila, the dark enemies of the light Fae. Alyce is raised to never forget she is lesser than the other Graces, her magic only useful for hexes. Unlike the three other Graces she lives with, Alyce doesn’t wear beautiful gowns or get invited to events. She’s not even given a room in the main house or allowed to use the well-appointed Grace parlor when receiving patrons.
And then one fateful day, there’s a ball at the palace for princess Aurora, the last living heir of Briar, cursed to die on her twenty-first birthday if she doesn’t receive her true love’s kiss. But Aurora is not the kind of princess to accept her fate lying down. She’s fascinated by Alyce’s power and enlists her help to find a way to break the curse. And when Aurora looks at her without fear or disgust in her eyes, Alyce decides she’s willing to do anything for this beautiful girl who doesn’t see her as a monster.
And it all goes to hell from there.
A mysterious man in a tower who claims to know Alyce’s true origin. A damsel in distress as beautiful as she is smart and stubborn. A ruthless king desperate for power.
It’s easy to see how Alyce gets overwhelmed when trying to juggle the expectations of so many people, but she’s kind of hard to watch as her wrong choices corrupt her good intentions and pave her way to ruin. I’m not sure I would say Alyce as a main character is “likable” in the traditional sense, but she is interesting and compelling. She lets her jealousy, anger, and need for revenge drive her and performs mental gymnastics to justify her decisions.
The worldbuilding in this is breathtaking in its scope and attention to detail. With the amount of history, backstory, peoples, kingdoms, etc., the story could have easily felt weighed down with info, but the author does it masterfully, weaving it seamlessly into the story as it’s told.
With interesting characters, a bittersweet romance, and absorbing worldbuilding, Malice is an original take on Sleeping Beauty that’s never boring or predictable as it follows the morally grey main character on her path to villainy with the best of intentions (well, at least not the worst of intentions). I won’t spoil the ending, but I can’t wait to see where the author takes the story in the next book.