A review by lissajean7
The Storybook of Legends by Shannon Hale

4.0

This is a solid 3.5 stars. The beginning was slow for me, but by chapter 10 or so I finally became intrigued with where the story was going. The author does an imaginative job of merging fairy tale life and modern day both in actions (the teens send hexts on their magic mirror phones) and in language (instead of goosebumps, the teens get Mother-Goosebumps). The story follows the daughters of Snow White (Apple) and The Evil Queen (Raven) as they prepare to sign their lives away to the destinies of their parents to fulfill the story - only Raven doesn't want to be evil. But they've always been told that if they refuse to sign the book and magically seal their destinies to their parents' story that they will cease to exist and their story would disappear. Raven spends the book trying to weigh the consequences of not signing, which could include destroying her new friend Apple's life as well as her own. Apple spends the book trying to convince Raven to sign so that she can get her Happily Ever After. The story plays with the themes of choice and comfort really well. The unknown is scary. The ending was well done, and I will be reading the next in the series.