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A review by serrendipity
Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch by Serena Valentino
2.0
Actual footage of me reading this book:
I just...
...can't with these anymore. (Disclaimer: Spoilery venting ahead.)
And yet I'm reading the 6th book because it deals with the Odd Sisters and as much as I loathe them, I'm still somehow hoping that I'll get answers to the myriad of questions I have--
-- and at this point, since I've already read the Lady Tremaine book, I have 2 left so why not finish the series and say I did.
✖️-- The plot is SO CONTRIVED. I get that when you're telling a villain's backstory / origin story, there is a certain unavoidable element of contrivance because you're working towards a predetermined ending.
But here? It's like Valentino had the story she wanted to tell, and just avoided the parts that didn't fit OR relied on quick fixes....
✖️ -- WHICH RESULTED IN SO MANY PLOT HOLES. At one point, I called this story a piece of swiss cheese, because the plot holes are so glaring.
Like -- if Manea made Gothel the same way that (1) Maleficent made Aurora and (2) The Odd Sisters made Circe, I have questions. Because both Maleficent and the Odd Sisters put the best parts of themselves-- and their magic -- into Aurora and Circe, resulting in the Goodest Girls, who were also powerful. (I mean we're assuming Aurora has magic, because that's what Maleficent is freaking out about.) And yet, Gothel is neither Good (in the fairy-tale sense of the word, although as we saw with Maleficent, it doesn't mean jack) nor powerful, because...? IDK why. It's never explained.
Also, Gothel escapes the Dead Woods when the kings's soldiers are searching for the flower for the pregnant queen -- but then several years pass before Gothel goes to kidnap Rapunzel. Who is still, somehow, in need of a wet nurse. (I know some people breastfeed for long time, but still.) Rapunzel should be 3 or 4 at this point -- which is inconsistent not only with the story but with the film.
✖️-- QUICK FIXES = PASSIVITY.
One of my biggest complaints about [b:Cold Hearted|55812889|Cold Hearted (Villains, #8)|Serena Valentino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603881067l/55812889._SX50_.jpg|87024368] was that Lady Tremaine was so darn passive and inexplicably made the victim/villain. She had no agency, and everything bad happened to her....for no real reason given.
I thought it couldn't be worse than that book.
Wrong.
Characters in this book -- Gothel, Rapunzel, the sisters -- spend so much time being magically asleep or wasting their lives away. Like Lady Tremaine, everything happens to Gothel: she rarely makes her own choices, especially when it matters. She's put into magical sleep to "heal" or spends time staring out her window waiting for other people to show up, and the end result is just a frustrating mess of passive characters.
How do we explain that Rapunzel really spend 8 years with Gothel and her maids? Magical sleep.
How do we explain how Flynn found the Tower? Compelled by the Odd Sisters.
How did the soldiers break through the magical enchantment that's lasted centuries? The Odd Sisters told them how.
It may be a fairy tale, but it is NOT good storytelling.
✖️-- Insta-Love. Gothel loves her sisters. Gothel loves the Odd Sisters. Why? IDK. I mean, yes, her sisters are (allegedly) her family, but we don't really see them interacting or doing anything that inspires love. It's just storming declarations of "I LOVE YOU TOGETHER FOREVER!" Same thing with the Odd Sisters. Gothel just loves them. TELLING NOT SHOWING is an endless refrain in to the void on my end...
✖️-- This book had some weird elements, involving mothers willing to kill daughters, daughters killing mother, and drinking blood. And zombies. Like...if this was an allusion to the creepy fairy tales of old, it did NOT work for me. Yes, messed up stuff happens in them. But (1) they're from ye olden times and (2) they work as metaphors for the generalized journeys the characters go on. (Which is not happening here.) Murder and kidnapping and blood sacrifices are all very casually presented here.
All of the issues I had with the previous 5 books -- flat characterization, shallow, almost non-existent motivations, stilted dialogue, contrived plots -- are all here.
And while this book wasn't like [b:Poor Unfortunate Soul|27416133|Poor Unfortunate Soul (Villains, #3)|Serena Valentino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1457203717l/27416133._SX50_.jpg|47465201] where so much of the book was The Little Mermaid film, it made zero sense with Gothel's characterization in Tangled. (Because, quick fix, she was *acting* the whole time.) Gothel is a master manipulator who emotionally abuses Rapunzel in a deftly sophisticated manner: that is NOT the Gothel we get. An explanation of how she got that way *would* be fascinating.
As would the daughter of the Queen of the Dead growing up among an army of the dead. That would also be fascinating. But the story was just too disconnected in an effort to shoehorn it in with whatever story about the Odd Sisters Valentino wants to tell.
I just...
...can't with these anymore. (Disclaimer: Spoilery venting ahead.)
And yet I'm reading the 6th book because it deals with the Odd Sisters and as much as I loathe them, I'm still somehow hoping that I'll get answers to the myriad of questions I have--
-- and at this point, since I've already read the Lady Tremaine book, I have 2 left so why not finish the series and say I did.
✖️-- The plot is SO CONTRIVED. I get that when you're telling a villain's backstory / origin story, there is a certain unavoidable element of contrivance because you're working towards a predetermined ending.
But here? It's like Valentino had the story she wanted to tell, and just avoided the parts that didn't fit OR relied on quick fixes....
✖️ -- WHICH RESULTED IN SO MANY PLOT HOLES. At one point, I called this story a piece of swiss cheese, because the plot holes are so glaring.
Like -- if Manea made Gothel the same way that (1) Maleficent made Aurora and (2) The Odd Sisters made Circe, I have questions. Because both Maleficent and the Odd Sisters put the best parts of themselves-- and their magic -- into Aurora and Circe, resulting in the Goodest Girls, who were also powerful. (I mean we're assuming Aurora has magic, because that's what Maleficent is freaking out about.) And yet, Gothel is neither Good (in the fairy-tale sense of the word, although as we saw with Maleficent, it doesn't mean jack) nor powerful, because...? IDK why. It's never explained.
Also, Gothel escapes the Dead Woods when the kings's soldiers are searching for the flower for the pregnant queen -- but then several years pass before Gothel goes to kidnap Rapunzel. Who is still, somehow, in need of a wet nurse. (I know some people breastfeed for long time, but still.) Rapunzel should be 3 or 4 at this point -- which is inconsistent not only with the story but with the film.
✖️-- QUICK FIXES = PASSIVITY.
One of my biggest complaints about [b:Cold Hearted|55812889|Cold Hearted (Villains, #8)|Serena Valentino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1603881067l/55812889._SX50_.jpg|87024368] was that Lady Tremaine was so darn passive and inexplicably made the victim/villain. She had no agency, and everything bad happened to her....for no real reason given.
I thought it couldn't be worse than that book.
Wrong.
Characters in this book -- Gothel, Rapunzel, the sisters -- spend so much time being magically asleep or wasting their lives away. Like Lady Tremaine, everything happens to Gothel: she rarely makes her own choices, especially when it matters. She's put into magical sleep to "heal" or spends time staring out her window waiting for other people to show up, and the end result is just a frustrating mess of passive characters.
How do we explain that Rapunzel really spend 8 years with Gothel and her maids? Magical sleep.
How do we explain how Flynn found the Tower? Compelled by the Odd Sisters.
How did the soldiers break through the magical enchantment that's lasted centuries? The Odd Sisters told them how.
It may be a fairy tale, but it is NOT good storytelling.
✖️-- Insta-Love. Gothel loves her sisters. Gothel loves the Odd Sisters. Why? IDK. I mean, yes, her sisters are (allegedly) her family, but we don't really see them interacting or doing anything that inspires love. It's just storming declarations of "I LOVE YOU TOGETHER FOREVER!" Same thing with the Odd Sisters. Gothel just loves them. TELLING NOT SHOWING is an endless refrain in to the void on my end...
✖️-- This book had some weird elements, involving mothers willing to kill daughters, daughters killing mother, and drinking blood. And zombies. Like...if this was an allusion to the creepy fairy tales of old, it did NOT work for me. Yes, messed up stuff happens in them. But (1) they're from ye olden times and (2) they work as metaphors for the generalized journeys the characters go on. (Which is not happening here.) Murder and kidnapping and blood sacrifices are all very casually presented here.
All of the issues I had with the previous 5 books -- flat characterization, shallow, almost non-existent motivations, stilted dialogue, contrived plots -- are all here.
And while this book wasn't like [b:Poor Unfortunate Soul|27416133|Poor Unfortunate Soul (Villains, #3)|Serena Valentino|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1457203717l/27416133._SX50_.jpg|47465201] where so much of the book was The Little Mermaid film, it made zero sense with Gothel's characterization in Tangled. (Because, quick fix, she was *acting* the whole time.) Gothel is a master manipulator who emotionally abuses Rapunzel in a deftly sophisticated manner: that is NOT the Gothel we get. An explanation of how she got that way *would* be fascinating.
As would the daughter of the Queen of the Dead growing up among an army of the dead. That would also be fascinating. But the story was just too disconnected in an effort to shoehorn it in with whatever story about the Odd Sisters Valentino wants to tell.