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kiwij96 's review for:
Midnight in Everwood
by M.A. Kuzniar
adventurous
dark
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was fine, but that was all it was really. I liked the idea of a retelling of The Nutcracker, so I really hoped I would enjoy this. However, it was just fine.
The characters were 2 dimensional: their personalities were their passions or their titles and thar was about it. The language, granted this is set in the early 1900s, was just too dated, and at times it felt like it had been attacked by a thesaurus. Which brings me onto another point of repetitive word usage. As much as I appreciate the magical worldbuilding involved for this story, everything was too sickly sweet: butterscotch, candy cane, peppermint, sugar, vanilla, marzipan. These descriptions were quite simply overused to the point where i need to take a break from seeing the words anywhere. Speaking of early 1900s, the awareness of privilege: Marietta has a gay brother, whose sole existence really is being gay. Harriet is Black, and thats pretty much that. In Everwood, gay people are considered scandalous but accepted. It just felt like these characters existed merely to check the diversity box, or for Marietta to constantly check her privilege because these characters "have it worse". It felt disjointed, like as if that was the sole point of those characters.
I enjoyed the storyline of the strength of women and independence and following their passions instead of marrying. I enjoyed that there was a small love story. I didn't love the fact that there was one small sex scene, because that seemed misplaced in a book that read rather young. That definitely could have been edited out.
I don't know what to think of it really. It was a nice retelling in some places, descriptive, adventurous, kinda romantic. Definitely could have been shorter in some places. But otherwise repetitive and disjointed.
The characters were 2 dimensional: their personalities were their passions or their titles and thar was about it. The language, granted this is set in the early 1900s, was just too dated, and at times it felt like it had been attacked by a thesaurus. Which brings me onto another point of repetitive word usage. As much as I appreciate the magical worldbuilding involved for this story, everything was too sickly sweet: butterscotch, candy cane, peppermint, sugar, vanilla, marzipan. These descriptions were quite simply overused to the point where i need to take a break from seeing the words anywhere. Speaking of early 1900s, the awareness of privilege: Marietta has a gay brother, whose sole existence really is being gay. Harriet is Black, and thats pretty much that. In Everwood, gay people are considered scandalous but accepted. It just felt like these characters existed merely to check the diversity box, or for Marietta to constantly check her privilege because these characters "have it worse". It felt disjointed, like as if that was the sole point of those characters.
I enjoyed the storyline of the strength of women and independence and following their passions instead of marrying. I enjoyed that there was a small love story. I didn't love the fact that there was one small sex scene, because that seemed misplaced in a book that read rather young. That definitely could have been edited out.
I don't know what to think of it really. It was a nice retelling in some places, descriptive, adventurous, kinda romantic. Definitely could have been shorter in some places. But otherwise repetitive and disjointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Sexual content, Torture