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A review by amac_reads
Briar and Rose and Jack by Katherine Coville
2.0
Lady Briar and Princess Rose are inseparable. Rose is the most beautiful girl in all the kingdom, while Briar is often made fun of for her appearance. Despite this, they love each other and have bigger problems to worry about – how to destroy an evil giant who is harming their kingdom. They make friends with Jack, a brave peasant boy, and together try to do what none of the adults are capable of – saving their kingdom and those they care about.
This book was a retelling of two classic fairytales: Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk. The author included themes of love, loyalty, bullying, and prejudice in a way that added to the plot and the characters. There wasn’t much character depth or growth throughout the work. And unfortunately, the only things that made Rose and Briar special were magical gifts given to them by the fairies – they boys who loved them loved them because of these gifts. This was a little disappointing.
I would have loved to see the brunette be the beautiful character and the blonde be the plain girl. It would have been great for the author to break away from the blonde hair/blue eyes trope of “standard” beauty. I also would have loved to see a more interesting setting – there wasn’t much detail included in relation to this, except for some small moments dealing with magical music found in nature (which wasn’t explained very well). The author also chose to tell this story in the present tense using the third person, which didn’t feel like the right choice.
This work is written for children/young adults, but it felt like it was written more for an adult audience based off length/wordiness, vocabulary, and the detailed child abuse. Overall, it was an easy read and would likely be enjoyable for readers who like western fairytales.
This book was a retelling of two classic fairytales: Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk. The author included themes of love, loyalty, bullying, and prejudice in a way that added to the plot and the characters. There wasn’t much character depth or growth throughout the work. And unfortunately, the only things that made Rose and Briar special were magical gifts given to them by the fairies – they boys who loved them loved them because of these gifts. This was a little disappointing.
I would have loved to see the brunette be the beautiful character and the blonde be the plain girl. It would have been great for the author to break away from the blonde hair/blue eyes trope of “standard” beauty. I also would have loved to see a more interesting setting – there wasn’t much detail included in relation to this, except for some small moments dealing with magical music found in nature (which wasn’t explained very well). The author also chose to tell this story in the present tense using the third person, which didn’t feel like the right choice.
This work is written for children/young adults, but it felt like it was written more for an adult audience based off length/wordiness, vocabulary, and the detailed child abuse. Overall, it was an easy read and would likely be enjoyable for readers who like western fairytales.