Scan barcode
A review by mbenzz
The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin
2.0
Ok, I get what the author was trying to do here, and it's an interesting take on Cinderella, but this story is so disjointed, confusing, and downright boring.
The first half, where Cinderella is meeting with the witch to kill her husband, Prince Charming, and we're given glimpses into her marriage and how it's falling apart, isn't bad. The fairy tale setting can be charming at times, and the story has an overall Grimm feel to it...until the end of the first part, where things get confusing. Is she dreaming? Is she hallucinating? WHAT the hell is happening??
The second half of the story, where she runs off into the woods, just amplifies the confusion. I had no idea what was real and wasn't. The author throws in a ton of fairy tale references and sub-stories that add nothing to the main story. It's like she just wanted to include her twisted take on a bunch of popular fairy tales, so she threw them into this story even though they offer nothing to the plot and only confuse the reader even more.
By the time I reached the end and figured out what was going on, I was exhausted and no longer cared. This is not a fairy tale retelling. This is a story about a deeply disturbed and mentally unstable woman who married a man she hardly knew for money and stability. She never loved him, and he never loved her. He's a cheating cad with no morals, and she's a shallow, pill-popping cold fish of a wife who carries just as much blame as he does, IMO. And the ending was ridiculous. This woman belongs in a mental institution and needs some SERIOUS help. I wouldn't give her custody of my cat, let alone two children.
Anyway, I'm giving it two stars because I read to the end, but I kind of wish I hadn't bothered. I expected a 'sophisticated literary fairy tale for the twenty-first century'. Instead, I got a story about an immature crazy woman having a mental breakdown and completely losing her grip on reality. No thanks.
The first half, where Cinderella is meeting with the witch to kill her husband, Prince Charming, and we're given glimpses into her marriage and how it's falling apart, isn't bad. The fairy tale setting can be charming at times, and the story has an overall Grimm feel to it...until the end of the first part, where things get confusing. Is she dreaming? Is she hallucinating? WHAT the hell is happening??
The second half of the story, where she runs off into the woods, just amplifies the confusion. I had no idea what was real and wasn't. The author throws in a ton of fairy tale references and sub-stories that add nothing to the main story. It's like she just wanted to include her twisted take on a bunch of popular fairy tales, so she threw them into this story even though they offer nothing to the plot and only confuse the reader even more.
By the time I reached the end and figured out what was going on, I was exhausted and no longer cared. This is not a fairy tale retelling. This is a story about a deeply disturbed and mentally unstable woman who married a man she hardly knew for money and stability. She never loved him, and he never loved her. He's a cheating cad with no morals, and she's a shallow, pill-popping cold fish of a wife who carries just as much blame as he does, IMO. And the ending was ridiculous. This woman belongs in a mental institution and needs some SERIOUS help. I wouldn't give her custody of my cat, let alone two children.
Anyway, I'm giving it two stars because I read to the end, but I kind of wish I hadn't bothered. I expected a 'sophisticated literary fairy tale for the twenty-first century'. Instead, I got a story about an immature crazy woman having a mental breakdown and completely losing her grip on reality. No thanks.