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serrendipity 's review for:
Evil Thing
by Serena Valentino
Welp. I did it. I finally finished all of these.
This one was...fine. If they had all been like this, maybe I might have had a different opinion of the series. It was a stand-alone book, there was no reference to The Odd Sisters (THANK GOODNESS) or the Many Kingdoms. There was a passing reference to Princess Tulip (I still CRINGE) and the book of fairy tales, but like the rest of the series, it was disconnected from anything substantial.
But in the end, this book was basically the same as all the other ones:
✖️-- Passive Female MC, made worse by Cursed Jewelry. Not as bad as Lady Tremaine / Book #8, but for pete's sake: can't characters have agency / do anything for a reason other than a curse/magic?
"But when I put them on, the oddest feeling came over me. It was probably all in my mind, but they made me feel so odd, so unlike myself."
✖️ -- Still Telling, not Showing. The entire story is told like a memoir, and all the major events happen off screen.
✖️ -- Mother Issues. Every. Single. One. of these books is basically some twisted version of effed-up mother/daughter relationships. Like, maybe for Snow White and Mother Gothel it makes sense, but it just would have been nice to see SOMETHING else explain why these villains went "bad."
✖️ -- Nothing happens for 90% of the book. It's just Cruella talking about her life.
✖️ -- And all of those life events do NOT explain why she turned into a puppy killing monster.
Don't get me wrong -- there's a "reason" -- she's grief-stricken and penniless and trying to earn her mother's love & approval (see above), but it doesn't make sense. She's spoiled and classist, but not evil and there is little time & text spent on exploring the psychological damage's she's incurred that would warrant such a change.
It's basically: "I'm angry! I want my Mama to love me! She doesn't approve!"
✖️ -- Also, the amount of times she switches her opinion of her mother was exhausting: she loves her, she hates her, she loves her, she hates her. It's lazy conflict.
I am very, very glad to be done with this series. I can honestly say I read every single book in the series, and it did NOT improve my opinion of the Lady Tremaine book. If anything, it makes it worse because again, mother-daughter relationships; cursed jewelry --> passive character; and we're back in the world of the Many Kingdoms again.
Next venture will be to read all of the Twisted Tales books. I remember distinctly not liking the first two -- Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty -- but I really liked some of the later ones -- Alice and Peter Pan.
Oh! And the Frozen one I didn't like. We'll see.
This one was...fine. If they had all been like this, maybe I might have had a different opinion of the series. It was a stand-alone book, there was no reference to The Odd Sisters (THANK GOODNESS) or the Many Kingdoms. There was a passing reference to Princess Tulip (I still CRINGE) and the book of fairy tales, but like the rest of the series, it was disconnected from anything substantial.
But in the end, this book was basically the same as all the other ones:
✖️-- Passive Female MC, made worse by Cursed Jewelry. Not as bad as Lady Tremaine / Book #8, but for pete's sake: can't characters have agency / do anything for a reason other than a curse/magic?
"But when I put them on, the oddest feeling came over me. It was probably all in my mind, but they made me feel so odd, so unlike myself."
✖️ -- Still Telling, not Showing. The entire story is told like a memoir, and all the major events happen off screen.
✖️ -- Mother Issues. Every. Single. One. of these books is basically some twisted version of effed-up mother/daughter relationships. Like, maybe for Snow White and Mother Gothel it makes sense, but it just would have been nice to see SOMETHING else explain why these villains went "bad."
✖️ -- Nothing happens for 90% of the book. It's just Cruella talking about her life.
✖️ -- And all of those life events do NOT explain why she turned into a puppy killing monster.
Don't get me wrong -- there's a "reason" -- she's grief-stricken and penniless and trying to earn her mother's love & approval (see above), but it doesn't make sense. She's spoiled and classist, but not evil and there is little time & text spent on exploring the psychological damage's she's incurred that would warrant such a change.
It's basically: "I'm angry! I want my Mama to love me! She doesn't approve!"
✖️ -- Also, the amount of times she switches her opinion of her mother was exhausting: she loves her, she hates her, she loves her, she hates her. It's lazy conflict.
I am very, very glad to be done with this series. I can honestly say I read every single book in the series, and it did NOT improve my opinion of the Lady Tremaine book. If anything, it makes it worse because again, mother-daughter relationships; cursed jewelry --> passive character; and we're back in the world of the Many Kingdoms again.
Next venture will be to read all of the Twisted Tales books. I remember distinctly not liking the first two -- Aladdin and Sleeping Beauty -- but I really liked some of the later ones -- Alice and Peter Pan.
Oh! And the Frozen one I didn't like. We'll see.