A review by tacochelle
Wretched by Emily McIntire

dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I'd say this is the best so far of the three Emily McIntire fairytale retellings that I've read. Here, the woman is the dark part of the 'dark romance', and she kinda lives up to it. The Wicked Witch of the West is the daughter of a drug dealer and the one cooking them up. She's dedicated to her family and what she does, but she is also a little eager to kill people. It's nice to see a villain where what makes them evil isn't their sexist attitude towards women, and it's a shame that it's only because the villain is a woman. I can say this because the 'good' guy that falls in love with her says the same shit that the men in the other novels do. The tin man from the Wizard of Oz is a DEA agent going undercover to find the source of the really powerful drugs in the area and happens to fall in love with the mind behind it. He's a player before he meets her, and then all the misogynistic shit he says is magically gone because he loves her. Kinda fed up with that trope.
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