Melissa Lemon

Whenever I read a retelling of a famous fairytale, I expect certain things to be in order; I want to be able to recall some a lot of elements from the original tale, I want the main character to stand out and be special and I want the story to be its own, but still make sense as a retelling. Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem did not live up to my expectations.

The story is told from the POV of the Mirror which does not work AT ALL! It means that the story is retold instead of being told, because the Mirror tells the reader what he sees and you end up with a lot of ‘then she said’ and ‘then he did’. It makes the story boring and I never got to feel for the characters because I never got to really care about them – the Mirror did that for me. It just ends up as a retold retelling!

Kat is unusual in one way only: she is so darn forgettable! She is like a doll being guided through the story – in no way alive and interesting, but just so indifferent. She has no independence and no empowerment and there is absolutely nothing new about the Snow White character. It feels like Melissa Lemon tried to change the story about Snow White without actually changing the character Snow White the least. Kat is one of the most boring MC I have ever read about!

Unfortunately, it was not just Kat who was forgettable. The Dwarfs have so little personality that I had a very hard time telling them apart and an even harder time remembering their names. Jeremy (not a Dwarf, but the love interest) was the only one with a hint of personality, but his backstory was so weird and I didn’t fully understand it until the end – frankly, by then I just did not care anymore.

It seems like the story is made up along the way. Like whoops-we-need-this-to-make-that-and-that-fit-together and it makes for some weird twists and turns along the way. I did, however, not figure out most of the twists beforehand, but by then I did not really care anymore anyway. (Except from the Mirror – I am so glad that his behavior was explained, because it was weird and creepy!).
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This isn't the story of Cinderella, not even twist on the story. It is its own very neat little story, about the two sensible sisters in a very messed-up family, in a kingdom that has a very serious problem--its prince and heir to the throne.

Weston of Willow Top and his wife Adela are a loving, happy, productive couple, with four lovely young daughters: Katrina, Cinder, Ella, and Beatrice. But Weston is ensnared and lured away by the black magic of the Prince, who is spreading the tale that the King is corrupt. When Weston vanishes and does not return, Adela sinks into grief and spends all her time spinning yarn, leaving her daughters to fend for themselves. In practice, this means that Cinder and Ella take care of everyone, Cinder with a cheerful, loving spirit, Ella with more awareness of how both she and Cinder are being exploited by their mother's self-absorption, Katrina's selfish laziness and ego, and Beatrice's exploitation of her status as "the baby."

When Cinder gets the chance to work at the kingdom castle as a servant, she jumps at it, and suddenly Ella is alone with family that barely sees her all week, except for Cinder's one day off. Ella doesn't have Cinder's endless store of patience and goodwill, and it isn't long before she leaves, and, with no real destination in mind, is fortunate enough to meet a good, decent man who wants a servant to help his wife and be company for her as his bridge-building business takes him away from home.

Cinder, bringing good work habits as well as goodwill and patience, quickly works her way up to a senior position among the servants. Ella, having much more patience and goodwill for kind-hearted, attentive people and for children who, while rambunctious, are also basically good, friendly kids, settles in to her new household, having bargained for reading lessons in lieu of part of her wages.

But Cinder has come to the attention of the prince, and her grief for her sister who has simply disappeared brings Ella to his attention also. And suddenly the two sisters are struggling for their safety, their lives, and the sanity of their parents.

This was a really enjoyable book, with Cinder, Ella, and many of the people they meet being genuinely likable, engaging characters whom, at the end of the story, you'd like to learn more about. Yes, this is a young adult novel, but it won't disappoint older readers who enjoy well-written fairy tales.

Highly recommended.… (más)

If you want a book that you can't put down with no plot, this is for you. Honestly, at about 40% in the book I stopped for a moment and said, "I actually have no idea what this book is supposed to be about." But I kept going, and quickly I might add. At about 60% (which I reached in record time), I had the exact same thought. Now that it's over I still only think I understood what the plot was supposed to be. There were so many stories woven together, overdevelopment of the backstory, in particular, a necessary portion of the backstory was randomly revealed in the latter part of the novel in the middle of a chapter that, in my opinion, was not the most relevant.

All of this said, I still had trouble putting the book down, so to that end it was a good read. For an early novel from an author, it was good. It just could be better and I hope that Lemon's other novels were improvements on this one. 4/10 would recommend. 6/10 would read again.… (más)