Fairytale retellings seem to be the in-thing at the minute - lots of old stories have been remade into both TV adaptations like Grimm and Once Upon A Time, and also films like Mirror, Mirror and Snow White & the Huntsman. Still, retellings have always had a part in literature - this is actually my third such book this year. In fact, Bex from An Armchair by the Sea is doing a whole challenge around them! Jim C. Hines has a whole series of altered Fairytale books so the first one, The Stepsister Scheme, seemed perfect. It also helps that it's been on my TBR since August last year... I wish I'd got to it sooner!
You know how all those
old fairy tales take you through lots of scary adventures till you
finally reach that inevitable line: "And they lived happily ever
after..." Guess what? It's not true. Life in never-never land isn't all
sweetness and light. Cinderella - whose real name is Danielle Whiteshore
(nee Danielle de Glas) - does marry Prince Armand. And (if you can
ignore the pigeon incident) their wedding is a dream-come-true.
But
not long after the "happily ever after," Danielle is attacked by her
stepsister Charlotte, who suddenly has all sorts of magic to call upon.
And though Talia - otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty - comes to the
rescue (she's a martial arts master, and all those fairy blessings make
her almost unbeatable), Charlotte gets away.
That's when
Danielle discovers a number of disturbing facts: Armand has been
kidnapped and taken to the realm of the Fairies; Danielle is pregnant
with his child; and the Queen has her very own Secret Service that
consists of Talia and Snow (White, of course). Snow is an expert at
mirror magic and heavy-duty flirting.
Can three princesses
track down Armand and extract both the prince and themselves from the
clutches of some of fantasyland's most nefarious villains?
It has to be said - I loved this book and I can't wait to read the next in the series. The three princesses are an ass-kicking yet feminine group who set out to rescue Danielle's husband from her wicked step-sisters. Each of the princesses have new names and identities as though 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty' were just names attributed to the rumours that follow them about. Danielle is Cinderella and Talia is Sleeping Beauty, although it does get a little confusing at first trying to remember who is who.
Their individual backgrounds are neatly worked in to the story - it's not always strictly relevant but it gives them all a nicely well-rounded presence. What made me appreciate it even more though, is the fact that their stories are the original Grimm ones - the fluffy, Disney ones don't even get a look in. It's obviously quite a light-hearted book - the cover tells you that, if nothing else, but this does inject the odd bit of darkness here and there. You know, Cinderella's birds peck out the Stepmother's eyes, etc. It's gruesome, but fun :D
It's very pro-women - Queen Beatrice, the Charlie to their Angels, is a strong, intellectual ruler and obviously the three heroines are more than capable of functioning on their own. They accept help from men where necessary but they definitely don't need to be taken care of. The best thing is that it doesn't really make a point of this - there's no intentional feminist mantra being rammed down your throat. They just happen to be three very strong women rescuing their Prince and I like it.
It's is actually written quite well. I mean, it's hardly intellectual literature but the prose is engaging and good fun. It's light, accessible with a fast moving plot.
But my ultimate favourite thing about The Stepsister Scheme? This Amazon review:
Amused.
So who remembers a film about a year or so ago with Amanda Seyfried called Red Riding Hood? It looked like a fairly good film actually, quite dark and gritty. Well this is the novelisation of said film. I had thought the film was based on the book, but apparently (unfortunately) not. The producer (who also did Twilight) liked the screenplay so much that she wanted the story to be told in another, deeper, format. And hey, who better to do that than her childhood friend who has conveniently just finished her Creative Writing degree? It explains a lot, trust me.
Valerie's sister was beautiful, kind and sweet. Now she is dead. Henry, the handsome son of the blacksmith, tries to console Valerie, but her wild heart beats fast for another: the outcast woodcutter, Peter, who offers Valerie another life far from home.
After her sister's violent death, Valerie's world begins to spiral out of control. For generations, the Wolf has been kept at bay with a monthly sacrifice. But now no one is safe. When an expert Wolf hunter arrives, the villagers learn that the creature lives among them - it could be anyone in town.
It soon becomes clear that Valerie is the only one who can hear the voice of the creature. The Wolf says she must surrender herself before the blood moon wanes...or everyone she loves will die.
Believe it or not, I do usually try and write at least moderately balanced reviews - I don't want to be a gushing pre-teen fangirl, but then I don't like slating the book, the author and all her descendants unfairly either. Just... okay, look. Keep in mind as you read this review that I'm trying, okay?
Because God, it's awful. Mind-numbingly horrendous. I was vaguely interested in the film when it was released because I love werewolves, fairytales and Amanda Seyfried. Unfortunately I never got round to it, but I did manage to get my hands on the book. Go me, right? Wrong. I finally got round to reading it last week, and while it's not a complete and utter waste of a good tree, I do hope the film is better.
The very first thing that stuck me was the clunky writing style. It's horrendous. It doesn't flow in the slightest, just clomps its way from sentence to sentence. By the end of the third page I was considering abandoning the whole endeavour; every other sentence was making me cringe. But, as always, I got used to it and found something else to dislike instead.
With this book being a novelisation of somebody else's screenplay, it wouldn't be fair to blame Sarah Blakley-Cartwright entirely for the plot faults. In fairness though, the plot itself is more than acceptable. The typical Red Riding Hood story is retold using a werewolf and a psychotic visiting werewolf-slayer. The village has a very Forest of Hands and Teeth feel to it - citizens living in fear on raised cabins, etc. Actually, the more I think about it, the more similar t appears. Even the atmosphere and general tone are similar, but I guess there are only so many ways you can write about an isolated, terrorized village.
So yeah, the plot is fine, it works for me. But good God, the relationships. I haven't seen the film yet, so I can't tell is Ms. Blakley-Cartwright has butchered the romance herself, or if she was making the most of someone else's slaughter-fest. There's your typical YA love-triangley thing, but I can't help but feel that Valerie made the wrong choice. I know that you can't slate a book because the main character doesn't have the same taste in men as you, but I honestly expected a big twist where she realised how silly she'd been all along and changed her mind. But... no. It makes no sense! There's no build-up, no relationship. The Insta-Love is apparently excused because she knew the boy in question when they were children, but how on earth does a childhood friend from ten years ago instantly morph into Burning Heap of Lust upon first sight as teenagers? Gaaarrgh.
With such terrible relationship development, it surprised me how well-written the characters themselves actually were. In the introduction, the producer tells us that the author actually spent a lot of time on-set, interviewing the actors about their characters; perhaps that's why they feel so well-rounded. Of course, I'm sure Ms. Blakley-Cartwright wasn't at all bothered about meeting celebrities and only visited out of duty to her book, but hey, at least we got some decent characters out of it.
So while I do concede that the plot is acceptable... the ending is not. It really is truly, deeply awful. Again, I haven't seen the film yet, but I'm kind of leaning towards it being the author's fault on this one. It's just not explained. I still don't know who the damn werewolf is. Valerie spends the entire book suspecting somebody different every other sentence (which does get fairly annoying - admit it, you silly woman! You CLEARLY don't know who it is!) so you'd assume that you'd find out which of her many suspicions turned out to be correct. It was very unsatisfying, as if whoever was actually responsible for it just kind of got bored and gave up (the creator, I mean. I'm not saying that the werewolf got bored and gave up, although I wouldn't really blame them...).
I'll be back with a 'So Whose Fault Was It Then?' post when I've actually seen the film. I'm leaning towards the author personally, but we'll see. In the mean-time, I'd stay away from both book and film, because I swear - you will regret it.
I am all kinds of awful at actually getting round to signing up for challenges. I've known about the Telling Tales Challenge since about December but hey, I'm signing up for it in February. Sorry Bex...
Anyway, the challenge is to read books or graphic novels about mythology, fairytales etc.
I'm going for Level 2 which is to read ten fairytale related books, and I've chosen to read a mix-and-match of all the different categories.
Wish me luck!
So far I've read 3 out of 10 books.
1) Reserved for the Cat by Mercedes Lackey (Puss in Boots)
2) Red Riding Hood by Sarah Blakley-Cartwright (Guess.)
3) The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines (Cinderella)
