I hate leaving bad reviews but I have to in this case. I was really excited to read a fairytale retelling where we get to explore the POV of the antagonist (aka one of the ugly stepsisters in this case) and while the idea was a good one, the execution of it was thoroughly lacking. The cover looked amazing and very intriguing but the story within left much to be desired.
The use of 3rd person narrator really detracted from the telling of the story and I'm sad to say it suffered hideously from "telling instead of showing". It was very difficult to stay intrigued as, though the main character's plight and reasons were sound and we'll thought out, there was no spark of feeling for them.
The chopping and changing of narration from that of following Isabelle and her family to following Fate and Chance really threw me. The narration was also splattered with unnecessary and offputting passages of nonsensical writing, as if trying too hard to be the classic "storyteller" and often almost telling the reader how to feel. The characters were also not very likeable and it felt very thrown together and heading towards a predictable outcome (which it later did).
Also going to interject here, can someone please shoot that monkey. It really bugged me that he was thrown in there to be a bit of comedy relief but honestly, it detracted from whatever serious vibe the writer was trying to pull off and made me want to skip ahead.
The writing style also felt like a middle-grader had written it and don't even get me started about the chapter lengths and sheer atrocious volume of chapters. That alone nearly made me put the book down.
I think the idea was well-intentioned but the writing style and narration was seriously lacking.
The use of 3rd person narrator really detracted from the telling of the story and I'm sad to say it suffered hideously from "telling instead of showing". It was very difficult to stay intrigued as, though the main character's plight and reasons were sound and we'll thought out, there was no spark of feeling for them.
The chopping and changing of narration from that of following Isabelle and her family to following Fate and Chance really threw me. The narration was also splattered with unnecessary and offputting passages of nonsensical writing, as if trying too hard to be the classic "storyteller" and often almost telling the reader how to feel. The characters were also not very likeable and it felt very thrown together and heading towards a predictable outcome (which it later did).
Also going to interject here, can someone please shoot that monkey. It really bugged me that he was thrown in there to be a bit of comedy relief but honestly, it detracted from whatever serious vibe the writer was trying to pull off and made me want to skip ahead.
The writing style also felt like a middle-grader had written it and don't even get me started about the chapter lengths and sheer atrocious volume of chapters. That alone nearly made me put the book down.
I think the idea was well-intentioned but the writing style and narration was seriously lacking.