Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - La más bella de todas

Als Liebhaberin der klassischen Disney-Filme habe ich mir mehr von dem Buch erwartet. Sprachlich hat es mich gar nicht abgeholt (es ist wohl eher für Kinder geschrieben, der Sprachgebrauch ist sehr 'leicht' und wiederholend); der Fortschritt der Geschichte war stolprig — manchmal zu langsam, manchmal viel zu schnell. Die Charaktere fand ich teilweise flach und lieblos hingeklatscht, manchmal aber wieder spannend. Die Grundidee selbst finde ich grandios, aber der Plot wäre eindeutig ausbaufähig gewesen. Schade, vielleicht sind die anderen Bände mehr nach meinem Geschmack.

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cjbuys's review against another edition

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2.0

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seregelda's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

CW: character named "Slave," child abuse

Not what I expected, an interesting take followed by the story we know from the film.

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emilyhooie22's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

💘"Perhaps it was the loss of her husband and her loneliness that brought her to the mirror each day, but she felt there was something else that compelled her to seek her father’s approval and love. Sometimes she felt she had to look in the mirror simply to reassure herself she was in the world. That she was human and not simply a floating gray mist haunting the walls of the castle. She felt real and alive when she looked into the mirror; she felt empowered by her beauty."💘

➡️➡️ The message of this book is... Never let others define you. Never get addicted to praise because lack of it can destroy you in a second.

I definitely think I'll read more of this series in the future. It gives backstory to a well-known and beloved fairytale quite well without overdoing it. It reminds me of the storytelling style of "Once Upon a Time" which I love so much.

Hatred turns people evil and against those we love...and that is a great loss in itself. 🥺

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junglejelly's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed exploring the back story to Snow White's Evil Queen.

The writing is good with a nice character arc (even though you know where it's going). People aren't so simple and the author really created a complex character who was previously shown just to be evil.

As a book aimed at kids/pre-teens, you do have to keep this in mind with the language used and the length of the book. While I do wish some scenes would have been longer, I think the pace and length overall was good.

It is dark even as a children's book but it suited the origins of the Evil Queen.

Overall a fun quick read especially for Disney's Snow White fans.

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reading_books_as_escapism_lol's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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housedesignerking's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is the Evil Queen's backstory. One of the things Disney seems to be doing lately is creating slight or complete retellings of their classics or masterpieces. Valentino did a good job making the reader want to root for the Queen throughout this. But anyone who's seen the movie knows what an exercise in futility that would be. I'm not sure if these ideas were strictly Valentino's or if she was guided by Disney in some way to put this series together (my money's on the latter, but I could be wrong), but either way, it's an interesting take on it. The writing focuses quite a bit on description instead of commentary, which I found to be a tad disappointing. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was never my favorite animated Disney movie, but with the well-crafted backstory, this is actually better than the movie, which got 3 stars from me. This book gets 4.

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destinystowe14's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was good. It is geared toward a younger audience which is made clear in the writing. There isn’t a lot of detail, and it seemed rushed a good bit of the time.

With that being said I still liked this book. It was a good palate cleanser, and a very quick read. I’m a slow reader and I read this in 3 days.

It works really well as an origin story for the Wicked Queen. Snow White was one of my favorite movies growing up, so it was interesting seeing things through the queen’s POV. If you’re a fan of Disney or Snow White you should definitely read this book.

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