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A review by junghoseok
UnEnchanted by Chanda Hahn
4.0
Whelp, I’m a sucker for a retold fairytale (aren’t we all? We say they’re overdone, yet we keep coming back). I checked this one out on audiobook. This book was a pretty good one to listen to on audio (aka the narrator does a good job and keeps you enthralled and it’s not hecka long so you have to renew the book/check it out from the library fifty times to finish it and you still forget what happened in the first half of the book by the time you finish listening to it).
The story follows Mina, a normal teenage girl who discovers she’s the descendant of the Brothers Grimm and doomed to die in the repeated unfinished fairytales they wrote down unless she survives them all and completes the tales.
At first, this read (or listened?) like the typical unpopular-girl-in-high-school-dealing-with-mean-girls-and-boys, but it picked up, and I found myself invested in the story. I would be more coherent and intelligent in this review but since I was kind of invested despite what I first thought, I have a bit of a ramble to get out, so here’s where the spoilers begin and the review degrades into my thoughts and rants.
Speaking of boys, can we talk about Brody? I didn’t know what to think of the guy. The whole time he was being super pushy about getting to know Mina and stalking her and following her around my opinion swung between the pendulum of the two sides to my personality.
Me, a Hufflepuff: “aw this is kind of cute, he’s pursuing her."
Me, a Horned Serpent: “BOY YOU BETTER CALM DOWN, THE LADY DOESN’T WANT TO BE AROUND YOU.”
Still not sure which side won out, as usual. And speaking of Brody, I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a bad guy. The entire time he would do things and say things and make sure he was around Mina all the time and ask her again and again where she lived and I would be like “he’s evil! he’s evil! stay away, Mina!” But no, she was all swoony over his “chiseled jaw” (literal wording, I kid you not, I rolled my eyes and said “please” at my desk while I was in the middle of a project because I couldn’t take all the descriptions. I’ll spare you the rest, but suffice it to say Mina tried to “block out his glorious being” by closing her eyes). Actual dialogue: Brody to Mina: “I don’t want to be your friend.” Me: YAS HE’S EITHER GOING TO SAY I AM YOUR FRIEND OR IM’ HERE TO KILL YOU. Brody: *kisses her forehead* “I want to be more.” Me: *tableflip*
And then Jared shows up and for a while and he actually starts to make me miss Brody for a small second but more on him later
More evidence that Brody is Evil—Jared said the wolf man (who was stalking Mina and trying to get the Grim book from her) wouldn’t have gone after Mina on his own and “someone with enough power sent him” clearly that person is Brody!! And there’s this scene where it says he “nuzzled” Mina like twice and I’m thinking, you know what else likes to nuzzle people? Dogs. As in wolves. As in THE FAIRY TALE CREATURE THAT IS TRYING TO KILL MINA
All the signs point to it, I’m telling you. And Mina’s mom calls Brody out in a glorious scene that made me realize how far gone I am when I agree with the mothers in all these books and Brody walks out and I’m like oh goody, looks like it’s Jared time. Brody’s out of the picture and we have to have another inordinately attractive man to follow Mina around. But no, Brody comes back and wants to help her and I’m still thinking he’s evil.
And then the ending actually surprised me with Brody forgetting everything that happened and that he liked Mina at all (or did he? Was it all a fake? Is he a fake? Is he pretending to have amnesia? I’m probably giving the boy too much credit). Still, there are four books to go in this series, and I think it’s safe to say I’m in it for the long haul, and I still think Brody will end up being evil.
I’ll end my rant/review with the quote of the week: “She was a helpless victim of her irrational bitterness.”
Me too, Mina. Me too.
The story follows Mina, a normal teenage girl who discovers she’s the descendant of the Brothers Grimm and doomed to die in the repeated unfinished fairytales they wrote down unless she survives them all and completes the tales.
At first, this read (or listened?) like the typical unpopular-girl-in-high-school-dealing-with-mean-girls-and-boys, but it picked up, and I found myself invested in the story. I would be more coherent and intelligent in this review but since I was kind of invested despite what I first thought, I have a bit of a ramble to get out, so here’s where the spoilers begin and the review degrades into my thoughts and rants.
Speaking of boys, can we talk about Brody? I didn’t know what to think of the guy. The whole time he was being super pushy about getting to know Mina and stalking her and following her around my opinion swung between the pendulum of the two sides to my personality.
Me, a Hufflepuff: “aw this is kind of cute, he’s pursuing her."
Me, a Horned Serpent: “BOY YOU BETTER CALM DOWN, THE LADY DOESN’T WANT TO BE AROUND YOU.”
Still not sure which side won out, as usual. And speaking of Brody, I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a bad guy. The entire time he would do things and say things and make sure he was around Mina all the time and ask her again and again where she lived and I would be like “he’s evil! he’s evil! stay away, Mina!” But no, she was all swoony over his “chiseled jaw” (literal wording, I kid you not, I rolled my eyes and said “please” at my desk while I was in the middle of a project because I couldn’t take all the descriptions. I’ll spare you the rest, but suffice it to say Mina tried to “block out his glorious being” by closing her eyes). Actual dialogue: Brody to Mina: “I don’t want to be your friend.” Me: YAS HE’S EITHER GOING TO SAY I AM YOUR FRIEND OR IM’ HERE TO KILL YOU. Brody: *kisses her forehead* “I want to be more.” Me: *tableflip*
And then Jared shows up and for a while and he actually starts to make me miss Brody for a small second but more on him later
More evidence that Brody is Evil—Jared said the wolf man (who was stalking Mina and trying to get the Grim book from her) wouldn’t have gone after Mina on his own and “someone with enough power sent him” clearly that person is Brody!! And there’s this scene where it says he “nuzzled” Mina like twice and I’m thinking, you know what else likes to nuzzle people? Dogs. As in wolves. As in THE FAIRY TALE CREATURE THAT IS TRYING TO KILL MINA
All the signs point to it, I’m telling you. And Mina’s mom calls Brody out in a glorious scene that made me realize how far gone I am when I agree with the mothers in all these books and Brody walks out and I’m like oh goody, looks like it’s Jared time. Brody’s out of the picture and we have to have another inordinately attractive man to follow Mina around. But no, Brody comes back and wants to help her and I’m still thinking he’s evil.
And then the ending actually surprised me with Brody forgetting everything that happened and that he liked Mina at all (or did he? Was it all a fake? Is he a fake? Is he pretending to have amnesia? I’m probably giving the boy too much credit). Still, there are four books to go in this series, and I think it’s safe to say I’m in it for the long haul, and I still think Brody will end up being evil.
I’ll end my rant/review with the quote of the week: “She was a helpless victim of her irrational bitterness.”
Me too, Mina. Me too.