Scan barcode
A review by margueritestjust
The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
What to say about this book. A deconstructive retelling of The Nutcracker, it never quite reaches the heights of what it portends to be.
Natasha, the main character - an outsider to Nutcracker canon - works as an almost superficial foil to the Clara known to the story, though this is justified within the story, as it's revealed fairly early on that Drosselmeyer split the concepts of good and evil into the twin girls, though here good and evil is presented less as a moral concept and more as a lens of viewing people through, and specifically a lens that society uses to justify the way that it treats people. Natasha's jealousy and distaste for her twin creates in a dynamic reminiscent of Cain and Abel, culminating inNatasha killing Clara and taking her place .
The first third or so of the book dragged on quite a bit, and my overall levels of interest and investment varied wildly over the course of the book -as soon as she killed Clara I was like "hell yeah let's go" and then NOTHING HAPPENED. Okay, that may be a slight overexaggeration but not by that much. . Much of the rest of the plot has to do with Natasha's search to discover why Drosselmeyer would do such a thing to innocents, and why she and Clara ended up the way that they did, (though months later writing this review, I can't remember why he did...and I'm not really invested in going and looking up why it was again). The plot is....mildly effective. There are a number of elements that are left a bit fully underexplored: Fritz's madness, the Sugar Plum Fairy and her son , are Charles and Deirdre's the bastard children of Natasha and Clara's father???
In addition, the setting is not very clear - despite The Nutcracker being a Russian ballet, and therefore it might be reasonably assumed that the story would be set in Russia, I honestly thought that this book was set in England at first, then later perhaps I thought maybe it was set in Germany. (For those interested, the short story that the ballet was based off of was written by a Prussian author, and the adaptation that it draws from the most is a French retelling (near identical in plot to the original.)There's also kind of an awkward tacking on at the end where the author is like "oh and btw this is set right before the Russian Revolution", and it's not eminently evident that Drosselmeyer's penpal Grigori is THAT Grigori (Rasputin) until you reach that point. While it can be debated that keeping such a detail mysterious until near the end was a conscious choice on the part of the author, it's not a good one regardless. It doesn't add to the themes of the book, and causes more frustration than what might be known as "the reader's delight" - the moment where everything clicks.
I'm not totally sure that this story earns its Nutcracker setting. The elements that are present from the original tale are distorted to such a heavy level that they are not recognizable - the Sugar Plum Fairy is a dark, evil thing, and her kingdom is full of sweet things until it's just kind of not (for some reason...again, don't remember, don't really care). Clara is pretty and because she's pretty, is adored and is therefore a selfish bitch (at least, according to our narrator) - which I'm sure will surprise no one used to the misogynistic tropes often employed in retellings, but it's disappointing all the same. (You could argue that Natasha's changing perception of Clara over the course of the story makes the trope's usage not a straight use of it without any introspection, but at the point, the book has lost the plot completely, so to speak, and so its resolution is confused and vague.) And Drosselmeyer is there. The most salient themes in the work have everything to do with envy/jealousy turning to hatred, and the author is fairly heavy-handed in her approach to the concept of vengeance as a response to such feelings.
I feel I must reiterate, there were parts where I would get really interested in this novel...but then I would lose interest again. Clara and Natasha's dynamic as juxtaposed foils felt too overly simplistic for the book to really become captivating as a character study, and quite often, I disliked Natasha as the narrator (so much internal narration - and so many endless self-pity parties - that I did not enjoy lol). Despite my numerous complaints about the novel's disjointed execution, it's at least written, on a basic level, competently. I originally had rated this book as 3.5, but upon further thought while writing this review, revised the writing down to 2.5 stars. Lol. Upon further examination, this book falls apart, but if you are just interested in the dark vibes of a twisted fairytale, you might enjoy this.
Natasha, the main character - an outsider to Nutcracker canon - works as an almost superficial foil to the Clara known to the story, though this is justified within the story, as it's revealed fairly early on that Drosselmeyer split the concepts of good and evil into the twin girls, though here good and evil is presented less as a moral concept and more as a lens of viewing people through, and specifically a lens that society uses to justify the way that it treats people. Natasha's jealousy and distaste for her twin creates in a dynamic reminiscent of Cain and Abel, culminating in
The first third or so of the book dragged on quite a bit, and my overall levels of interest and investment varied wildly over the course of the book -
In addition, the setting is not very clear - despite The Nutcracker being a Russian ballet, and therefore it might be reasonably assumed that the story would be set in Russia, I honestly thought that this book was set in England at first, then later perhaps I thought maybe it was set in Germany. (For those interested, the short story that the ballet was based off of was written by a Prussian author, and the adaptation that it draws from the most is a French retelling (near identical in plot to the original.)
I'm not totally sure that this story earns its Nutcracker setting. The elements that are present from the original tale are distorted to such a heavy level that they are not recognizable - the Sugar Plum Fairy is a dark, evil thing, and her kingdom is full of sweet things until it's just kind of not (for some reason...again, don't remember, don't really care). Clara is pretty and because she's pretty, is adored and is therefore a selfish bitch (at least, according to our narrator) - which I'm sure will surprise no one used to the misogynistic tropes often employed in retellings, but it's disappointing all the same. (You could argue that Natasha's changing perception of Clara over the course of the story makes the trope's usage not a straight use of it without any introspection, but at the point, the book has lost the plot completely, so to speak, and so its resolution is confused and vague.) And Drosselmeyer is there. The most salient themes in the work have everything to do with envy/jealousy turning to hatred, and the author is fairly heavy-handed in her approach to the concept of vengeance as a response to such feelings.
I feel I must reiterate, there were parts where I would get really interested in this novel...but then I would lose interest again. Clara and Natasha's dynamic as juxtaposed foils felt too overly simplistic for the book to really become captivating as a character study, and quite often, I disliked Natasha as the narrator (so much internal narration - and so many endless self-pity parties - that I did not enjoy lol). Despite my numerous complaints about the novel's disjointed execution, it's at least written, on a basic level, competently. I originally had rated this book as 3.5, but upon further thought while writing this review, revised the writing down to 2.5 stars. Lol. Upon further examination, this book falls apart, but if you are just interested in the dark vibes of a twisted fairytale, you might enjoy this.