A review by diaryofthebookdragon
The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon
3.0
Fairytales and retellings are one of my favorite themes in books, so you can accurately guess I was pretty excited to read The Fairest of Them. I could not wait to find out how Carolyn Turgeon combined Rapunzel and Snow White.
Surprisingly, the merge of these two fairytales went pretty smoothly. First events from Rapunzel happen and then from Snow White happen. Transition was masterfully done and there were a couple of new unexpected elements and twists that made the reading enjoyable.
Story is narrated in first person by Rapunzel. There were times when I struggled with her descriptions of events. If something bad happened to her, I felt like she tried to make me feel sorry for her. Vice versa, if Rapunzel did something bad, I felt like she was making excuses for her behavior. I guess what I am trying to say is that too much is explained through narration. And that leads us to second problem I had: sometimes flat characterisation. I like to get to know characters well and then decide myself. Too many excuses will not make me sympathise with them.
Yeah yeah... :p You always have a choice.
If we neglect these personal issues I had, The Fairest of Them is a quick and entertaining read.
You may notice that I didn't label it as young adult. Honestly, I think that there is too much sexual situations and some themes that are not of interest to younger audience like: infidelity in marriage, infertility etc.
In The End...
With interesting combination of two famous stories, The Fairest of Them will make all fans of fairytale retellings happy. Just be warned, for a book labeled as young adult, there is a lot of sex and other mature topics.
My rating: 3 stars
Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for a honest review. This text is also posted on my blog Bookworm Dreams in a little bit more styled edition.
Surprisingly, the merge of these two fairytales went pretty smoothly. First events from Rapunzel happen and then from Snow White happen. Transition was masterfully done and there were a couple of new unexpected elements and twists that made the reading enjoyable.
Story is narrated in first person by Rapunzel. There were times when I struggled with her descriptions of events. If something bad happened to her, I felt like she tried to make me feel sorry for her. Vice versa, if Rapunzel did something bad, I felt like she was making excuses for her behavior. I guess what I am trying to say is that too much is explained through narration. And that leads us to second problem I had: sometimes flat characterisation. I like to get to know characters well and then decide myself. Too many excuses will not make me sympathise with them.
Yeah yeah... :p You always have a choice.
If we neglect these personal issues I had, The Fairest of Them is a quick and entertaining read.
You may notice that I didn't label it as young adult. Honestly, I think that there is too much sexual situations and some themes that are not of interest to younger audience like: infidelity in marriage, infertility etc.
In The End...
With interesting combination of two famous stories, The Fairest of Them will make all fans of fairytale retellings happy. Just be warned, for a book labeled as young adult, there is a lot of sex and other mature topics.
My rating: 3 stars
Disclaimer: I was given a free eBook by the publisher via Edelweiss in exchange for a honest review. This text is also posted on my blog Bookworm Dreams in a little bit more styled edition.