A review by kanra
Malice by Heather Walter

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Everybody knows the story of Sleeping Beauty, this book is a fantastic take on it. It follows Alyce the dark grace as she learns more about her powers and attempts to break Aurora's curse. Alyce is not a person anyone in this world likes, there are a few who tolerate her but she is constantly mocked and bullied. She's different from everyone because her magic is dark, though she tries her hardest to be good she feels trapped and wants desperately to be free. At times I felt the bullying was too much and didn't see how Alyce was the villain. She has good intentions and doesn't try to hurt anyone on purpose but she gets wrapped up in worse and worse things as the story goes on. At one point I had such an uneasy feeling while reading and had to put the book down because I needed to calm down before continuing. Alyce isn't the only villain in this book and it reads as her being the good guy for a good part of it. At a certain point everything starts turning into the story we all know and it is fantastic. This is a story of downfall, it has mean people and dark magic, and it is so good. I rated this 4/5 because how Alyce is at the beginning is not my favorite and for most of the book she seems too good. Definitely read this book if you want to read about an MC with an unhappy life being pushed into the role of villain.
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