Here’s a pretty buzzy book I didn’t think I would have the chance to read. It took all of seven weeks for it to come through on Libby, but I finally got a copy to read and laid it down. I have some thoughts I’d be down to share, but a cautious note. The book is about fairy tales, but not the ones you know. Talking about them in any detail will spoil important parts of the book, so make sure to try and grab a copy of you can first. I know it’s pretty popular at the moment, but it was mostly worth the wait.

And remember like I always say, just because I have some thoughts on a book doesn’t make the book good or bad. I wouldn’t claim that anymore, and it’s too simple a generalization, especially for a book like this. If you think you’ll like it, then you probably will. I’m not sure how much I have to say, so I’m going to take it as far as I go and see how far along we are.

Once Upon a Time…

I know, I’m hilarious…

For this book, I think I’ll try to summarize the book in my own words, I might be able to get through it a little faster. Alice Prosperine has been living on the run from ‘the bad luck’ with her Mother, Ella, for as long as she can remember. When she’s a teenager, they receive a letter that says their grandmother, the famous Althea Prosperine, has died – which appears to be the signal that they can now settle down. They hang out in New York for a while before weird things start happening again, and people from Alice’s half-remembered past begin appearing, looking for her. With the help of her friend Ellery Finch, they set off to try and figure out what’s happening, find her missing Mother, which will take them all the way back to Althea’s woodland manor, the Hazel Wood, and beyond.

Pretty good tag right? I thought I did a good job.

So that’s pretty straightforward, and let me say, I did enjoy the book. Dark fairy tales and dark magic give me a feeling like falling in love. But one of my main issues with the book is that it starts almost too straightforward.

All of the fun magic and mystery doesn’t come around until MUCH later on in the book. For the entire first half of the book, it’s more about Alice and Ellery trying to establish what it is they’re looking for, who’s a danger to them, how they’re going to find Ella. It feels like there’s a lot of kicking around New York, just happening upon things that take them forward in the plot. And there’s some kind of budding relationship between the two characters that I wasn’t super opposed to, but their chemistry was always a little off, and the two of them know it.

Still, if you want to experience the real grit of the book, you have to be willing to hold on through at least half of the book. Not that all of it is bad, and Alice certainly has a strong voice that makes the book fun to read, but if you were like me and in it for the magic, it takes a minute to warm up the ol’ magic wand.

Finch

Most of my other problems come from him, which is a problem.

It’s obvious Albert had her mind on diversity – Finch is specifically African American (and Jewish I’m pretty sure) and you could read any of the other fairy tale characters as diverse as well.

It was the way that they revealed that he was black that I felt was a little strange. I don’t remember seeing one descriptor of him throughout the course of the book that didn’t talk about curly black hair or the One mention of Hannukah that he makes – until they have a run-in with a cop, where she mouths off to said officer, and he’s freaked out because of his skin. That’s the first time I think it’s mentioned, and I couldn’t tell if that was a good or strange move on the author’s part? It almost felt like she was trying to catch me, “Ah ha, you were imagining him as being white? Well what about now!” Like trying to catch me being white-centric. Which kind of worked, I did have to adjust the vision of the character in my mind. But I would have preferred to imagine him the same way the author did for the rest of the book before that point, which was almost halfway through the book. I just thought that was a weird choice.

And for all of that catching me off guard and trying to make me feel bad for not thinking diverse enough… he’s the Only character that dies.

So what am I supposed to think about that?

Like, sure, characters can die, even diverse ones, but it’s a little annoying. I get that the plot needed him to go away for a while, and that there were parts of the journey Alice needed to complete on her own, but in a world of magic, there are always other ways around these things.

And I did say, ‘go away for a while‘. People who have read the book will say (spoilers) “But he comes back!” Yes, he does come back, 90% through the book. So I didn’t imagine him the right way for the first half of the book, then he’s gone through the last half, only to come back older and grown and having lived another life and what was the point of you again? Nothing comes of this character or his relationship with Alice other than his resources since he’s super rich and can help her get around and look for clues while she’s homeless. It was convenient and seemed a little contrived for a character I felt could have contributed more, even if he had his own agendas and wanted to see magic so badly he would seel out a friend and all that. Characters are allowed to be complicated and flawed, but I couldn’t get really get a grasp of his character while he was on the page, and all of his arc and growth happened off it.

The heck?

The Enchanted Woods

But once you get into the guts of the story, the really fun stuff starts to happen – with magic and a crazy house and all that. I think the section inside the Hazel Wood was very disorienting, which I know was how it was supposed to feel, but that was a tough section to get through for me. I found myself skimming since a lot of those scene changes and shifting planes didn’t really add much to what was happening unless they dealt with Ella or Althea. A minor thing, but worth noting. And after that, things are just so much better.

Which was my other problem.

Because I had to wait so long for all of the interesting magic and world building and neat things to happen, after she returns to her story and we know more about who Alice actually is and what she means to the Hinterlands. It’s how I wanted the whole book to be, which compared to the rest of the story thus far, was a real treat. Personified stories, worlds with worlds beyond worlds, doorways to distant places, strange and terrible magics… count me the Hell in! Everything preceding it felt a little tedious – the Hinterlands was where I wanted to spend more of the book, learning about its cultures and its rules. Everything leads up to bittersweet, but satisfying ending for me, and I can’t help but think that I would have truly loved the book had it been half as long, and only involved the last half.

But that’s just me.

And they lived…

Pick it up and read it, I promise it’s worth it. If you can get through the first half, you will be rewarded for your persistence in the end with something really unique. I think Albert is a great writer and I’m interested in other things she’s done. In the end, I really did enjoy the book. I’m just not sure I could read that first half again.

Keep reading.