Review: Fun Romp through Fairy Tale City
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 13, 2013
It seems I've been in the mood to read "riffs" on Fairy Tales this year. This one is actually one of the better ones.It pulls in various well-known tales, but doesn't let them take over the storyline. In fact, sometimes it's hard to tell which fairy tale is being referred to until it "concludes." (I'm personally fond of the princess from the "Princess and the Pea" who goes on to be the beauty in "Beauty and the Beast...all without being the main protagonist or getting in the way of the plot.)Each of the main characters is a fairly well defined individual with understandable motives and growth. The one exception is the Evil Aunt, who is just over the top...but works in this instance. The main male character starts out an annoying, whiny. self-absorbed cliche, but improves over the course of the book.Strangely enough, I noticed no grammar/spell-check errors which either means that the plot/characters had drawn me in completely, or there were so few they didn't stand out. Hmm... for that alone, maybe I should give this 5 stars.There is some violence, but it's more the "slap-stick" kind, some torture (although not described with any specificity), the death of someone close to the main character, and some references to sexual attraction (which would go over the heads of most kids), so I feel that this book would probably be safe to read for tweens and up.