Review: Rough execution but great ideas
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 23, 2013
**Originally written for Book Bliss book blog. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased and honest review**Review: 3 starsGeneral: Overall I loved the idea behind this. There is so much popularity and hype behind fairy tales and I think there always will be. I think Cameron Jace did an amazing thing by doing what was done with Wicked, and switching perspectives and changing up everything we thought we knew. I really enjoyed reading all the different stories, I thought they were creative and for the most part, entertaining. I will break them down by story in a moment.What did I have some issue with? I wasn't thrilled with the actual "diary" format. It forced a separation between me and what I was reading. I know the diary setup in teen novels is popular but for me it just didn't work. Also, I loved the prequel but at the same time I found it a little confusing, the history a bit rapid fire and had to read it a few times to make sure I had everything proper as much of is was alluded to throughout the short stories as with being confused a few times in the stories themselves. The other element that truly lowered this review was the grammar and spelling. Throughout words were missing and spelling issues ran throughout, something that is a huge pet peeve of mine.Snow White Blood Red- I think this was a good choice for a start. It set the tone for the theme throughout the stories. I think there were some distinct character issues with this being a women of regal background, evil or not. I think of all of them this was the most easy to follow in terms of good versus evil but not the best executed based on the narration choices. (Snow White)Ashes to Ashes, Cinder to Cinder- I liked this one alot due to the narrator being one of the chroniclers. I think it's the first time I've heard an evil take on Cinderella and I thought it was creative and an interesting take on a story that is normally the brightest of all the fairy tales even from a Disney persepctive. (Cinderella)Beauty Never Dies- This one threw me. I was confused by the title and think that overall it didn't properly illustrate the theme and the story that it was chronicling.  Also, I looked around and could not find anything that linked the original fairy tale to Grimm as it appeared to be written by someone else but that is just a side note. I loved the twists in this one and personally would have given this 5 stars had I read this by itself. (Peter Pan/Sleeping Beauty)Ladle Rat Rotten Hunt- This one was both strong and weak at the same time. As the one prior it was slowly starting to build on the ones that came before it. That means I also recommend reading them in order in this instance. However this was where I began to realize the narrators were all identical. I felt as though I was rereading the 3 females that had come before and it started to pull me out. (Red)Mary Mary Quite Contrary- This one had the best concept, but the hardest to follow execution. Finally a truly separate narrator. But I had to read it twice before I followed and then the originality of it slipped away as it was a classic tale once I realized what had occurred. Overall it was great but extremely confusing.Blood Apples- I loved that this one mixed things up a bit. I think like Beauty Never Dies it was one that carried the set for me. As with the female characters the Prince and Peter were too similar for me given their distinct differences by nature but I still enjoyed reading how everything meshed together.