Review: Love at first Prequel!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 09 17, 2013
I think we should all agree that Cameron Jace is one creative writer. He took the fairytales we all know and spun them, twisted them, combined-tangled-reinvented them until he reached a mind-boggling result... or almost mind-boggling, because some things are still a bit confusing and should probably be reconsidered and reedited. But, leaving the small flaws aside, he managed to create a pretty exciting and clever series that I will gladly read up to the very last book, so please write faster, Cameron Jace!I read the Prequels one after the other, so I kind of perceived them as a whole. It's obvious that this makes it impossible to review them separately. I'm only going to talk a bit about my favorite ones and about the characters that really stood out for me."Snow White Blood Red" intrigued me enough to read the next teaser stories. In "Ashes to Ashes and Cinder to Cinder" I met Loki Blackstar and instantly liked him. "Beauty Never Dies" was ok... Peter Pan will probably end up on my list of favorite characters, but not just now. Unfortunately, I found Wendy/Sleeping Beauty's story a tad confusing and far-fetched, so I'm not going to say anything about this character yet. "Laddle Rat Rotten Hut" was, in my opinion, one of the best Prequels, and Laddle Rat sure is one of my all-time favorite characters. Of all the things that Little Red Riding Hood could have been turned into, Death was the last I expected. I figured out what (or who?) she and her mother were as soon as her mother told her about the Tree of Life and the Fortune Cookies. Still, I thought it was a nice twist, and the character was well-developed and very likeable. Laddle Rat is one of the badass girls of this series, and I get excited every time she is mentioned."Mary Mary Quite Contrary" was interesting for two reasons. First, I must say that the Devil is my second all-time favorite character, and I definitely want to see more of him in the series. He's absolutely hilarious! He's fun, witty, he clearly loves his Hell kiddos, and overall is doing a great job as a devil, even though he sometimes thinks he's pretty lousy at it and he should quit. Someone should grab him by the shoulders, shake him good, and tell him he's the best devil the Dreamworld has seen. That would raise his spirits when Hell gets boring. And the second reason for which I found this teaser story interesting was the way the author combined fairytale elements with historical facts. You meet Peter Pan again (who is Barrie's character), a Pippi Longstocking look-alike (Astrid Lindgren's character), Hans Christian Andersen's Kai and Gerda, along with the story of the Devil's mirror that made everything look ugly, until it broke and its evil shards got into people's hearts and eyes. And guess who got mirror splinters in her heart and both her eyes? Elizabeth Bathory! I loved how the author combined all these characters and stories, and made them work together so well.Moving on, "Blood Apples" was just ok. Have you noticed how dull and uninteresting is Prince Charming in most fairytale retellings? I say most because I, obviously, haven't read all of them. It reminded me of how dull and annoying he is in the "Once Upon a Time" TV show. I was glad that I met Jack Madly in this one, because he's my third all-time favorite character. He's simply perfect and someone should write a book about him!