Thursday, February 7, 2013

One Messed Up, but Awesome Fairy Tale



Oh, this book was so much fun. As you can tell by the title, this is not your average book.  I enjoy fairy tale retellings, and this book was just that, but also much more.

RJ (better known as Rumple Stiltskin to the rest of us) has recently taken over the apartment of an investigator. As such, he is mistaken for said investigator when Asia, stepsister to Cinderella (yes, that Cinderella) comes hoping to solve Cindi’s murder. Poor, sweet Cinderella was recently run over by a bus, you see, in New Never City. Asia is convinced that it was murder, and RJ, recently suspended from the Villains Union, and forced to be nice, is compelled to help the distressed princess. (As you can see, there’s a lot happening here.) So RJ goes to the kingdom of Maledetto to help Asia find Cindi’s killer. In doing so he encounters quite the cast of characters, falls for the princess, and is constantly in danger of being murdered.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It featured some very memorable characters, including Prince Charming, who is a closet homosexual, and determined to marry one of the Maledetto family in order to become king. Another great one was Dru, the other stepsister, who is cursed by having one heck of a unibrow. My favorite though was Asia, who the reader cannot quite figure out right until the very end.

The book reminded me of a campy, fast-paced movie, in the vein of The Princess Bride and Robin Hood Men in Tights. The book threw in random fairy tale characters here and there (including Cross-Stitch, Captain Hook’s cousin) and there were lots of great one-liners as well.

This book was a mix between mystery, fantasy, and humor (heavy on the humor), and was thoroughly enjoyable. Others like it are The Princess Bride (book) by WilliamGoldman and Werewolf Smackdown by Mario Acevedo. Both of those feature magic, humor, and a riff on a fairy tale.

~Cailey W.

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