I was extremely disappointed with the shocking poor quality. Initially, I was very excited to read this book, I love fairytale-inspired stories so much. The cover is gorgeous but I felt like I was reading political preaching shoved down my throat. I don't want social justice virtue signaling in my fantasy books. I read to escape the real world, not be reminded of the anxiety it brings. The forced representation felt shoe-horned in instead of giving those cultures and characters a life of their own as they deserved. True diversity is beautiful, but here, it just feels like I had no choice but to be lectured on it. The anti-straight white male rhetoric just made me angry. All the female characters are abusive and suspicious of men, to the point of looking down on them as a lesser life form, nearly butchering the point of the original tales. It’s often portrayed as “empowering” to be evil and horrible to people, honestly, NO IT ISN’T. The writing really suffers with the virtue signaling and a ‘I am holier than thou’ kind of narration, as if the author has to lecture the reader on how dumb and uninformed we are. There’s graphic sexual content in here, and yet this is suppose to be a middle-grade? I don’t think so. And it's a shame because I really enjoyed the author's School for Good and Evil book series. Allow stories to be stories, not spaces where you shove your opinions down people's throats.

It also felt like the author was taking a jab at religious people, in particular, Christians and Jews, or those with a more traditional world view, surprise, surprise. While it’s fine to be critical of some of the ways religion has been misused. And especially concerning the lgbtq+ community, I can totally understand the frustration. But villainizing or ALWAYS portraying religious or traditional people in a negative light has its consequences. You alienate groups you are trying to educate on a particular subject, you come across as ignorant about their culture and beliefs or world view, especially if you are are going to lecture them about the importance of “diversity and respecting other cultures,” but then not doing that very same thing yourself(which is how self-entitled super social justice warriors often come across), full of hypocrisy. I was expecting better from this author, having previously admired some of his work.

I definitely won’t be picking up any more from this author because I don’t want to promote his work.

So many stars! Very satisfying, fun, often dark retellings that, in a seaaa of fairytale retellings, still feel clever and new.
Also: great on audio.