tori_renee_reads's reviews
255 reviews

A solid play and better than others from a similar time 

This is a short philosophical exploration of life aimed at kids. It felt a bit out of place for Lemony Snicket’s tone or I guess the expectations I had for the story, which I suppose matched the first rule of writing. 

This didn’t really connect with me. Her later works are stronger and have a lot more depth. You can really see her growth from this. It’s her first, but the last I’ve read.

I connected more with this collection compared to her others. There were stronger themes throughout and a lot of longer poems as well.

Took a bit for it to pick up and the characters annoyed me in the beginning but I liked it a lot once everyone stopped being annoying

I was expecting more based on the reviews and synopsis of this book. They weren’t really dark fairytale retellings, more sexualized retellings? The Bloody Chamber was just a let down ending, even though the descriptions were immersive. Puss and Boots was funny and probably the only story in this collection I kind of liked. A few were just weirdly sexual in a bad way? Like in The Snow Child, the “father” does stuff to the dead child but it’s just a magic creature made of his wish so it’s supposed to be normal? Like it was weird and I hated it. It took me four days to read 125 pages and I fell asleep several times while reading this. I should’ve dnfed but it was so short I didn’t think it would be this bad. 

This series has me completely hooked. I feel like it’s a culmination of Bardugo’s writing maturing over the years. Alex is such a gritty and relatable character. She’s a survivor and “‘We do what we have to,’ Alex said. ‘That’s the only job of a survivor.’” The magic and world building in this series are so interesting and well researched. I read this 500 page book in like two days because I was so immersed I couldn’t put it down. 

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Both Ninth House and Hell Bent are definitely worth the read. One final quote:

“As for opportunity, she knew better than anyone: You had to make it for yourself.”

I liked the poetry format and the character dynamics. The end was a bit rushed but overall a good coming of age plot.