Personal Rating: 3 Stars Goodreads Rating: 3.53 Content Rating: Strong PG-13 Leave it to the heroes to save the world--villains just want to rule the world. In this unique YA anthology, thirteen acclaimed, bestselling authors team up with thirteen influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains' points of view. These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like "Medusa," Sherlock Holmes, and "Jack and the Beanstalk" provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains' acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage--and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again! (goodreads.com) As you might have gathered from the synopsis, this is an anthology of short stories by different authors all with a common subject of villainy. Each of the stories also has a bit of commentary at the end of them from some of the most well known BookTubers (YouTubers who primarily talk about books). It was published last year and I remember there being a big buzz about it for a bit. I think everyone was excited because there are so many good authors smooshed into this book and most people had that one author out of the bunch that they were reading this book for. For me it was definitely Marissa Meyer. I probably would not have cared one way or another about this book if she had not written a story for it and I’m sure a lot of people who read it felt similarly. Also… I like watching BookTubers’ channels so that was kind of fun to see some of their thoughts on the stories as well. The hype for this book has died down since last year and usually when I hear people mention it now I only hear negative things about it. Apparently a lot of people really do love to hate this book. I’m not entirely sure why, to be honest. While it wasn’t my favorite book in the whole world, I loved it and thought most of the stories were captivating (and some of them a little disconcerting). So I’m not really sure why people are so mad/upset/annoyed with this book (although some of the other reviews I’ve seen are irritated that the BookTubers are featured because it seems like a marketing ploy, which okay, maybe it is, but whatever), especially since there were thirteen whole stories in it. I mean, how can you not have found one that you liked out of thirteen? Like, you knew that this book was about villains going into it so you can’t be mad that all of the stories are about bad people doing not so nice things because that’s literally all this book is claiming to be. Anyway… I’m not normally a person who likes to read about the bad guys getting away with things and I find villain origin stories sad most of the time since even if it’s tragic we know they just go on to become a bad guy and possibly get beaten by the hero later on. However, I had fun reading these little tales of terribleness and after I got over wanting to scold the characters (yes, I’m that kind of person) I liked watching them paint the town red. Since there are thirteen individual stories, I thought I’d give a brief, spoiler-free review of each of them and just tell you what I, personally, liked and disliked about them. The Blood of the Imuriv by Reneé Ahdieh: This was one of the ones I didn’t enjoy quite as much. It didn’t seem like it had much of a point to it and since it wasn’t a retelling or an origin for a villain we already know, it didn’t interest me as much as the other ones. I did think the world building was interesting and the MC seemed like he had stuff going on that I would like to know more about. I think this one might have been better if it were the first chapter of a book. Jack by Ameriie: Oooooh boy. This one was a wild ride. I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to spoil anything, but I liked this one. It is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk from the perspective of a giant. It wasn’t very exciting for the first part and I was kind of bored for a while, but that end, man, that was a good ending. It almost felt like something that I would have read in my Analytical Lit class that I took in high school. Gwen and Art and Lance by Soman Chaini: I have never really cared for the part of the legend of King Arthur in which Guinevere cheats on Arthur for Lancelot. (I mean, does anyone like it when characters cheat on each other? I hate it when that happens and I lose respect for the characters that are doing the cheating.) This is a modern retelling of that part of the legend told through text communications or instant messaging or something. It was easy enough to read and it flowed well, plus since it was all in text messages my mind decided to add a typing sound to each sentence, which was kind of fun/annoying. But, I still don’t like this part of Arthurian legend. Lance is a jerk. Arthur is a jerk. Gwen is a big jerk. And yet, none of them seemed all that villainous, just like spiteful kids making bad decisions. Shirley & Jim by Susan Dennard: As a fan of the Sherlock television show I was excited for this one because it is about a young Professor Moriarty and a young, female Sherlock. It wasn’t as good as I was expecting, but it wasn’t terrible. I don’t think it did a good job of showing how smart Shirley is, as we are supposed to believe it based off of her remarks since the story is told as an email to Watson. Shirley mentions a few times how much of a know-it-all she is and that she’s really good at chess, but that’s all the information we have about how clever she is, which ends up making her seem very naive in comparison to Jim. Still, it was fun to read about the chess matches between them and I liked it well enough. The Blessing of Little Wants by Sarah Enni: Another one that reminded me of Lit class, except this one is similar to the stories I read in class because I’m not sure I quite understood it. This was another one that wasn’t inspired by a character already in existence so perhaps that was why I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of it. I liked the characters in it and the world it was set in was cool (wish I could have seen more of it), but the twist at the ending… I don’t think I understood it. From what I could gather it was a cool twist, but I think it went over my head. The Sea Witch by Marissa Meyer: Predictably, the story by one of my favorite authors of all time was one of my favorite stories in the book. This was an origin story for the witch in the story of The Little Mermaid. It was definitely dark and gruesome, but it was still fun to read. It was sort of sad, but also satisfying in a way that the original story was not (I don’t want to say how because of spoilers). It did kind of feel like Hans Christian Andersen did most of the leg work on this one and Marissa Meyer just added her own sinister and entertaining touches. Beautiful Venom by Cindy Pon: Ugh, this one made me sad. It was a gripping read and the emotion in it was strong in it, but it was not really a fun read. Retelling the story of Medusa, this story covers some of the stuff in Greek mythology that I, admittedly, would rather forget. Like the fact that Medusa was raped by Poseidon and then turned into a monster after that by Athena as a punishment (which kinda makes me hate Athena). This story looks at that part of the myth in more depth and the fact that Medusa was not at fault for her monsterous form. It was showing us why she was a “villain”. Even though it was not as mischievous or fun as the rest of the villain stories in this anthology, it was one of my favorites because it was so emotional. Death Knell by Victoria Schwab: Another one that would have been at home in the Analytical Lit class and another one that was sad, but a good read. In this one the personification of Death wakes up in spring and climbs out of this mysterious well in order to go escort someone to the afterlife/kill them. There seemed to be strong symbols in this story (the well, a red flower crown, graves, dying grass, a glove) which made it feel like something I was supposed to analyze - in a fun nostalgic way. I didn’t actually take the time to analyze it (apologies to my dear Lit teacher), but it felt like I could have written a short paper/reflection on it. I don’t know why that made me happy with it, but it did. Marigold by Samantha Shannon: Even though this one felt a tad predictable, I really liked it. The story is about a Fae queen who lives in the wooded parts of England during the reign of Queen Victoria. This Fae lady has a tendency to kidnap girls and take them to live in the woods in her magical court, which sounds really creepy. And it sort of is... until you get reading the story more. I liked the setting for the story and the characters were interesting and there really wasn’t much I didn’t enjoy about this read. You, You, It’s All About You by Adam Silvera: In this story (which is written in second person interestingly enough) we meet a teenaged supervillan/crime boss. And she is not very nice. She deals drugs that can make you forget or remember things (which is kindling for a good book, methinks) and also uses one that somehow makes you do whatever she says. I’m not sure how I feel about this story. I think I wanted more of it. I wanted more backstory for the MC and more information on her boyfriend guy. More story all around. And then I might have been happy with it. That, or if the ending of this one was more final. Julian Breaks Every Rule by Andrew Smith: This was a weird one, especially for me since the main character, Julian, lives in Iowa and I live in Iowa. Not many stories take place in Iowa (except, of course, Bridges of Madison County, but I’ve never read that) so when one does come along all of the Iowan readers are on edge. I was a little bit annoyed at this story because Julian, the narrator, makes it seem like Iowa is not a great place at all *scoffs in indignation*, but he did paint a fairly accurate picture of several aspects of my state so… I guess I have to let it go. As a whole, I didn’t really like this story, but it did make me laugh a few times (like the quote “Iowans like to name their schools after prominent politicians who came from Iowa, as if to assert to the rest of the world that Iowa exists” (pg. 278) because it stings how true that is). I did not like Julian or is narrating voice, mostly because he had some weird obsession with foreshadowing and he kept mentioning when things were and weren’t foreshadowing. The plot was kind of bizarre and entertaining though, so I don’t rate it too low. Indigo and Shade by April Genevieve Tucholke: This one was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast from the suitor’s perspective (the suitor is the guy who Gaston is in the Disney version). The narrator/MC of this story is Brahm Valois, the golden boy of a ski resort town in Colorado. I kind of love how he is the narrator, honestly. Normally in first person stories the protagonist doesn’t tell you how awesome they are. They are more likely to talk about parts of themselves that they don’t like and that they think no one else will like either, but our man Brahm loves talking about how he is super handsome and super skilled. I’m sure if he were a real person I would have been annoyed with him, but it was a refreshing change from the characters who look in the mirror and describe to us how beautiful they are and then state that no one could ever love them. Brahm would probably look in the mirror and blow a kiss while proceeding to describe how no one's slick as Brahm, no one’s quick as Brahm, no one’s neck is incredibly thick as Brahm’s neck and how there is no one in town half as manly... I’m not sure that I actually liked the story because it was too fast paced and Indigo was pretty boring, but I thought Brahm was great. Sera by Nicola Yoon: Oof. This one was weird. Interesting, but weird. It kind of felt like when you drive past a two smashed up cars on the side of the road and you feel bad, but you keep staring because you are curious about how bad the damage is and if everyone is still alive. Apparently, this story is supposed to be a “genderbent God of War”, but I’m not sure what that means. Is God of War a book? A movie? Are they just referring to a mythological god who’s in charge of wars? Like Ares, Montu, or Tyr? I dunno. Whatever it is supposed to be, it was about a girl named Sera and her mother and sister. And Sera is a weirdy. A violent weirdy. I didn’t particularly like this story, but I couldn’t stop reading it and sort of wish I could see what happened after the end of it. So those are the stories. The thirteen tales of villainy and my thoughts on them. If any of them sound interesting to you then I would recommend checking out this book from your local library if they have it. Like I said, there are a lot of low ratings for this book, but there are a lot of high ones too so it seems like there is no way to tell if you would actually like it or not. I thought it was fun and I would probably reread some of the stories in it. Thank you for reading this really long review! I hope you were entertained! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to rule the world. Image source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31450752-because-you-love-to-hate-me
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