sometimes the age gap and miscommunication give me major ick… but i can’t turn away from how cute they end up being 😩

i kept seeing the same words over and over so i decided to look up their frequency:

number of times beautiful is listed in this book (mostly in relation to Amelia) - 32 number of times fist(s) is listed in this book (mostly in relation to Corin) - 38 number of times glass is listed in this book - 62 times

with how repetitive a lot of the adjectives, item descriptions, and character dialogues/thoughts were, this book might’ve been better marketed as middle grade instead of young adult. i’m surprised the author (cindy) kept being very explicitly direct in some instances considering a lot of her videos critique other authors for “telling rather than showing” … if i was still teaching students ages 10-13, i would actually say this might be an interesting text to explore mental health issues, impacts of “war” (imperialism), expectations of biological families, building literacy skills via reading in different timelines/POVs … but viewing this as YA didn’t really work for me.

this was an ARC via netgalley so it’ll be interesting to see how much of the content changes

Rating: 1.25 of 5 / Advanced Reader Copy received from NetGalley ⭐️

DNF @ 45%

Book summary

lowkey i couldn’t even tell you. they have to get a treasure from somewhere but i truly have no grasp of why this was a plot point :/

Criticism

it seems like this book wanted to subvert the typical tropes, as this is a fairytale retelling, and while i 1) am neutral to fairy tales 2) don’t care about retellings and 3) am no longer in the YA demographic, i know i’m 100% not the audience for this book but i can still appreciate a good book if it’s good

that being said, pham relied too heavily on these tropes existing in this fantasy world and the characters being self-aware that they fit these exact tropes—i don’t know if pham intended to break the fourth wall on this or if it just came to be a theme within the chapters

Amelia: Even in fairy tales, princesses merely existed in stories that others wanted to tell.

Corin: […] this is how fairy tales were supposed to end.

i’m sure if i made it to the end, the tropes would be somewhat subverted but how they get there is confusing in tone

also the way i cannot get a grip on any solid description—there’s no real direction, no physical location to hold on to. i get that the fluidity of movement in the dream realm is supposed to represent this fairytale fantasy but i couldn’t get my foothold to sink deep enough to understandably consume what in the world was even happening and why the characters were expressing these emotions. i would say the book lacked spatial awareness but i can’t even tell if that’s what i mean in regards to how nondescript the “world building” is with a few purple proses to decorate the edges so it doesn’t seem like anything is lacking.

even while i describe certain parts as nondescript, i still feel like every other second, the writing brought something up to make sure i knew what Big Feelings were happening in the moment, even if we don’t have to reach that conclusion yet if that makes sense? it was like i’m driving down a long stretch of road and every 2 miles there’s a sign that says “gas station to your left” except there’s no left? the road is straight and the sign keeps appearing on the road in the next 2 miles “gas station to your left” BABY THERE IS NO LEFT?? STOP THREATENING ME !!

Underdevelopment

aside from the world building being all over the place and not concrete enough, the characters were not that interesting to me from the beginning. they are immediately depressed and unshakeable when we meet them so it seemed to drag during their separate chapters before they met up with each other

the titular character and her love interest have so little chemistry, if one of them became a pet, neither of them would care to adopt 😭 like it’s sad brah lmfao i came for the sapphic romance but all i got was a depression mug

and i love a good story that involves very broken, imperfect, and suffering characters, but i don’t feel like there was an opportunity to really dive into their mental health. and from what i’ve read from spoiler reviews, it seems it doesn’t really have good progress on that front in the end anyway…

malicine had a few good moments with their pov chapters and then they seemed to disappear into the background, forgotten and unrelated to the plot until called upon by either main characters. they could’ve been the cuntiest if they had an ounce of description given to them, but even their appearance in the story didn’t move me

especially corin’s sister elly who felt very one-dimensional—it seemed she was just there to give corin a reason to feel any type of emotion, carefree and simple-minded because of course her big sister has to handle all of the emotional responsibility of the world’s cruelty right

Ending Thoughts

all in all, i really wanted to like this book. i enjoy some of pham’s content though i am not a regular patron of it on social media or youtube, but i was excited for her to be telling a story of her own bc i think she’s funny and cool

i will say i would still tune in for pham’s second or third book. i think there is potential there, and if she can fine tune her skills then she could tell a great story, hopefully one that doesn’t rely on an existing story to carry the weight of it

the one thing i regret was not reading this sooner bc now i have no choice but to DNF during AAPI month or pride month and i am deeply sorry for that i have failed both my communities 😔