Reading level: Grades 3-7
Awards: Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts Award

Ugh. Books capitalizing on a trend (for instance, re-imagining fairy tales) should either be very good and very interesting, or at least light fare, to be consumed like potato chips. This one is neither. Too many plot lines badly woven together. Too many reversals. And characters and writing that just isn't that interesting, as well as basically no worldbuilding at all. Might work for someone as their first introduction to the genre, but the hamhanded attempt to include a whiff of early-teen romance is likely to be a non-starter. ( )

I know this fractured fairytale is popular, but I gotta say, it just didn't stick with me. By the time I finished, I had to really think about who all the characters were and exactly what happened. That's a sure sign that I've read better books. It's not terrible. It's not great. In other words, it's as good as most of the books out there.

Here's what's good. Openers like this. "Once upon a time, Jack wouldn't have been caught dead in a princess rescue." That's a good opener and I love a good opener. The book’s funny. I also love funny. It's the book's best strength. It's got lots of well-known fairytale characters, and I love fairytales. Kids also love all of this, so if you’re just looking for a book for your kids to read, then you’re all set.

I personally need more than this for a book to impress me. It comes down to two things: character development and plot development. So we have the leading man, Jack, and the leading lady, May. May’s grandmother, supposedly Snow White, has been kidnapped. When May falls through a fiery portal at Jack’s feet, she insists that he help her. So off they go into the Black Forest, chased by a giant. They run into Prince Phillip, who decides to accompany them and a Wolf King who vows to protect them. They travel to Red Hood’s cottage where they find the mirror to tell them where Snow White is being held. And on and on it goes with fairy Merriweather, fairy Maleficent, the evil queen, dragons…so much stuff going on.

It’s as if Riley took a whole bunch of fairy tales and mashed them together to see what he could come up with. All these characters, many with miniscule roles, result in poor character development, because if the character really doesn’t serve a necessary purpose then it just brings the story down. Same with the plot. It needed to be tighter…in a major way…to avoid the mashed together feel. The best fractured tales have a self-sustaining plot with all the fairytales existing on the fringe. Two books that do this effectively are [b: The School for Good and Evil|16248113|The School for Good and Evil (The School for Good and Evil, #1)|Soman Chainani|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490529205s/16248113.jpg|21599439] and [b: The Fairy-Tale Detectives|176327|The Fairy-Tale Detectives (The Sisters Grimm, #1)|Michael Buckley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1349272153s/176327.jpg|1142385]. You can look at the number of ratings of these books to see that good writing gets noticed.

But still…the kids will enjoy it. ( )

I wanted to drop this book since the beginning of it - I don't like doing it, so I didn't - and in the last three chapters I was finally involved with the story.
Now I need to read the next. How cool is that? ( )

I picked this up from the library after reading the first (sample) chapter online. From the first chapter I expected the book would be funny but it was more serious, scary and intense. There was a lot of action. I had problem with the characters, who are fourteen and fifteen, acting older-their ages are mentioned frequently and always surprised me because I kept feeling that they were seventeen or older because of the flirting. Though, now that I think of it, their dialogue was often as annoying as typical young teens' bickering usually is.

Part of my rating is because it always annoys me to read a while book and not know that it is a series until the last couple chapters. This is a trilogy but the cover gives no hint of this and it is definitely not a stand alone book. I do want to read the other two books, if only to hopefully get some questions answered. For instance, by the end I was unsure who was really good or bad.

"Half Upon a Time" reminded me at times of the TV series"Once Upon a Time", especially with May and her grandma. ( )