Chris Colfer

This series is too adorable - everything is magical and everything makes sense. Chris has given character and depth to classic fairy tale characters that are too often ignored - like Little Bo Peep. I loved that Red was challenged for her crown, and lost it too! In a democratic election no less. This proves that fairy tales can be used to teach any lesson and make any concept easy to learn. I liked the addition of Bree, and look forward to seeing more of her in the next books. While the show more concept of two 13 year olds abandoning their school tour and gallivanting through Europe is completely far-fetched, it was something I always wanted to do so I let it slide ;). While I'm sad that their grandmother is gone, I'm super excited to see Alex as the Fairy Godmother. I could tell Rook wasn't going to turn out well from the beginning, but I'm glad Alex had some fun, at least for a little bit. That twist at the end though - I almost immediately went out and bought the next book! I like to take breaks between books in a series but that was certainly unexpected and left me grabbing for more. So far, this book has a higher rating for me than the first two, because I enjoy seeing the growth of the twins, especially as they are separated and becoming their own person apart. I will always support Chris Colfer and his writing, no matter how old I get. Consider me excited for the next books! show less

3.5/5 stars
You can find all my reviews here.

The Land of Stories is the world I wanted to be real with all my heart when I was 10. Alright, who do I think I'm kidding, I still do. I was never a girly girl but I've always loved fairytales and that's something I won't outgrow.
Colfer's story is fun, whimsical even,while still managing to get across lessons the way fairytales originally intended. Biggest complaint for me is a tie between predictability and a writing style I didn't love. show more Predictability because halfway through the book I had correctly guessed 3 major reveals that came in the final chapter, granted I'm much older than the target age group. The writing style, while not my favorite, wasn't enough to ruin the book for me. Colfer had a habit of using short choppier sentences and telling emotions of everyone rather than conveying how they were feeling in other ways. But mostly no matter what calamity came their way they had it solved within 2 pages. Too much good luck and coincidence for my taste. Still, I found it to be a fun read and am planning on reading more of the series.
Ending thought: Holy crap Brandon Dormer can draw. I want him to come do a portrait on my bedroom wall, his art style is just, wow. Whatever he got paid triple it. Perfect choice of illustrator for such a fun middle grade book, it has one of the most beautiful covers I've ever seen. show less

I really enjoyed reading this book. The main character, Carson, is the perfect amount of snarky and provides a real insight into someone who grows up with many issues in their personal and social life, but through all of it still strives for more in life.

I thought it was good to write the book in a journal/diary style. It provided a better insight into the main character and allowed for more character development. The reader is able to get inside the mind of Carson Phillips and what he is show more thinking and going through in his senior year of high school. By using a journal style of writing, there is more leeway for the reader to connect to the character and witness his progression throughout the book with the way that his words and conversation changes throughout the story.

I enjoyed the story and the sarcasm. My favorite part is the sarcasm and the snarky comments made by Carson, but also the way that he end up realizing that his tormentors and the people in his high school are more than their stereotyped images and that they are actual people with actual problems and learns that the way they act and who they are is reflected through their own personal lives.

The story was capturing and interesting from start to finish. I was drawn in from the very first sentence and kept until the very end. show less

Trigger Warnings: transphobia, homophobia, racism (all challenged), cancer, outing

It’s been… I don’t even know, two years? since I read this book, and I never really planned on reviewing it.

But oh my fucking god it pissed me off so bad.

Every time I think of this book, I get so worked up because it was SO. FUCKING. BAD.

So I’m going to review it, and hope that’ll let off some steam so I can finally get it off my mind.

It had a lot of components that make a good book – I don’t show more remember all too clearly, but it was fun, decently written, good characters, etc.

I loved the premise. And in theory I should have loved the book.

But let me tell you, this book had ISSUES.

I’m going to tag all my spoilers, but honestly? This book was problematic shit and I don’t recommend it at all this review makes much less sense without the spoilers, so make of that what you will.

Firstly… well… I hate to say this, because we all know this is what the bigots say when they really mean “I’m a dickhead who’s uncomfortable reading about anyone who’s not allocishet, white, male, and able-bodied”, but the fact is the diversity felt forced.
I hesitate to call it tokenism, because that to me implies “Oh look there’s a gay best friend! Diversity!”, and the main cast in this was very diverse.
It’s just that… it really did feel to me like it was being done with the aim of being ‘politically correct’, and not because the author actually cared.

(I could be wrong, the author could have cared very much, but that is how it read to me personally.)

All in all though, I could have accepted that, and still considered it a good book – if not for the ending.

The main conflict centres around one of the characters, Cash, outing two of the others.

Obviously, this can be done well – one of my favourite books has a very similar conflict.

But.

It was not handled well. At all.

It almost was. It’s very much portrayed as something completely out of bounds and not at all okay, which is how it should be portrayed.

And then. And then and then and then.

We find out that Cash is dying and was acting out because of that. And all of a sudden all is forgiven and they’re clustered around his death bed crying.

I'm not saying that in the situation forgiving him was necessarily wrong or unreasonable - I wouldn't have, but if put in that situation it is an understandable response.

However I do think putting these characters in this situation (especially without addressing it with a whole hell of a lot more nuance than it did) is harmful, and I don’t think the story should have been written this way.

Perhaps that isn’t quite how it goes. Perhaps there’s more internal conflict there. But either way, it’s the story of spoiled privileged allocishet white boy who, in a fit of pettiness, hurts the group of marginalized teens who idolized him, and is forgiven when he quite frankly shouldn’t have been, and I’m not here for that.

Whatever the reasoning, whatever shit Cash is dealing with, that was not okay, and the way it was portrayed was harmful.

Fuck this book. show less