Garbage. Trash. Crap.
I picked up this book because it was short and I enjoyed another of the series (by a different author). I am very sorry that I did.
For being less than 30 pages, this book had every single content warning that I have seen EVER. It was horrid.
This book was disgusting and I will never read anything by this author again. I cannot recommend this to anyone for any reason.

Content: s*x trafficking, murder, parent with severe mental issues, abusive stepparent, s*x between minors, descriptions of peeing(?), literally everything was about race, drug use, a girl plans to “have her fun” with FMC ( )

Winter 2021 (January);

Woooowww, this one got dark for a retelling in a way I did not expect (which, again, really is first world training, when I wasn't surprised by a murder story but I was surprised by Hansel & Gretl spun from a 'consuming of the flesh' of children tale to one of the consuming of the flesh of children as sex trafficking. While this was definitely a little surprising, I kept banking hard into thinking one of them was in on it, and I felt the ending fell a little flat.

(BUT THE LEGOS WERE ADORABLE.) ( )

Neat concept and good writing, but Hansel and Gretel is one of my least favorite fairy tales so this story was never going to be a new favorite. It's dark, and I think it will appeal to the people looking for dark fairy tale retellings. ( )

Pandemic and staycation read. ( )

Faraway Series

The Prince and the Troll - Faraway, Book 1 - Rainbow Rowell - 3 Stars - Adam, Unnamed Troll? - An unlikely friendship between a man and a creature who helped him save his phone from under a bridge. It's a strange modern fairy tale world and I’m not sure I understood all that was going on but I enjoyed it.

Hazel and Gray - Faraway, Book 2 - Nic Stone - 3.5 Stars - Hazel, Gray - The most messed up version of Hansel and Gretel I’ve ever read…. Well, the original was pretty jacked too. There were some crazy twists in this story but I liked that. The end felt kind of unfinished.

The Princess Game - Faraway, Book 3 - Soman Chainani- 3.5 Stars - too many to list - Girls in Chaminade High School are being murdered and the “Princes'' a.k.a. popular boys are suspects. Two local police officers go undercover to try and catch the perps but blow their cover and it all goes sideways. I think I was most interested in this story. Probably because it has been the most straightforward and I knew exactly who the killer was. That did not diminish my pleasure in listening to the book. I’m glad they went for a full cast of narrators as there were a lot of characters. Even with the multiple cast I still didn’t know who was talking sometimes.

The Cleaners - Faraway, Book 4 - Ken Liu - 3 Stars - Clara, Beatrice, Gui - I have no idea what fairy tale this was supposed to be but that’s not the first with this series. The sister’s story was kinda interesting and so was Gui’s however I’m not sure how they connect and I left the story just feeling confused.

The Wickeds - Faraway, Book 5 - Gail Forman - 3.5 Stars - Elsinora, Gwendolyn, and Marguerite - The real story of Cinderella, Snow White and Repunzel’s mothers. This was a story I could get behind. I was still left with a sense of being confused but I loved the takes on what “really” happened as opposed to the highly exaggerated stories we know. ( )