Book Review: Cinderella Dressed In Ashes (The Grimm Diaries #2)

Release Date: August 15, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: J A W I G I (I Think)
Length: 253 pages
Source: Purchased eBook

Loki is controlled by the Queen through his Dreamhunter's Fleece, and he's now Snow White's enemy. No one's sure what the Queen of Sorrow wants to do next, and what her plans with Sorrow are.

In another Dreamory, they learn who Cinderella really is, where she came from, her relationship with Snow, and what historical period she'd affected with what she calls the Forbidden Art.

The Second installment of the Grimm Diaries.

This Diary continues the adventure, from Snow White's POV.

  

Review:

Protagonists: One of the things I really enjoyed about this story was that we really got to see from multiple perspectives, unfortunately, none of those were Loki, but honestly, in the end, I didn't care about not exploring his story further in this tale. The first main POV we get to see from is Snow/Shew who takes center stage in this story of her connection to the Cinderella character comes to light. I have to say that I did like Snow's character development better than Loki's. While Loki mostly glided through his story not really doing much and leaving the heavy lifting to everyone else until near the very end, Snow took less time to start to take control of her life. Granted it still took her longer than I wanted but when she did things really began to heat up. The other characters we see are Axle and Fable, stuck in the Waking World trying to help Snow and Loki. There still really isn't all that much character development with these two. I feel like the things they did by the end were things they would have done at the beginning of the series and Axle is a wealth of Deus Ex Machina information and theories that just so happen to be correct, and yet never feeling truly earned.

Writing: Much like with the first installment, my biggest criticism is the writing. This book has so much potential, and really this book feels like a fantastic first draft, but it's seriously unpolished and really needed to go through some critical beta readers and a professional editor. It's not just that there's bad grammar, spelling mistakes, and typing errors. While he's getting better, the author still does a lot of telling instead of showing in this story and sometimes he has way too many extraneous details. There are still characters who just show up and know things or remember every little detail of stories that they really shouldn't have perfect recall on, there are huge Deus Ex Machina moments, some that make sense, but others that just feel unnecessary. The author still feels like he doesn't quite know his target audience, though I think some of that is using more general words for much grander things and having things come off a bit basic and more aligned with a Middle-Grade story than a YA one, though he still uses cheesy terminology which definitely skews more MG.

World Building: Once again, the thing I feel holds the most promise in this story is how the author weaves history with fairy tales and classic stories. However, there were definitely a few times in this book that things got needlessly complicated and convoluted instead of the complexity that I'm sure the author was going for. The Cinderella in this story, Cyrenè, isn't just "Cinderella" I won't tell you all who she is, but there's a fairy tale that she's connected to that just doesn't quite seem to fit with the theme the author was try to ascribe to her. Also, classic stories got more involved in this world with explanations that, while interesting, just made the story feel cluttered. Since we're in Snow's Dreamory, we see things from her past and learn more about her background, but since she has control of her actions in the dream, it's hard to know what's really happened and what Snow changed from her story.

Predictability: Something I feel this author needs to understand is that foreshadowing is a great friend to an author. The thing is, you can make stuff up as you go along, but you need to be able to introduce it in some small way earlier in the story so that readers think you're playing by your own rules, and while you can break your own rules once or twice for special occasions, breaking them for next to no reason isn't a good idea. There were a few new concepts in this story that were introduced with no preamble and everything about them just felt chaotic and tacked on, as opposed to a living and breathing part of this world. There are for sure some fantastic moments in this story when the author gets the foreshadowing just right and brings everything together for an amazing twist or moment, but the times when he didn't, or couldn't in the cases of things that should have been teased in the first book, really didn't help the book.

Ending: So, as far as I can tell this is the second book in a four-book series. I know the prequels exist, but, again, as far as I can tell this plot that was started in the first book will only last two more books and that troubles me. As of the end of this book, I feel there is still so much to explore in this time and plot, and that's just with the story started in the first book, that's not even counting the story started in this one or the other stories that this book promised. Do I think the author can tie up all his loose ends in just two books, sure, but I'm afraid it would have to be extremely rushed and I don't know how effective it could be if he does. The climax to this book brings many new questions and theories and while the book ends with a startling cliffhanger and a puzzle for readers to solve, I feel like we're just at the beginning of a much larger and more expansive tale.

Rating:

Much like the first installment, this story holds so much promise and if things were polished up I bet this story could truly shine. The author's writing is marginally better in this installment, which only makes me hope more that he'll revisit and revise this series at some point because I feel that I can see this world's potential and I want it to reach that potential so badly.

Book Review: Snow White Sorrow (The Grimm Diaries #1)

Release Date: May 30, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: J A W I G I
Length: 286 pages
Source: Purchased Book

What if all you knew about fairy tales was wrong?

Sixteen year old Loki Blackstar is no Prince Charming. His mother is a ghost. His only friend is a red Cadillac that sings to him through the radio. He looks like an Angel but acts like jerk. No wonder he has been banned from Heaven, which is the least of his troubles. Loki needs a job to pay for school and support himself.

Still, Loki has a rare gift: He is a Dreamhunter. One of the few in the world who can hunt and kill immortal demons in their dreams so they never wake up again.

When Loki is sent to kill a sixteen-year-old vampire girl the locals call Snow White Sorrow, he is pulled into a magical but dangerous world. The locals believe the monster to be Snow White.

The real Snow White... living in the ruins of an ancient castle in a small town. She is described as horribly beautiful, terrifyingly enchanting, and wickedly lovely.

What he finds instead is a beautiful monster girl filled with rage and hurt, who has an epic untold story to tell of things such like why the Brothers Grimm altered the fairy tale, who the Evil Queen really is, where the mirror came from, and who possessed it.

Snow White has killed every person who has dared come near the castle where she once lived with the queen. Mysteriously, she lets Loki live, and whispers two words in his ears; two words that will change his life forever.

  

Review:

Protagonist: Loki Blackstar is a kid with no past. The earliest thing he remembers is the past year. He's told he has one year to kill ninety-nine vampires in order to restore his place in Heaven and his status as a Half-Angel Dreamhunter. So at first I wasn't sure what I thought of Loki. I mean he's a fairly likable character, but his insistence on getting back to Heaven, a place he has never seen and only heard of felt a bit off. However as the book progresses his view of the world is changed and he begins to focus on who his future rather than his past.

Romance: So I'm very on the fence about how I feel about the romance. It starts off with a slow burn, I guess, but it's more like Loki's interest is piqued by Snow White, and then in just a few hours they fall in love. Now these few hours are very intense and part of me can really see them believing they've fallen for each other, but no matter how intense the time is I don't truly believe they could actually fall in love in just a few hours. Since this is a fairy-tale story I figured I wouldn't let it bother me and just bask is the quick romance.

World-Building: So like I said this is a fairy-tale book, but for about half the book I wasn't getting the fairy-tale vibe I was hoping for. Maybe the prequel novellas kind of ruined it for me. I mean going into it I knew it wasn't going to take place in a fairy-tale-esque medieval world and that it would take place in a more modern day setting, but still I think I expected a more fantasy or urban fantasy touch to is that wasn't fulfilled with vampires, witches, and werewolves. However once we reach the second half, there's a lot of fairy tale wonder to explore. I won't say much but it sort of makes up for the lack of a magical fairy-tale presence in the beginning. It's about time to hear the real Snow White tale. P.S. Sorry for the awkward transition but I wasn't sure where to put this or how to get there, but there is a plot hole of sort, well actually there are a few things that didn't make sense and not in a "We'll find out later" way, but this specifically didn't make sense. We meet Loki in the second prequel Ashes to Ashes, Cinder to Cinder and well let's just say something don't really add up.

Writing: So, my biggest bone to pick with this book is the writing. This is a Young Adult novel, however it has this Middle Grade cheesy quality to it that really bothered me, I mean it was so cheesy that even if this was a Middle Grade novel I would have gotten annoyed with it. I felt like the author was trying to tone down the book where he should have embraced it. I mean in certain scenes where things are getting dark there's usually some sort of moment of humor or levity that completely undercuts the darkness of this tale. I mean embrace the darkness especially when writing a dark fairy tale. Sometimes the writing felt a bit awkward too, like things just didn't click like they should have. Now the grammatical errors, miscapitalizations, and formatting errors I can get past, but I decided to mention it for those who can't.

Predictability: I wouldn't say this book is overly predictable, mainly because like I said for about the first half of this book not all that much happened. However, after this book takes off there's a lot more that happens and a lot of twists. Some things that surprised me just sort of happened.without explanation and no real build up to it, just sort of Deus Ex Machina style. When things are foreshadowed and make sense though things are really cool. There were a few twists that I was able to catch onto, but the biggest twists, the things that I could never quite predict didn't happen until the very end.

Ending: So when the final climax started I didn't know what to expect. It didn't go down like I thought it would, but the scene was actually rather badass, though there was that weird level of humor to the darkness that annoyed me. When things started to cool down there were quite a few twists, these are game changing, crazy, and revealing twists. Everything culminates in a rather heart shattering cliffhanger.

Rating:

So this book was a bit of a disappointment, or rather a large portion of it was. I was hoping for something more fantastical and fairy-tale-esque, and while the story picked up toward the end and became very compelling, with the weird writing style and the damage already done, there was still a lot that just really disappointed me. The silver lining though is that the next book holds a lot of promise.

Omnibus Review: The Grimm Diaries Prequels 10.5-14.5

Release Date: June 27, 2013
Author: Cameron Jace
Publisher: Independently Published
Length: 146 pages
Source: Borrowed eBook

10.5) Happy Valentine’s Slay by Wee Willy Winkie The real Sandman Grimm sheds a light on what happened in Jawigi, and tells about how some of the teens in Sorrow spend their Valentine’s Day.

11) Children of Hamlin by the Devil The Devil tells the story of the Piper of Hamlin, who he really is, the historical events he witnessed, and his relationship to Ladle Rat. Most of all, why they call him the Black Death.

12) Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale by Jack Madly Jack Madly stole a sack full of baby teeth from Bluebeard’s enchanted castle, which reminds him of when he first met the Tooth Fairy when he was a child; a memory he wishes to forget.

13) Ember in the Wind by the Little Match Girl All the Little Match Girl wants is to sell her matches so she uses the money to eat and find shelter from the cold. But no one in the cruel city of crowded London helps her. Eventually, she learns something about who she really is, and it changes her life forever.

14) Jar of Hearts by the Queen of Sorrow The Queen of Sorrow, still trapped in the Dreamworld summons Cassandra, the fortuneteller, to ask her about the identities of Lost Seven. The problem with Cassandra is that she’s cursed that her predictions will never be believed. The Queen is still determined to believe her, but it will cost more than she can bargain for.

14.5) Welcome to Sorrow, a bonus prequel

  

Reviews:

Happy Valentine's Slay: So this story was weird. It's told from the POV of Sandman Grimm... the REAL Sandman Grimm. However once we get some backstory on him, along with some really heavy handed foreshadowing he launches into a Valentine's Day story that features a lot of my favorite characters from this series. However, the third person point-of-view changes so much and the story goes on weird tangents so often that the story itself just sort of falls flat. The characters are great, and it's awesome to see them all interacting, it's just that things were kind of boring and with things moving around so often it took a while for the story to sort of meld into something enjoyable. However toward the end things really started to get interesting...

Rating:

So yeah, if this story was told differently or things had sort of come together quicker I may have enjoyed this story more, but in the end it just feels like a hodgepodge of random information that just sort of melts into a story by the end.

The Children of Hamlin: This story, in a sense, takes place right after the last one. It's told from the point of view of the Devil. In it he tells the story of the Piper, much the same as I've heard before, though with a few Grimm Diaries tweaks added here and there. The big thing though is how the Piper fits into the larger story and who he is, or will be, to Ladle. The story itself is richly described. I've come to terms with the voice of the Devil and that he won't be this purely evil being, and that he's more of this devilishly silly character. The way he tells this story adds a levity to the otherwise somber tale. And then at the end there is quite a bit of information that helps expand this world even further and points the origins of certain things.

Rating:

So for the most part I really liked this story it was a lot more entertaining and easier to keep up with than the previous prequel and it sort of combines the two types of prequels usually told, one more plot related and another that's a fun and twisted version of an old classic. My only point of contention is that there were just a few times when the story sort of lulled and the background information to the story felt a bit too heavy handed.

Tooth & Nail & Fairy Tale: So... this tale is probably the weirdest in this set so far. In this tale we find Jack who has just stolen a bag of baby teeth from Bluebeard, and then goes into a tale about how Jack sort of stumbles onto three children in a school about to go to the dentist's. In this tale Jack helps them escape the demonic dentist and in the process runs into the Tooth Fairy. It's, like I said, a rather strange tale but it does a lot to foreshadow and build up to some really cool things  The story and mythology itself is actually pretty entertaining. There are a few twists here and there that I really loved and I like how this world keeps growing and we learn the backstories of certain characters.

Rating:

So this is another one that was a lot of fun, but just sort of lagged in a few areas. Overall I enjoyed it, I just wasn't swept away by it.

Ember in the Wind: So the story of The Little Match Girl is a tragic one, there are endings in which the girl has a happy ending, but it's usually because she dies and goes to heaven. This story however is a bit different. Going into this story I didn't know what to expect, I knew it was a story in which this young match girl discovers her destiny but I did't know much beyond that. It doesn't take long however to figure out who she really is and what her role in everything might be. What I really loved though was that it never felt like the author was trying to hide her destiny or pretend that the heavy handed foreshadowing was just supposed to be a teaser for the big reveal. It just all sort of made sense. This story got me very excited for the main series and this character's role in it.

Rating:

I was utterly entranced by this tale. It's enthralling, entertaining, and has a bit of a somberness to it. You feel sorry for the main character until everything is revealed and then I got a bit jealous of her.

Jar of Hearts: This story takes place a bit after Jawigi and tells the story of how the Queen of Sorrow enlists Cassandra to tell her who the Lost Seven are. The trick with Cassandra though is that while her predictions are always accurate, albeit sometimes vague, anyone who asks the question will never believe the prediction. Now, while this story got off to a bit of a rocky start, I was anxious and excited to learn who the Lost Seven are. However, since this is a series that thrives on the idea of the unreliable narrator, it's impossible to know for sure who the Lost Seven are, regardless though by the end it is fairly clear who five of the Seven are, though two remain very vague and their descriptions could apply to more than one person. I found the infusion of Greek mythology very fun and the character of Cassandra is very entertaining. I love how the Queen continues her deceit and how you never quite know what's up her sleeves.

Rating:

So if it wasn't for the bumpy start I would have really loved this tale. It answers a few burning questions and leaves some things left to be pondered.

Welcome to Sorrow: So this isn't so much a story as it is an expositional vehicle to begin to finally introduce the main series. In this tale we are greeted bu Igor who shows us around Sorrow as it is now, no longer a medieval kingdom full of fairy-tales now it's more of a modern day small town full of fairy-tale characters who will soon wake up from their one hundred year sleep. In it we learn more about the town and the dark mystery it keeps hidden. As a bonus prequel it did well, but honestly I didn't really need a tour around Sorrow, it was a fun little side thing, but for the most part it was pretty boring. Toward the end things started to speed up but that was more so Igor could tease a little for the first main series story Snow White Sorrow.

Rating:

So yeah, there's nothing particularly special about this book, but it's not awful either, and since it was a bonus shorter prequel I'm not going to do too much complaining.