The first time I heard the term “retelling,” I expected it to refer to reimagined fairytales. I didn’t exactly expect these to be simply be stories inspired by fairytales. Stepsister, however, is exactly that which I had originally expected of a retelling. It builds upon the well-loved fairytale of Ashputtel, blood and all. It was entertaining with its dark humour as it continued to tell the story of how it might have continued. Stepsister was more detailed since it’s a novel rather than a short story but stylistically, it still very much read like a fairytale.
CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE by Tomi Adeyemi
This book, this book, this book!!! Children of Blood and Bone was such a treat to read. Right from the start, the stakes are high. With each chapter, they get even higher. Whenever I thought the plot would plateau, I was wrong.
A THOUSAND NIGHTS by E.K. Johnston
A Thousand Nights is a magical book. The prose is exceedingly beautiful. If literary fiction were to bridge over to the young adult segment, this book would be a stellar example of the genre. In some ways, I think that if readers were to expect a slow story, magnificent in words over a fast-paced one, then the reviews wouldn’t have come to be as mixed as they are now.
DIVERGENT (Divergent #1) by Veronica Roth
The first time round I read Divergent in 2013, I devoured it. I loved it to bits. For most of my teen years I read contemporary fiction and to finally delve more into science fiction, specifically dystopian fiction, was exhilarating. Since then I’ve read more dystopian books, some of which impressed me more and some less. Also, this time round I tabbed the pages with post-it notes, annotated and cross-referenced. This close reading forced me to be more critical (in the analytical sense) as I read.
DARK STAR (The Rosie Black Chronicles #3) by Lara Morgan
After I was done reading Dark Star, I was pretty satisfied with how the trilogy ended. While I didn’t yearn for another book to extend the series, I didn’t wish for less either. Three books for this trilogy was the perfect number to build up the story and to wrap it up in the end.
