Raven Queen’s Story by Shannon Hale

4 stars As with the other prequels, this one is a good introduction to the bigger story of the series. I really liked the Evil Queen and Good King dynamic as a way to explain Raven’s conflict. This series contains such a cool reversal of the value of evil and disappointment in good acts. Unlike…

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Hunter Huntsman’s Story by Shannon Hale

4 stars This one is definitely my favorite prequel so far. Great set up and connection to the other stories. I think this one has the best conflict with Hunter’s character versus what is expected of him. The whole vegetarianism was an interesting concept. This is also the most humorous story. I really enjoyed the…

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Ashlynn Ella’s Story by Shannon Hale

4 stars I have enjoyed these prequels much more than I initially thought I would. As with the other stories, this one follows Ashlynn as she gets ready to return to Ever After High. There is definitely more depth to her character than in the show. I especially liked the dynamic of Ashlynn’s relationship to…

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Briar Beauty’s Story by Shannon Hale

4 stars Similar set up to the other prequels. This one follows Briar and focuses a lot on her relationship to her brothers. I love the puns and word play in this series: hexcitment, MirrorChat, spellbinding. Even if the slang terms don’t always make sense (why is “hex” used as a positive word?), it is…

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Madeline Hatter’s Story by Shannon Hale

4 stars This is the only one of the prequel that I have read so far that actually contains a mini-story rather than just an introduction to the characters and conflicts. I love the expressions used in the story such as tea-rific and wonderlandiful. It adds to the silliness of the story, which makes it…

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The Bitches of Everafter by Barbra Annino

2 stars While this was an interesting take on fairy tale classics, it pretty much turned into the show Once Upon a time with a different villain. The story itself was kind of confusing and the connections were a bit lose. The narration follows various characters, which sometimes works, but I often needed to backtrack…

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Gay Genius

As with any collection of work, the stories and artwork in this one were hit or miss for me. Some I really liked, but some the artwork just didn’t pop for me. I enjoyed the diversity of the collection and the focus on trans and people of color. Some of the stories felt disjointed because…

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Rippler by Cidney Swanson

4 stars I got this as a free e-book. Because of this, I was actually very surprised by how good it was. The whole concept of rippling was new and fascinating. I really liked the history that Swanson created. And I liked the characters as well. Sam is a pretty relatable teenager. Yes, she is…

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Yes Please by Amy Poehler

4 stars This book is so up, down, and all around, it is hard not to love. It is like being inside Poehler’s brain. Yes, much of the text is very scattered and Poehler will go off on multiple tangents when telling a story, but she always comes back to the original point eventually and…

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Girl in the Dark by Marion Pauw

3 stars I received an uncorrected proof of this book through Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. This book is good, not great; interesting, not thrilling. An easy read that is intriguing, but not necessarily page-turning. It was a good story, but definitely not what I expected from “the Dutch answer to Gillian Flynn.”…

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