3 stars
I’m a bit conflicted about this story, mostly because it was not what I was expecting.
I absolutely love reimagined fairy tales so when I saw this series, I immediately jumped at it. Not realizing this was the fourth book, I started with this one (possibly because from the title and cover I wasn’t completely sure what fairy tale it would be retelling.)
I was a bit surprised when I saw the quote from The Princess and the Pea at the start, suggesting a connection to the story. The title spawned images of Cinderella but I continued.
The story itself wasn’t bad. It had a cool concept and gave the reader a lot to think about. However, I am unsure of its place in a series of supposed fairy tales for the modern time. It seems to take the concept of sensitivity from The Princess and the Pea and create a completely new world based on this word, rather than any real connection to the original story.
The world Liu imagines is very interesting although the tone of the story was more morose than I was expecting. I think the story was good, but I was disappointed because it did not appear to deliver on the fairy tale element. This did not feel like a modern fairy tale and it did not feel like a retelling of a fairy tale.
Overall, the writing was good although the short length made it a bit difficult to get a real grasp on the mechanics of the world.
I may try coming back and re-reading this one at some point now that I know it’s not really a fairy tale retelling. I think my initial disappointed made it difficult to enjoy the story for what it was. Now that I know what this story actually is, I may be able to enjoy it.
The other stories appear more fairy-tale-based, but this one was kind of a let down in terms of the promised fairy tale connection.