She Rode a Horse of Fire by Kendare Blake: 2 stars It’s Carnival! by Tiffany D. Jackson: 2.5 stars Night-Tide by Tessa Gratton: 2 stars The Glittering DeShe Rode a Horse of Fire by Kendare Blake: 2 stars It’s Carnival! by Tiffany D. Jackson: 2.5 stars Night-Tide by Tessa Gratton: 2 stars The Glittering Death by Caleb Roehrig: 3 stars A Drop of Stolen Ink by Emily Lloyd-Jones: 3 stars Happy Days, Sweetheart by Stephanie Kuehn: 2.5 stars The Raven (Remix) by Amanda Lovelace: 1 star Changeling by Marieke Nijkamp: 2 stars The Oval Filter by Lamar Giles: 3 stars Red by Hillary Monahan: DNF Lygia by Dahlia Adler: 2.5 stars The Fall of the Bank of Usher by Fran Wilde: DNF The Murders in Rue Apartelle, Boracay by Rin Chupeco: 2 stars
Teach the Torches to Burn is the diverse Romeo and Juliet retelling from Feiwel & Friends’ Remixed Classics series. I was pretty darn excited for it bTeach the Torches to Burn is the diverse Romeo and Juliet retelling from Feiwel & Friends’ Remixed Classics series. I was pretty darn excited for it because the author is Caleb Roehrig, the author of Last Seen Leaving, an incredible queer YA thriller which you need to read if you haven’t already. I was even more excited when I was lucky enough to be approved for an early review copy.
Sadly, that excitement died a swift death from almost the moment I started reading. The writing in this book was over flowery to say the least. It felt like it was trying to emulate a Shakespearean tone but for me it really missed the mark. It didn’t help that there was little to no plot, so the excessively flowery writing was just about Romeo and Valentine and Romeo and Valentine, repeat to fade.
The other thing that really fell flat for me was the fact that this story didn’t stick enough to the story we know in Romeo and Juliet. I understand that it’s a retelling, but when the overarching themes and hugely important scenes from the original are erased, it makes me wonder what the point of the retelling is. For example, when Mercutio dies after Tybalt confronts Romeo (and also dies), he curses both the houses of Montague and Capulet in his dying breath, despite having contributed to the fighting and being best friends with Romeo. This is supposed to hit hard because young people are literally dying in the streets over a pathetic family feud which has no true meaning. But in Teach the Torches to Burn, Mercutio lives, which I think is an interesting choice because that pivotal moment was never delivered. Also, the Mercutio in this book is fully supportive of Romeo and his fight against the Capulets which just… no.
Another element that made me side eye was the fact that Juliet actually exists in this retelling. This move made no sense to me. I think it was a big missed opportunity because, like the move with Mercutio, it took too much away from the point of the original novel. When the love interest isn’t a Capulet then how are the adults in the story supposed to realise that their ridiculous feud resulted in the deaths of their beloved children and thus that said feud was indeed ridiculous and should be ended. With Valentine not being a Capulet none of this was realised. And Romeo and Valentine didn’t have to die for this theme to still come about – the ending still could have been hopeful for the younger audience like the author said he wanted it to be – but it still could have kept with the purpose of the original play.
Anyway, as you can tell I wasn’t on board with this book even though I so badly wanted to be. I’m sure there are folks who will read this and not mind the things I mentioned – I truly didn’t even know I was such a stan for the themes in Romeo and Juliet until I read this book lmao. But if you’re looking for a queer Romeo and Juliet that still holds true the heart of the play then I don’t think this is the one for you.
This book was everything I hoped it would be! Avery is a queer Black girl with anxiety, and she finds a stray cat in her school theatre who helps her This book was everything I hoped it would be! Avery is a queer Black girl with anxiety, and she finds a stray cat in her school theatre who helps her cope with it called PHANTOM. As in Phantom of the Opera ...more
As soon as I saw that Tink and Wendy was about a queer Tinkerbell in a retelling of Peter Pan, I was in. I’ve always waned a queer retelling of Peter As soon as I saw that Tink and Wendy was about a queer Tinkerbell in a retelling of Peter Pan, I was in. I’ve always waned a queer retelling of Peter Pan, and I loved the notion of Tink being in love with both Peter and Wendy. In that regard, Tink and Wendy did not disappoint. Tink is indeed in love with both Peter and Wendy, but Wendy is also in love with both Peter and Tink so it’s quite a messy and emotional love triangle (truly a triangle since two of the points are in love with each other and the third point).
Tink and Wendy was a lot more brutal than I had thought it would be. I was expecting a somewhat light-hearted retelling but there was more tragedy in this little book that I would have ever guessed. It never felt gratuitous, and a lot of it happened over a long time since time moves differently in Neverland, but boy do these characters get put through the ringer.
In terms of storytelling, Tink and Wendy is told in three different types of alternating chapters. There’s now (which is actually our future), then which is when Tink and Peter meet Wendy), and the last are excerpts from a textbook on the history of Neverland which are written by Tinkerbell’s mentor. I found these excerpts interesting because they gave new life to the facts readers think they know about Neverland. I thought the chapter on Hook was probably the most interesting because it gave a backstory which I’d never heard before.
The now chapters were the saddest to read because it’s about Tink all alone. As a reader you’re introduced to this fact in the first chapter or so, and are left wondering why she would be all alone in the real world, and not in Neverland where she belongs. The backstory for this is told in the then chapters but not all at once so the intrigue definitely holds throughout the whole novel.
I honestly can’t say too much else about the book without giving a lot away. But I will say that though there was a lot of heartbreak for Tink and the other characters, the ending isn’t tragic. I would have come away feeling as if there was no point to this book if it had been. But no, it was bittersweet and lovely, and was one of my favourite aspects of the book.
If you love Peter Pan retellings, queer retellings, and books with lots of heart then I definitely recommend Tink and Wendy! It’s only a little book but it has a lot to enjoy inside those pages.
trigger warning: death of friends (car crash), teen pregnancy, death of friend's parent, parental abandonment, alcoholism, use of ableist language, multiple deaths...more
As soon as I heard about Cinderella Is Dead I knew I had to read it. A retelling of Cinderella with a queer Black girl as the leading character? Sign As soon as I heard about Cinderella Is Dead I knew I had to read it. A retelling of Cinderella with a queer Black girl as the leading character? Sign me the heck up! Unfortunately I didn’t end up loving Cinderella Is Dead as much as I had hoped I would, which saddens me to no end.
There was one main thing missing for me when it came to Cinderella Is Dead and it was lack of development. There was a lack of development in almost every aspect. I didn’t feel like I got to know the main character, Sophia, outside of her desire to run away from the ball and the forced marriage to a stranger. I really wanted to know her. Know what she liked and didn’t like, some childhood memories, how she fell in love with Erin, what she did for the first sixteen years of her life before the book started. But there was none of this. Sophia existed only in terms of her romance and her hatred of the sexist society she lived in.
The lack of development of the romantic connection between Sophia and both Erin and Constance was another downfall. I didn’t mind the instant connection and attraction between Sophia and Constance because I think the circumstances of Sophia’s life up to that point put her in that position. But I wanted more of the two of them together and developing their connection. I wanted deep and meaningful moments where the emotional connection was on par with the physical one. But unfortunately I never got that.
Cinderella Is Dead was also lacking stakes. Now, I am all for a character driven novel with low stakes but since the characters weren’t fleshed out enough to drive this novel then the plot needed to be one that really blew me away. But it wasn’t. I never felt a sense of urgency and I never felt fear for Sophia, either. The potential was there because I think being forced into a most-likely abusive marriage would be terrifying. The lack of women’s rights was terrifying. But they were just there. I never felt the fear or the terror at Sophia’s situation.
There were also things I liked about Cinderella Is Dead. I liked the unique premise, and the way that Cinderella actually existed in this retelling. I liked descriptions of the luxury of the ball and the palace, and the fact that it was about a queer Black girl fighting the patriarchy. I liked the twist on the original tale when it came to the evil stepmother and stepsisters, and the way the fairy godmother was included in the story.
If the development of the areas I mentioned before had been built upon I think Cinderella Is Dead would have had the potential to become a new favourite. But unfortunately it mainly fell flat for me.
trigger warning: use of ableist language, violence, murder, decapitation, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, domestic violence, death of a friend, torture, human trafficking, forced marriage, explosions, fire, animal death...more
