Owl Eyes: A Fairy Tale by Molly Lazer Review

This book was given to me by Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

I always find retellings to be rather enjoyable, but they don't always deliver - sometimes they are just too similar to the originals by Andersen or the Grimm's or even to the Disney remakes but other times they have enough of an original flare to make them highly enjoyable. And this one delivered.

A stunning retelling of Cinderella, Nora works in the kitchens living with her adoptive family, her parents are dead and the family she works for hates her more than anything. But her life changes when she discovers her father has lived in the main house her whole life, finding this out she begins to question everything - why was she thrown into the kitchen? Why is magic forbidden in the house? Why has she inherited only a silver-bladed knife from her mother?
When a royal ball is announced, Nora must decide what she really wants and whether she is willing to lose every thing she loves to get it.

I found this to be a very fast paced book, A LOT happened in the first 4 chapters and in a book of 18 chapters I did feel slightly swamped by everything that happened. But I also found that to be a huge positive when it came to this book, I couldn't put it down as I was constantly hoping to find out what happened next, and I wasn't disappointed.
Nora the main character, showed few signs of character development until the very end of the book, and seemed to believe she was entitled to an awful lot. This I found hard to deal with while I was reading but as it was a fairy tale, it is to be expected. But because of this, I found it hard to relate to Nora and had a hard time understanding the choices she made, However I am VERY different personality wise and not every book can relate to everyone. My favourite character was Jack, a kitchen boy who worked with Nora and her family along with his mother. Jack was very down to earth and seemed to be Nora's Jiminy Cricket at times. Also in my head he was gorgeous...
As I said previously I had been worried that this book would be too similar to other Cinderella stories but nope. The Kindred (those who could do magic) that were featured in this book were like nothing I have ever read in a Cinderella retelling and with them the whole story, although taking points from the original took a very different path from most that I have read.
I really enjoyed the description used in the chapter featuring market, very well written and reminded me a lot of the description Morganstern used in The Night Circus (another book I really enjoyed).
Molly Lazer was a former associate editor at Marvel Comics and worked on books such as Fantastic Four, Captain America and the New Avengers. These facts surprised me as I saw no parallels between Owl Eyes and the Marvel Comics.
Overall this was a classic fairy tale with Lazer's own personal twist and I enjoyed it greatly.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy or fairy tale retellings, or both.

8/10
xo

Book Published by Fire and Ice YA publishers 20th March 2018

Peter Darling by Austin Chant Review

I want to begin by saying I found this book completely by chance. I typed "Peter Pan" in the search engine when feeling the need to read a retelling and came up with this beautiful spin on the classic tale by J.M.Barrie. I must say I am impressed.

Ten years ago, Peter Pan left Neverland to grow up, leaving behind his adolescent dreams of boyhood and resigning himself to life as Wendy Darling. Growing up, however, has only made him realize how inescapable his identity as a man is.

But when he returns to Neverland, everything has changed: the Lost Boys have become men, and the war games they once played are now real and deadly. Even more shocking is the attraction Peter never knew he could feel for his old rival, Captain Hook—and the realization that he no longer knows which of them is the real villain.

Peter returning to Neverland has always been an idea that I've loved, after he runs away to grow up, whether it be with Wendy or in the case of the film "Hook" Moira, the idea of Peter returning with a new outlook on life which is gained after growing up has been one that has intrigued me. Like Alice where she can't seem to stay out of Wonderland. None the less that idea is a brilliant basis for a story and for Peter to return in Chant's book after 10 years is essentially like running away from all of lives problems, something that I know I have thought about and perhaps others too.

Peter's character was as playful as it was during Barrie's writing giving us the impression of the character that had been left behind after he wrote Peter Pan, but Peter's character had also developed after living 10 years and being Wendy Darling. I enjoyed the way Chant wrote Peter to interact with the characters such as Earnest, Hook and The Lost Boys, and the twists that came with their back stories (I promise no spoilers).

I've believe that Chant has quite successfully managed to write a children's classic story to appeal to an older group, he has managed to keep the general themes of the story but also added some quite "riskeyyy" scenes. I especially enjoyed when the book switched to Hook's POV, giving us a look into the mind of a character that we all laughed at at a younger age and developing the characters thoughts about Peter throughout the book. I found there to be a real passion in the way the different characters interacted and I was completely full of glee during the whole of Chapter 13(?) after they left the tunnels. 

Passion in the way it is written here is quite hard to come by as it can often come of as inexperienced or even written by someone who is straight and doesn't know the first thing about a homosexual relationship in any form. I also found the Peter/Wendy idea to be very thought provoking, I don't have much knowledge about being transgender but I do understand the basic constructs. I think this book introduced the Trans theme into this book incredibly well as well as the homosexual themes and general lust that seemed to effect every principle character in this book, some LGBT+ literature gets over sexualised because that's what some people believe the community to be but Chant has added every flush of the cheeks and gaze that has romanticized the whole thing. I think the fact that Chant is a trans, queer writer has a helped to make this book quite relatable (or as relatable as fantasy can be to the real world) to the LGBT+ community and has helped in the development of the characters personalities from Barrie's works.

I have found in the past that some fantasy novels have a problem with writing too much detail about the fantabulous scenery then missing out the rest of the story but I didn't find that with this story, there was the rights amount of detail and a gripping story.

I'm not 100% sure how to review a book without a murder in it, however this book was fantastic. I was kept hooked, the storyline had many lovely twists and turns, the characters were surprising in many ways and overall I couldn't help but fall in love with it all. I cannot wait for the second one, which I've heard will be written from Hook's point of view for at least the majority of the book.

8/10 would recommend

xo