Sweetly by Jackson Pearce
August 23, 2011, Little, Brown
Summary from Goodreads:
SWEETLY is a modernization of Hansel and Gretel and a companion book to SISTERS RED.
Twelve years ago, Gretchen, her twin sister, and her brother went looking for a witch in the forest. They found something. Maybe it was a witch, maybe a monster, they aren’t sure—they were running too fast to tell. Either way, Gretchen’s twin sister was never seen again.
Years later, after being thrown out of their house, Gretchen and Ansel find themselves in Live Oak, South Carolina, a place on the verge of becoming a ghost town. They move in with Sophia Kelly, a young and beautiful chocolatier owner who opens not only her home, but her heart to Gretchen and Ansel.At the risk of being shunned, I did not love this novel. To be fair, I am not the biggest fan of fairy tale retellings to begin with (although I think Alex Flinn has done some awesome ones), and I suspect that's the reason why I hesitated to read this book for so long. BUT, my teens at the library have been pestering me for this book, and I do love the cover, so I finally decided to give it a whirl.
Yet the witch isn’t gone—it’s here, lurking in the forests of Live Oak, preying on Live Oak girls every year after Sophia Kelly’s infamous chocolate festival. But Gretchen is determined to stop running from witches in the forest, and start fighting back. Alongside Samuel Reynolds, a boy as quick with a gun as he is a sarcastic remark, Gretchen digs deeper into the mystery of not only what the witch is, but how it chooses its victims. Yet the further she investigates, the more she finds herself wondering who the real monster is, and if love can be as deadly as it is beautiful.
It felt like everything was dragged out for SOOOO long, and then bam! Everything comes to a quick conclusion. Ansel and Gretchen are supposed to be so in tune with each other, but she can't share what's really going on with Sophia because he loves her. OK, I get that--BUT
YOU'RE IN FREAKING DANGER. Grow a set and tell him, already.
Fans of Sisters Red (which I'll admit I haven't read) and of fairy tale retellings in general will, obvs., love this novel. It just wasn't for me.
Another thing that bothered me (and it must be just me, because I've yet to read a negative review of this book), will follow below. It might be kind of spoilery, so I'll leave some space.
You've been warned....
Werewolves. I am so over werewolves. I'm just sayin'.
ARC received from publisher.
Enjoy your reading!
Christi
Thanks for the honest review. There are too few of them.
ReplyDeleteI'm with ya! I got halfway through Sisters Red and put it down. The sticking point with me was that they were supposed to be these kick butt warriors, but in every fight in the book, the sisters were losing until a boy came and saved them. Sigh.
I thought we were over that crap.
I do, however, love reading Jackson Pearce's tweets. She's funny.
And I LOVE a good re-telling of a fairy tale. But it has to be good.