Creeping Beauty: Fairy Tales Gone Bad

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Then we have Princess Elizabeth "Bitsy" Whatever her last name is, which really has to be some kind of bad joke because, Bitsy? Really? She is not like other princesses. She's plain and nerdy and has mastered the art of "creeping" (a word, that unfortunately, appears far too often in the book) so she can escape her dreadfully vain cousins to go read. She wants her servants to be her maids of honor and breaks the fourth wall because she's a modern woman trapped in a patriarchal society. I mean, Portes really tries to give Bitsy a distinct and unique voice. It just...doesn't work. Bitsy is an incredibly annoying narrator. She’s pretty much a spoiled brat, complaining about everything she must do as princess to a kingdom. She constantly contradicts herself and feels incredibly immature. Her POV is unreliable to read from in my eyes because she’s incredibly contradictory of herself - “Oh I’ll do this for my kingdom” and then ten seconds later, “I won’t do it. Why should I?” I don’t entirely like the choice of name Bitsy. Considering her full name is Elizabeth, there are various other variations the author could have chosen but they decided Bitsy was the way forward. Sure, it’s unique but it’s also very childish sounding and I cannot imagine a king and queen calling their heir something so immature in front of supposed suitors. I loved the crazy world she traveled to and that it DIDN’T make sense! It wasn’t supposed to! This is an alternate reality not dissimilar from Wonderland. I typically don’t like first person point of view, but Bitsy made it work well. Furthermore, I love when characters break the fourth wall! It’s hilarious on TV, it’s hilarious in movies, and its hilarious in books. Sorry, that is just never going to be not funny to me.

We meet Count Peregrine, and the moment he came on the scene I loved him. He reminded me of Loki, charming, vain, handsome, a ball of sunshine, with some cunning ruthlessness thrown in there, thinking about himself, and yet there seems to be some insecurities there that make him the way he is. He is very endearing and relatable to a point. He was an absolute delight! An anti-hero if you will that was very happy, and yet cunning and looked out for himself, even with Bitsy and yet you could see how that ate at him. He surprised me, and I was rooting for him through the entire book, I was really hoping him and Bitsy would be endgame with their adorable banter, and his clear and obvious attraction and love for her. The dark and deadly world of Heartless meets the empowering twist of Cruel Beauty in this thrilling, unpredictable, multigenre retelling of one of the most beloved fairy tales: where instead of falling asleep to await her prince, this sleeping beauty finally wakes up. The dark and deadly world of Heartless meets the empowering twist of Cruel Beauty in this thrilling, unpredictable, multigenre retelling of one of the most beloved fairy tales: where instead of falling asleep to await her prince, this sleeping beauty finally wakes up. When you aren't familiar with the author or their worlds, sometimes it's the cover that catches your eyes (vain thing that you are 😘) and gives you pause to consider. It takes a good blurb to sell you to even read it. It is then up to the author to get you to fully commit hours of your life on their story, all the while everyone is hoping for the grand payout -- an excellent story and a happy reader.What instantly drew me to this book was the enchantingly beautiful cover. Once I saw that the story was a retelling of the classic tale of Sleeping Beauty, I was eager to read it. Following on from Zombierella and Frankenstiltskin, this is the third and final book in a deliciously dark trilogy of twisted classics, written in verse by award-winning poet Joseph Coelho and illustrated by Freya Hartas. About This Edition ISBN: I think because of the style of writing and tone some may not enjoy this one but for me it was certainly entertaining and one I did enjoy, especially with the elements of other fairy tales. I did like the unique style but admit a few times I had to remind myself this was meant to be a sort of dream/alternate world. if you keep that in mind I think you will enjoy this one! The writing felt like it would fit better in the middle grade zone, however the content is defiantly YA/NA so the two didn't flow so well. Moreover, within our current disposable paradigm, once a person has been depleted and exploited, they are unceremoniously discarded, exemplifying a disheartening cycle. This very mechanism mirrors the dynamics of the drug market, whether viewed on a global scale, where societies are often sacrificed in favor of economic supremacy (as seen in the historical context of the British and Chinese opium war), or on a local level involving neighborhood dealers. Clients are tragically reduced to expendable assets, often ending up in what is poetically referred to as the "beautifully decorated human repository" known as a cemetery.

Cannonball will get your ass up, head banging and jumping like an idiot, whether you like it or not." Greta Thunberg

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Creeping Beauty was a book that instantly caught my attention. A re-telling of Sleeping Beauty with elements of an almost Through the Looking Glass style. It was hard not be excited. While this wasn’t a full five stars, probably a 3.5 rounded to 4 for me it did have a good premise let down by a few pieces along the way.

Bitsy I was unsure of until the book progressed and she grew as a person from this princess who just nodded and smiled and said yes to whatever her parents said to basically a warrior and focused more on natural beauty and helping those in need, not worrying about that she’s a princess and deserves everything. She after all was considered plain in her world and here she was viewed as beautiful, but she didn’t allow that to deter her desire to be a better person and help others and not focus on just herself. She tried to make it funny and edgy and original and progressive. Unfortunately, none of those things actually worked. To put it succinctly, everything in this book from the writing to the characterisation to the plotting leaves much to be desired. Portes's second novel, BURY THIS, was published in January 2014 by Counterpoint Press's imprint Soft Skull Press to critical acclaim.

Joseph Coelho Press Reviews

I'm not sure where to start with this review. I feel like I have a lot to say. Having read the synopsis of this book, I was excited for a fairytale retelling. For the most part, they've always proved to be fun. Unfortunately, this retelling was just not it for me. Speaking of characters, I didn't manage to connect with anyone in the story given that I found it hard to relate to them within the storyline. That said the main character does go through an arc and develops in character, I just didn't connect well with that journey. A land where Bitsy’s fate and her future are solely in her own hands—and neither are what she expects.