Content warning: child abuse, physical abuse, self harm, manipulation, racism


6/18/22 Reread: This was even better on the second read!! I'm literally jumping into book 2 right now


Overall:

I REALLY liked this Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent retelling (it honestly leans more towards Maleficent) and it kept me on my toes. You didn't know who to trust, every character had their motivations and you couldn't tell with some people if they were doing things or helping Alyce out of the kindness of their hearts and it was ROUGH. This girl honestly was never able to catch a break because people were constantly being afraid of her, using her, lying to her, and just being cruel to her just because she is half Vila. As a biracial woman myself, I understood how Alyce felt not being accepted by the humans or the Graces because she was half Vila; I have been seen as only being (in my case) white, instead of also being Mexican by my Mexican friends and family, or only being seen as Mexican by my white friends and family. I saw myself in Alyce as she tried to deny her Vila side because of how people saw her as a monster because of it, knowing that no matter what she did or said she would ALWAYS be seen as the villain because she is half Vila. So I loved when she started to embrace that side of herself more and embraced her powers and began to understand them more.

There was a LOT of twists in turns in this and I cannot WAIT for the sequel!!

Characters (ones worth mentioning):
-Alyce/Alice: she can’t catch a BREAK. You understand why she's doing certain things and you can't help but root for her. I'm here for the havoc she's about to sow