Malice

 Library copy - had to return but was considering DNF'ing anyway. This book has so much potential, I might have squealed - at least internally - when I read the synopsis. And there were so many interesting facets of the world that I enjoyed or was at least intrigued by. But I was having a hard time getting into it. Perhaps I was in the wrong headspace? Will try again later 

OK, this one was great, and a good end to September. An LGBTQ retelling of Sleeping Beauty centering on the villain, turning everything on its head. Yeah, there's still some tropes here and there, but the way its done is romantic and original. Really happy this is a duology and I can revisit these wonderful characters next time. Absolutely loved this romantic sapphic retelling.

via GIPHY

I liked the majority of the book, it kept me entertained and curious, but the ending kinda.. ruined it for me. I'm still going to read the second one, but I was pretty disappointed with the writing in the last half. It went from cringe in a good way to cringe in a bad way all the way at the end.

This was a fun little book for the most part. I'm normally iffy with stories that have a lot of bullying because I just do not have a fun time reading stuff like that, but the plot was interesting enough to keep me there and engaged. Aurora and Alyce's relationship was very cute as well, even though I feel like they should've spent a bit more time together before they were all in love, but that's subjective in books so it didn't bother me too much.

My minor gripes were the way the author clearly tried to include other fairytale elements in the story but it felt a bit obvious and clumsy. The author should've stuck with Sleeping Beauty. The only other minor annoyance I was that Alyce said “Dragon's teeth” as an expletive what felt like 70 times throughout the book. I understand that fantasy settings are going to have their own unique dialogue and phrases but it felt like this particular one was overused.

Most of my issues with this book, and what made me rate it so low, occurred in the last ten chapters of the book. I'll put them all under spoilers and in bullet points to try to get this across as succinctly as possible:

• i knew alyce working for the king was going to come back to bite her at some point, but i don't understand why aurora was so angry about it. he is the KING. she is the dark grace that everyone already hates and uses. at what point did she think alyce would have ANY choice in the matter? if alyce refused the king probably would've drained her like narcisse or just killed her. aurora knows what her father is capable of. it makes no sense why she would feel upset or betrayed by this.
• after the king admits to: killing aurora's sisters, attempting to kill aurora herself, wanting to usurp the rightful queen of briar, wanting to go to war with the fae after it almost killed them last time, and wanting to basically enslave alyce and use her powers in the war, aurora STILL stops alyce from killing him? WHY? they made it seem like a “he's awful but he's still my father” situation but not only did aurora NEVER express an opinion like this prior, she didn't even say anything like it in the moment! she doesn't plead for his life because she still “loves” him or anything!! could've solved most of their problems right then and there but just. didn't.
• i could see the kal betrayal coming for a while, even if i didn't know the exact reason. she trusted him WAY too quickly and with way too little information on his backstory. he didn't even have to lie about much. you would think alyce would have better instincts than that with how she's been treated even if she was desperate for friendship. the author didn't try to make this a love triangle though, at least, so points for that
• alyce WHY would you transform into your new disguise IN FRONT OF THE OTHER GRACES?? i understand you wanted your #girlboss moment but what is the point of having a disguise that at least 3 other people you KNOW despise you/have no loyalty to you will see?? all it takes is for them to follow you to the palace or get there faster and your disguise is useless.
• “The princess won't remember you as you are. When she wakes she'll only see you as a Vila, as a threat.” this might be a personal preference thing but i can't stand memory modification/memory loss as a major plot trope. it feels lazy to me. there are plenty of other ways to create conflict between alyce and aurora without this happening.
• alyce finally ‘snapping' and starting to kill people left and right COULD have been a good ending and good beginning of a villain arc...if it wasn't all basically because of the vila villain spirit trapped in her head. if you want alyce to be evil let her be evil under her OWN power, not someone else's. making it because of spirit both releases her from any potential consequences (morality-wise) and robs us of a good storyline of someone who became a villain because of how she was treated and having to come to grips with that. the author could've explored an interesting concept in “becoming the villain they all thought you to be because they left you no choice but to” but that won't happen, or at least it won't be nearly as impactful with some/most of the blame being laid on the evil spirit possessing her.

4.5 stars

hard to get into, middle of the book was good, ending sucked

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book. I read it in one sitting (for book club) and it definitely kept me engaged to do so. But the blurb gave away the book? Like there weren't any surprises along the way. It's really like a prequel to the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale and not a retelling itself, kind of like Wicked by Gregory McGuire actually. I'd heard there was a big cliffhanger, but I don't think there was? Like I really don't think I need the second book at all. I was also expecting a bigger romance, but that's probably just the usual BookTok inflation.

The writing was great and the magic system was excellent. So I do recommend it, just don't read the back right before reading the book itself.

I'm conflicted. If I could I would give the first 3/4 four stars and the last fourth two stars. It's probably my fault for not knowing this was a duology or how much it would take from the Sleeping Beauty tale. Still, I was disappointed with the ending and I'm not sure if I'm going to pick up the next book.

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

I had gone into this book knowing almost nothing about it, other than that everyone was highly praising it. Malice is a darker retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. You like a revenge fantasy? Here you go. You'll enjoy reading as Alice gets to dish out what everyone else deserves in this book.

The lead character, Alice, is half-Vila, which is basically a dark Fae. Her power can only really be used for evil things — making people ugly, making them forget how to dance, killing, poisoning, etc. All her life she's been made to feel outcast and unwanted. She's been made to serve the nobility of the kingdom, making them tinctures and elixirs that they use on each other. The House in which she works is home to Graces — think the faeries from Sleeping Beauty, only mostly human. They have powers like control over beauty, wisdom, music, etc. The majority of these Graces are awful to Alice. Cruel, and mean and just plain malicious. Alice lives a terrible life in mostly solitude, in a crappy cold room surrounded by people who hate her and let her know it.

Then she meets Aurora, and everything changes.

I'm not going to spoil this, because it's just so much more enjoyable to read. But I'll tell you just this — this book is gay, gay, gay. The ending of this book was SO satisfying.

I thoroughly enjoyed Malice, and I'm eager to dive into my ARC of Misrule, the next book in this duology.

2.5*
I'm sad. This was a highly anticipated read for me. My biggest issue is that the main character is NOT an evil sorceress, not really. She is basically just forced to produce curses, but she doesn't want to. So already I was bummed that she wasn't strong internally. I was hoping for some real girl power villainess vibes and those were missing.

But I kept going because the writing style is solid. I enjoyed the way things were developing. I overlooked some typical tropes of misunderstandings and “smart” characters acting stupid. BTW the majority of this reads very much like a Cinderella retelling not sleeping beauty. I had hope that maybe our gal would develop her claws as we continued. But she didn't not really, not her own.

I felt the ending was a cheap exit. I would have given it 3stars to 3.5stars if not for the ending. I felt like all the backstory of Alice was wasted by the turns at the end. The inevitable betrayals that were coming could have packed more punch. (view spoiler)

And there was a trope that I really hate in these books. (view spoiler)

I'm not going to read the next one. I don't even feel like the Sapphic romance in this really held weight. They spend some time together but it just seems really shallow. And we really don't get to know the princess or most of the characters that well so more than a few of them seemed a bit flat. Like all their actions were predictable and weren't nuanced.

I did like the magic system and the fae lore, I wish we had seen more of it. A lot was more told to us in one way or another. Which sometimes is needed with this kind of fantasy because you need history to be present. I would be interested if the author told the story of the first Warrior Queen and the Fae War. Because that chick seemed to be the only one with a personality and some balls to get things done!

This was a fun debut!

As someone who just loves morally grey women Malice fits that bill so well. Knowing the tale of Sleeping Beauty you know that you're going to be setup for some pain when our main character is the villain.

Some things I really enjoyed about this book:
- the magic system and graces
- the slow unfurling of alyce wanting to subvert the expectations others have about her while also being to grasp the parts of her she was told were ugly/bad

Thank you to Del Rey for a copy for review.

The magic in this story is quite unlike anything else I'd read. Alyce, our main character and “villain” is a Dark Grace, unlike everyone else around her. Whilst Grace's can bestow beauty, wit and other benefits nobles enjoy with a few drops of golden blood, Alyce is the opposite. A drop of her green blood can cause warts, spoil cream and so much more. The land of Briar relies on the beautifying, the hair or eye colour change, the smoothing of wrinkles from the Graces whilst largely shunning Alyce. Of course, that doesn't stop them using her particular brand of magic on rivals when desired. Within the first few pages, I began to appreciate Alyce as a character and enjoy seeing things from a more morally grey point of view. The author does a great job of showing how the supposedly beautiful golden Graces are not as beautiful on the inside and how Alyce has plenty of hidden depth.

Part One was great. It built up the world of humans, Graces, Fae, Vila and a hint at a whole other host of fantastical species in a world that I could picture clearly with the wonderful descriptions. It also, of course, introduces our characters. As well as Alyce, the other characters worth mentioning are Aurora, Rose, Kal and Endlewild.

Aurora is the Princess, cursed to die if she doesn't have true love's kiss by her 21st birthday. If her name wasn't enough to give you a hint at the retelling, the curse should be reasonably familiar! Aurora's not your average Princess with the perfect manners, so it was fun to begin to learn her character and have her standout for more than just being a cursed princess.

Rose is an antagonist, a Grace that lives with Alyce in a house full of their Grace's. As Alyce is “dark”, they all tend to treat her differently, but Rose is particularly cruel with it. Come the end of Part One though, I began to see the flaws to her character that stemmed a lot from the stress and pressure of a) being a Grace and b) the fact that Grace powers have a limit and fade before long. It's a lot of weight to have on your shoulders, losing your power along with your way of making a tidy living.

Kal is... I'm not really sure. A mentor archetype but there's something more to him. I'm writing this at the end of Part One, so I'm not sure what yet, but there's definitely something there and he's powerful, so there'll be more to come from that, I'm sure.

Endlewild, finally, is the ambassador of the Fae to Briar. And he's not necessarily happy about it or a nice guy in general. Endlewild is responsible for torturing Alyce as a child and is another character I think we'll hear more about as the book progresses.

some time later

Part Two has struck and... wow. Where Part One was slowly drawing us in, showing us the depth of the world, exploring the characters, letting us begin to root for them. Part Two was unleashing all of that in angst, drama, love, action and then... the last few chapters. I don't want to spoil things too much but what I posted on Instagram shortly after probably sums it up. I closed the book and stared at the words “There was a villain.” for a good few minutes. There was a villain, indeed, and my brain can't quite handle that right now. The main issue with reading books pre-release of right at release is then the wait for the next book. Has the author even finished writing it yet? Possibly not. And yet, I need it. Now. Please.

I also need the art. The things illustrators could do with the use of colour in this book is going to be amazing, I'm telling you, and I really hope that happens.