The Kingdom of Sweets

  ‘'A woman drew her long black       hair out tightAnd fiddled whisper music on      those stringsAnd bats with baby faces in the          violet lightWhistles, and beat their wingsAnd crawled head downward      down a blackened wallAnd upside down in air were     towers Tolling reminiscent bells, that    kept the hoursAnd voices singing out of empty   cisterns and exhausted   wells.''                           -The Waste Land                                    T.S.Eliot
This is not the glorious, Christmassy, crystal-clear world of The Nutcracker as we have come to know it from E.T.A Hoffman's original story. This is a Gothic world where chocolate resembles blood, where the moon is black, where the Fairy is the Devil and the Kingdom of Sweets is Hell.
And this book is much better than the original. In fact, it is a masterpiece.
‘'Fallen angels, old pagan gods, animal spirits...it matters not which mythology you hunt through, you will find the same thing: creatures who despise mankind. They await our downfall, speed it along when they can. They seek vengeance upon us.''‘'For what?''‘'For being shut out of the light.''
One of the most fascinating quotes I've ever read!
Two sisters are fighting over a man. The Light and the Dark, creations and pawns of Godfather Drosselmeyer. The heart of our story is Natasha, the Dark Sister, the one who has the brains and the courage to stand her ground. To seek justice and vengeance, to commit what one may deem as unethical acts to make others face their sins. She faces ordeals where there should be none, starting with the hatred of her empty-headed sister whose only worth is measured in beauty and sexual prowess. 
‘'You are the dark sister. You always see. You're doomed to see.''
She is kind to those who are viewed as nothing more than ‘servants' and fiery against the ones who pollute the world with their presence. She faces mirrors of darkness, figures lurking behind her, disturbing her peace of mind. She faces screaming women and threatening ornaments. Most importantly, she faces the thwarting of her childhood dreams. She faces pure wrath at a time when dead bodies of young men are washed ashore, an era of upheaval. She is one of the most fascinating characters I've ever encountered in a novel, the creation of an extraordinary literary mind.
‘'Who knew what trees really thought,, long after we had taken them for pleasure and use, twisting them into shapes never intended? Who knew what memories even the dead wood might hold?''
Erika Johansen created a novel that reminded me of Goya's Pinturas Negras. It is twisted and poignant and moving, a world of dark fairytales, of the eternal fight between Good and Evil, exceptionally portrayed. The writing is outstanding, the characters step out of the pages and parade before the reader's eyes. The dialogue is almost poetic and Natasha is the perfect guide to a story that goes so much deeper than a simple fairytale. Johansen touches upon themes that concern us all, commenting on mental health, repercussions and consequences and moments that changed the course of History in the most violent and vilest manner. I think we all know what comes to mind when we read the following quote:
‘'There is no revolution for man, not really. I have observed your kind since the dawning. They mean well. They wish to slay monsters. But murder begets murder, and so your heroes invariably become monsters themselves.''
Rich in beautiful, evocative descriptions, brave, elegantly dark. The last few pages chronicling the butchers of the Russian Revolution and their communist nightmare are outstanding and frightening. The setting of New York during the book's final part is heart-warming and fascinating. The ending is PERFECTION.
‘'Thank you to the teachers, who do the most important job there is.''              Erika Johansen
I have read hundreds of books. I have never encountered the tiniest example of gratitude from a writer to teachers and the sentence above warmed my heart. Therefore, thank you so much, Erika Johansen!
‘Whose blood is that?', I asked. ‘All of them, child.' She gasped, her breath beginning to falter now. ‘Pharaohs, Romans, Vikings...If you dug deep enough, you'd find Cain himself in there. This is the record of my dealings, and I give it to you.'
My reviews can also be found on https://theopinionatedreaderblog.wordpress.com/
 

Honestly, it was fine. I was hooked for the first like 1/3 of the book and then I just kinda lost interest. Conceptually it was cool, but the last act felt kinda meh.

This was far better than I expected. Much darker than i expected but definitely catchy that I didn't want to put it down.

This book is a dark retelling of The Nutcracker. Though you do not have to know anything about the ballet or the story to enjoy this book.

Natasha and Clara are twins who where cursed by mysterious sorcerer Drosselmeyer. Clara, is blessed with beauty and grace. Everyone she meets loves her. Natasha is cursed to live in her sister's shadow, being feared by everyone she meets. Then one Christmas Eve, Natasha finally breaks and wants revenge on Drosselmeyer and her sister. Drosselmeyer has brought the Nutcracker, an enchanted present that offers entry into a deceptively beautiful world: the Kingdom of Sweets.

The beginning of the story starts slow, but picks up. There were parts that I found that were interesting. The idea of the Sugar Plum Fairy being some sort of dark creature that manipulates human is a great concept. At first I thought that the Sugar Plum Fairy was going to be like The Other Mother from Coraline.

The story just starts to go on and on, repeating the same ideas, but with no resolution. I kept reading hoping at the end there would be some sort of conclusion that would tie everything together. But in the end it never really gave any answer or if it did they were very general and vague. My first though when I finished the book was “what was even the point?”

At the end Natasha and Clara are supposed to have forgiven each other, but it just felt kind of contrived as the last time we see them together they basically just express indifference to each other at best.

Overall, this book has a really interesting concept, but fails to tell a coherent story.

Wow, finishing books so close together is really impressive for me. I received The Kingdom of Sweets from Book of the Month, and I chose it because it's inspired by The Nutcracker. I had vague memories of the ballet, but felt like I liked it. I also thought it'd be fun for Christmas.

I did really enjoy reading this book. I reached for it, looked forward to it. Last night I read for two hours in order to finish it. I go back and forth on my rating, between 2 or 3 stars. I lean towards 3 because of how much I wanted to finish the story, but I'm stuck at 2 because I noticed the flaws I will discuss while reading. I also realized more issues after finishing.

I don't want to discuss the plot in depth because I hate giving out spoilers. I also went in completely blind, which is my favorite way to read a book. My reviews are not plot descriptions because of this. The story is definitely inspired by The Nutcracker in a loose way. I read the plot of the ballet after finishing and I think Johansen did so much with what was there. There are moments that are directly taken and expanded on in a very interesting way. A new character is introduced, Natasha, and the story is from her point-of-view. Her twin is Clara, and Clara has always had everything: attention, beauty, love. Natasha sticks to the walls and is friends with servants. This dynamic works for them and they aren't enemies. But it fuels what happens in the story.

The momentum stayed up for me and I just wanted to know what would happen. However, in the last 30% or 40%, I started to feel like the story was falling flat. And that feeling stuck once the book ended. I hate to say this, but there was so much potential. Overall, I think this book suffered from a lack of editing. There are so many ideas: directly from the ballet, inspired by it, and newly formed. I suppose they don't mesh seamlessly. Early on in the book, I found repetition was common. In the actual Kingdom of Sweets, it makes sense to describe all the different sweets, but it became, well, annoying. This after this after this after this. These types of repetitive descriptions happened multiple times. The writing didn't feel clear, especially when describing a complicated idea. A few times, I simply couldn't understand what was happening.

One thing that bothered from the beginning was the fact that this book is nearly all exposition. Yes, there are scenes of dialogue and action. But only very key scenes are acted out in this way. Everything else is told to the reader by Natasha. At one point I though Johansen might be doing this on purpose since there is no speaking in a ballet, which is clever, but she does have scenes with dialogue. You can't really go halfway with that idea.

Yes, I read the book, and quickly, so how bad can it be? Could I recommend it? Perhaps. Just with the caveat that it is lackluster. It needed to be tightened up and polished.

https://tinyleafbooks.wordpress.com/

I wanted to like this so much but it let me down and I was so sad. It had everything that I wanted! But it just didn't execute it well enough. I think it was a mixture of the characters, the writing, and a confusing plot.

I get unlikeable characters, I even like that they're unlikeable sometimes. For me the two sisters just had no personality. I didn't like either of them, they were flat characters. I think I maybe could like Clara; but since most of the story was through Natasha's eyes, all we saw were Clara's negatives. Which, let's be honest here, I don't think Clara really had many negative characteristics. Natasha just wanted to see her sister as an evil person, so she was.

It's not even that “Oh, the curse made her (Natasha) annoying” – I was totally fine with the curse making her dark – it's how that was written that annoyed me. I also didn't like how she viewed relationships – even if this is set in the past – why do we have to have do all of this slut-shaming?

I would've liked it if we got to the other land earlier. I also thought Natasha would travel between the two worlds often instead of spending a tiny bit in the other world. It's just what I thought would've happened and then it didn't. Which made me sad and once again felt a bit let down by the book.

I just wanted more. I think that's what annoyed me most of all. I expected so many things from the great cover and the synopsis and nothing worked out for me. The ending came out of the blue for me. It didn't make sense and I didn't like the sudden time jump we were given.