Comments on: Poison, Sarah Pinborough

By: litlove

litlove — Sun, 24 May 2015 16:49:09 +0000

I love the idea of retelling fairy tales. I’m glad you are there as arbiter of the many published, so I can choose with discernment!

By: Melinda (@thebookmusings)

Melinda (@thebookmusings) — Mon, 18 May 2015 08:36:58 +0000

It’s a pity you ended up not liking this one. I hope your next read will go better 🙂

By: Athira

Athira — Mon, 18 May 2015 00:39:03 +0000

I guess I would have liked this story, so it’s a bummer this one isn’t executed as well. But your post made me realize something about myself – I do find that I love a book more if the ending was awesome but the going was crappy than if the ending was crappy and the book until then was amazing. Huh, weird.

By: Gin Jenny

Gin Jenny — Fri, 15 May 2015 19:40:41 +0000

In reply to Stefanie. Hmmmmmmm. Tough question. The ending was REALLY good. I think more than anything, I was sad that an author who could hit such a ballsy ending couldn't make the rest of her book similarly interesting and unexpected.

By: Gin Jenny

Gin Jenny — Fri, 15 May 2015 19:13:58 +0000

In reply to rhapsodyinbooks.

ARE they most of the time justified? I am beginning to get sort of depressed about fairy tale retellings. And I don’t want to be! I want to love them always! It’s just — when I think about it, it seems like the majority of these novels don’t live up to what I want them to be. I’m going to start tracking the number of fairy tale retellings I read and the number that don’t disappoint me, and then I’ll have HARD DATA.

(You always seem to inspire me to do these HARD DATA seeking projects. You are also the reason, I’m pretty sure, why last year I kept track of whether the American covers were better or worse than the British covers for everything I read.)

By: Stefanie

Stefanie — Fri, 15 May 2015 19:10:52 +0000

Did the ending redeem the rest of the book? Or did it just make you feel like you didn’t stick it out for nothing? From your lack of enthusiasm it sounds like the latter.

By: rhapsodyinbooks

rhapsodyinbooks — Fri, 15 May 2015 10:25:43 +0000

It’s interesting that we get such high expectations for retellings. Most of the time they are justified, because, as you say, why retell it unless you have something to add? But the audacity at the end sounds intriguing….