The Wickeds - Gayle Forman

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AUTHOR: Gayle Forman

GENRE: Retelling, Fantasy, Short Story
RATING: 3.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: Short story. Interesting concept. Above average writing. Started well. Ended a bit flat. Loved the idea though.

All of us know the three villainesses of the fairy tale world: the evil queen from Snow White, the wicked witch from Rapunzel, and the devious stepmother from Cinderella. However, do we know why they behaved the way they did? What happens when these three “wickeds” meet up and decide that they want vengeance for the way their names have been sullied? Don’t they deserve a happily-ever-after?

The concept of the book is fabulous. While it fits into the modern trend of retelling a story from the antagonist’s point of view, thus modifying our opinion about them through their version of events, the reasons provided for each woman’s behaviour covers quite relevant themes. As the three characters are given names in this story-- Elsinora, Gwendolyn, and Marguerite, it takes a while to remember who is who, but going with the flow works fine.

The ending comes as a surprise. In a way, it takes life a full circle and the three vamps realise that revenge might not be the solution to their woes.

While the story is quick and easy-going, the writing/editing brings it down. The narrative perspective didn’t make sense. There’s a mysterious “we” who are narrating the story to us, but after their identity is revealed at the end, the earlier narration doesn’t make sense, as they wouldn’t have known of many of the events that occurred earlier. Moreover, after the identity reveal, the “we” also refer to themselves by their names, thus mixing up the first person and thirds person. There are a couple of continuity errors as well. A round of edits would have improved the impact of the story.

Overall, a decent story that provides a somewhat-feminist retelling from the pov of three despised women from the fairy tale world. A good enough read, not a must-read.

This story is a part of the Faraway Collection and is available to Amazon Prime members. (No, I don’t plan on reading the rest of this collection. I read this story only because my daughter badgered me to. She wanted to vent about the ending. Sheesh! For what it’s worth, she rated it 4 stars.)

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