Review: Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.

In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.

But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published April 10th 2012 by EgmontUSA

 (summary provided by GoodReads)

  I loved this book so much I didn't even tear myself away from it for the time it would take to switch my GoodReads status to "currently-reading."  It went straight from "to-read" to "read."  Kill Me Softly was that delicious.  It was that brilliant. I loved it.  Why did I love it so much?  The formula: start with the dark, more original Grimm versions in all of their scary glory, throw in a “Las Vegas meets New Orleans” urban setting, add a few somewhat off kilter characters, and the result is pure magic.

Instead of clean Disney versions of the fairy tales we all know, Sarah Cross used more true to the original Grimm versions of Snow White, Cinderella, and others.  If you have ever read any of these originals, you already know that the stories are not only more frightening, but a bit on the gory side.  They also had a tendency for un-happy endings.  It should be noted that Kill Me Softly is not for younger readers; it is a good example of a YA story not truly intended for young adults. 

 

In Kill Me Softly, each character has a role to play within a fairy tale.  As noted before, these stories were often scary and filled with gore.  It was interesting to have the author explore what these people would be like; how someone might live their life differently knowing full well what their destiny was.  It should be noted that the book does have teenagers doing things they shouldn’t be doing, as teenagers often do.  There are a few scenes more on the risqué side (it’s rather humorous to note this though, because there is not actually any sex).  Being an adult, I can draw the line from fantasy to reality, so this didn’t bother me.

For the first time in a long time, I have come across a book I am going to make time to read a second time.  I currently have over twenty books on my “to-read” desk (yes, I have a desk whose primary purpose is to be covered in books) so making time to read a book twice is saying something.

Final Thought: 50 out of 50 toadstools

This review is also available on GoodReads