Book Review

Winterspell by Claire Legrand

Image taken from Goodreads

Goodreads’s overview:

    The clock chimes midnight, a curse breaks, and a girl meets a prince…but what follows is not all sweetness and sugarplums.

   New York City, 1899. Clara Stole, the mayor’s ever-proper daughter, leads a double life. Since her mother’s murder, she has secretly trained in self-defense with the mysterious Drosselmeyer.

Then, on Christmas Eve, disaster strikes.

    Her home is destroyed, her father abducted—by beings distinctly not human. To find him, Clara journeys to the war-ravaged land of Cane. Her only companion is the dethroned prince Nicholas, bound by a wicked curse. If they’re to survive, Clara has no choice but to trust him, but his haunted eyes burn with secrets—and a need she can’t define. With the dangerous, seductive faery queen Anise hunting them, Clara soon realizes she won’t leave Cane unscathed—if she leaves at all.

    Inspired by The Nutcracker, Winterspell is a dark, timeless fairy tale about love and war, longing and loneliness, and a girl who must learn to live without fear.

***

My review:

   After reading this, I immediately knew it is a dark and somber kind of book, and that it is not what I usually like to read. However, up till that point I had never stumbled upon a retelling of The Nutcracker and I like that story very much, so despite my apprehension for what could wait me, I decided to give this book a chance. And I don’t regret it.

   Yes, the story is dark and yes, I sometimes felt frustrated by all the despair in the story and self-pity of the protagonist. But it is a perfectly written story with unexpected twists and turns and complex characters.

   Once Clara finds the pictures of her mother after she was brutally murdered, secrets unfold themselves, and like a snowball sliding down a cliff, events happen one after another and I couldn’t stop reading.

    The story talks about corruption, dishonesty, secrecy, betrayals, lack of self-confidence, fears, hunger for power, manipulation and loneliness. But it also talks about hope, friendship, the inner strength that comes from being confident in yourself and of overcoming fears.

    Apart from being a retelling of The Nutcracker, I think that what hooked me to this book is the changes that the characters go through. How at the beginning, they think one way and act one way, letting their fears and insecurities overcome their desires and rule their decisions; and in the end after many trials, they are confident in themselves, making the decision that they want even though they might be scarred.

     Another thing that I found interesting was the similarities with the real world. The story takes place in two different worlds, but in both, there are corrupt leaders that’ll stop at nothing to obtain what they want, who are unjust, power hungry and resentful. Just like in the real world. But there is also someone who does not stand for these leaders, who wants to change the world even if it seems impossible. Just like in the real world.

    So, yes, it is a dark romantic fairy tale story that deals with hard and dark themes that not everyone can digest and not everyone will like. But that is up to each reader, I am only saying my opinion of this book. And yes, I highly recommend Winterspell.

    I give Winterspell 5 out of 5 stars.