Book Review :: The Evil Queen, by Gena Showalter

The Evil Queen by Gena Showalter
ISBN: 1489282696
Published by HQ Young Adult, HarperCollins
on 2019-07-20
Genres: Magic, Retelling, Young Adult, Fairy Tale
Pages: 605
Source: HarperCollins NZ
Find at Harper Collins NZ
Goodreads

IN THE FOREST OF GOOD AND EVIL...
EVERY HERO IS A VILLAIN AND EVERY VILLAIN IS A HERO.
IT JUST DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ASK.

Far, far away, in the realm of Enchantia, creatures of legend still exist, magic is the norm and fairytales are real. Except, fairytales aren't based on myths and legends of the past - they are prophecies of the future.
Raised in the mortal realm, Everly Morrow has no idea she's a real life fairytale princess - until she manifests an ability to commune with mirrors.

Look. See...what will one peek hurt?

Soon, a horrifying truth is revealed. She is fated to be Snow White's greatest enemy, the Evil Queen.
With powers beyond her imagination or control, Everly returns to the land of her birth. There she meets Roth Charmaine, the supposed Prince Charming. The attraction is undeniable but their relationship is doomed. As the prophecy unfolds, Everly faces one betrayal after another, and giving in to her dark side proves more tempting every day. Can she resist, or will she become the queen - and villain - she was born to be?

The battle between good and evil is on.

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The story

The concept of The Evil Queen was quite neat; a girl in the modern world is actually destined to become one of the main characters in a fairy tale we all know so well. But unfortunately this story fell a little short for me.

We follow Everly, a teen with no friends but a tone of people who don’t like her, a mother who has always told her and her twin sister, Hartly, fairy tales and stories of far off lands. Everly has a secret: when she looks into a mirror she sees a girl. Hartly has a secret: she can talk to animals. Their mother has a secret: she’s actually a princess from another world.

And then we’re swept away into Enchantia, a land with multiple provinces, magical creatures, Kings and Queens, poisonous apples, dashing princes and prophecy-obsessed nations.

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My thoughts on The Evil Queen

The plot of the story basically follows Everly as she becomes more and more like the Evil Queen from the story of Snow White. The tale of Snow White is a prophecy in Enchantia, and everyone seems to know about. They’re all trying to figure out who they are in the story, and as Everly meets them she attempts to place them in the fairy tale, including whether she is or is not the Queen of Evil.

The characters, while all very unique and quirky, didn’t really pull me in that much. They were fun, yes, and I, for the most part, enjoyed reading about them, but if they all were suddenly blown up in a freak explosion I wouldn’t care. Everly as a main character mostly annoyed me; I didn’t really understand a lot of her actions, and she was just pissed off the majority of the time. I guess that makes sense if you’re the Evil Queen, but it was a little exhausting to read.

It seemed like there were a lot of concepts from the story of Snow White that were sort of cobbled together and mashed into a book that wasn’t quite polished up enough. There were things about this story that were a little bit lame. The names for example: Everly, Hartly, Truly, Charmaine (as in Charming, as in Prince Charming…yeah I know). There’s a whole back story with apples and apple babies, which was just very odd. The multiple typos didn’t help the read, and neither did the fact that it was over 600 pages.

As you can see, I have gripes with it. But I’ve given it a 2-star rating, because according to Goodreads, a 2-star means ‘it was ok’. And it was. The concept was really neat, and the origin-story of the Evil Queen had so much potential. It’s listed as a Young Adult novel, just be warned it does get a bit graphic in places.

Remember, just because I don’t love a story doesn’t mean you won’t. As always, if you have read this book, or you read it in the future, do let me know what you thought, and why you enjoyed it. Let’s chat about it!

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I received a free copy of this book from HarperCollins NZ in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion, and all thoughts are my own.