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emma's Reviews > Gilded
Gilded (Gilded, #1)
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emma's review
bookshelves: ya, from-publisher-author, fantasy, fairytale, retelling, arc, unpopular-opinion, eh, reviewed, 2-and-a-half-stars
Nov 14, 2021
bookshelves: ya, from-publisher-author, fantasy, fairytale, retelling, arc, unpopular-opinion, eh, reviewed, 2-and-a-half-stars
rumpelstiltskin is the best fairytale ever. a tiny man with an insane name who sings it to himself but gets so mad when you guess it he tears himself in half? good stuff.
so before reading this, i was all, if marissa meyer can write a retelling half as good as that...we're in business.
unfortunately that is a hard order to fill. a tough nut to crack. the difficulty-level equivalent of eating just half a candy bar, or those inexplicably impossible barbie game boy games i used to have to ask my mom to play for me. (why did i think my mom was the early 2000s equivalent of a twitch streamer? i have no idea.)
anyway, enough goofing off, i have a new hot take:
no book should ever have a romance. especially YA fantasy.
i'll make exceptions for the romcoms i can't stop trying even though i have clearly unmeetable expectations. i'll make the OCCASIONAL exception for lit fic, but only if it involves a very complicated (read: unlikable) woman destroying herself in a toxic relationship.
but i am retired from YA fantasy romance. the love story in this book did nothing but detract from what good there was!
because here's the thing: i knew there'd be some form of romance here. i expected it. because the thing about the original iconic fairytale is that even the brothers grimm didn't know what the people (me) wanted (as much content as possible about some gobliny freak), and the main character was actually the gold-spinning lady who marries the king's son.
but the romance in this book is...not with the king's son?
it is, to the best of my recollection, with some weird little ghost boy.
do i feel this swap made sense? no. do i feel it made even less sense when she was (view spoiler)?!?!? yep i sure do!
(view spoiler) yuck. if you ever thought what rumpelstiltskin was missing was 450 additional pages and (view spoiler), this is the book for you.
all that being said...this wasn't NOT fun.
so see you when the sequel comes out, i guess.
bottom line: i don't know how i feel either! i'm just hopin for the best.
---------------
pre-review
noted lack of little gremlins singing weirdly specific songs and tearing themselves in half here...
review to come / 2.5 or 3 stars
---------------
currently-reading updates
if you ever need someone to read an arc 7 months after its release date, i'm your girl
(thanks to netgalley for the e-copy)
so before reading this, i was all, if marissa meyer can write a retelling half as good as that...we're in business.
unfortunately that is a hard order to fill. a tough nut to crack. the difficulty-level equivalent of eating just half a candy bar, or those inexplicably impossible barbie game boy games i used to have to ask my mom to play for me. (why did i think my mom was the early 2000s equivalent of a twitch streamer? i have no idea.)
anyway, enough goofing off, i have a new hot take:
no book should ever have a romance. especially YA fantasy.
i'll make exceptions for the romcoms i can't stop trying even though i have clearly unmeetable expectations. i'll make the OCCASIONAL exception for lit fic, but only if it involves a very complicated (read: unlikable) woman destroying herself in a toxic relationship.
but i am retired from YA fantasy romance. the love story in this book did nothing but detract from what good there was!
because here's the thing: i knew there'd be some form of romance here. i expected it. because the thing about the original iconic fairytale is that even the brothers grimm didn't know what the people (me) wanted (as much content as possible about some gobliny freak), and the main character was actually the gold-spinning lady who marries the king's son.
but the romance in this book is...not with the king's son?
it is, to the best of my recollection, with some weird little ghost boy.
do i feel this swap made sense? no. do i feel it made even less sense when she was (view spoiler)?!?!? yep i sure do!
(view spoiler) yuck. if you ever thought what rumpelstiltskin was missing was 450 additional pages and (view spoiler), this is the book for you.
all that being said...this wasn't NOT fun.
so see you when the sequel comes out, i guess.
bottom line: i don't know how i feel either! i'm just hopin for the best.
---------------
pre-review
noted lack of little gremlins singing weirdly specific songs and tearing themselves in half here...
review to come / 2.5 or 3 stars
---------------
currently-reading updates
if you ever need someone to read an arc 7 months after its release date, i'm your girl
(thanks to netgalley for the e-copy)
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Reading Progress
July 28, 2021
– Shelved
June 3, 2022
–
Started Reading
June 7, 2022
–
Finished Reading
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message 1:
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Lem◍nade
(new)
Nov 14, 2021 08:29AM
Good luck with the that...I see your past with Marissa Meyer has not been the greatest
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Lem◍nade wrote: "Good luck with the that...I see your past with Marissa Meyer has not been the greatest"i prefer to see it as optimism, rather than masochism
Your reviews make me laugh, love how well and honestly you write them :)
Is it possible that I rated this lower than Emma, the resident goodreads mean girl (whose reviews I love btw) 😂
Jessica wrote: "This looks so interesting!"it was!
Abby wrote: "Your reviews make me laugh, love how well and honestly you write them :)"thank you!!!
Kate wrote: "Is it possible that I rated this lower than Emma, the resident goodreads mean girl (whose reviews I love btw) 😂"getting "the resident goodreads mean girl" tattooed
Eeeshh yeah the story seemed interesting but an 18 year old getting unnecessarily pregnant? Ick. Ma'am that's a child. And I totally agree with your hot take, the romance is so fucking unnecessary (aromantic mood tbh) and ruins so many good stories which is upsetting if not pissing me the fuck off
Review was very entertaining, I will note that her love interest was the kings son, that random ghosty boy was alluded to being the prince, his lost sister the missing princess, and that’s why he couldn’t remember who he was and what happened to his family or why he liked the locket. That’s why when serilda went to the graveyard the names were missing from the gravestones. Erlking cursed him to be forgotten (hence the scar on his wrist like serilda got during her curse) but he (the erlking) didn’t realize the poltergeist plaguing him and the castle was the prince.
The pregnancy made me cringe, but I’m going to look into the original myth more to see if there was *anything* Meyer was referencing with this?? 🤷🏻♀️
