Thursday, September 8, 2016

The Storybook of Legends

18053786Goodreads Says:    At Ever After High, an enchanting boarding school, the children of fairytale legends prepare themselves to fulfill their destinies as the next generation of Snow Whites, Prince Charmings and Evil Queens...whether they want to or not. Each year on Legacy Day, students sign the Storybook of Legends to seal their scripted fates. For generations, the Village of Book End has whispered that refusing to sign means The End-both for a story and for a life.

As the daughter of the Evil Queen, Raven Queen's destiny is to follow in her mother's wicked footsteps, but evil is so not Raven's style. She's starting to wonder, what if she rewrote her own story? The royal Apple White, daughter of the Fairest of Them All, has a happy ever after planned for herself, but it depends upon Raven feeding her a poison apple in their future.

What if Raven doesn't sign the Storybook of Legends? It could mean a happily never after for them both. 

My Thoughts:

-    My daughter found and started watching the Ever After High Netflix series, and I KNEW that I had scene this somewhere else before. I checked it out on Goodreads, and there it is! Shannon Hale wrote Ever After High books. The characters looked weird. My husband even said they looked like Bratz dolls. I went searching, and I found out that the company that made Bratz also make Ever After High dolls, and to market the dolls, they hired Shannon to write some books, and Netflix made a show. Wow! I couldn't resist, I had to at least read the first book.

-    The book is pretty different from the Netflix show, but that is to be expected.

-    I really liked the whole concept of these characters, and I loved their creative names, but I just couldn't get into it. The idea of these stories based on dolls and what the manufacturer wanted was bugging me. I also think I'm just too old for these stories. 

-    My daughter loves the Netflix show. She watched all the episodes twice. She'll probably be interested in reading the books in the future. They just weren't for me. I got bored.

6 comments:

  1. I agree, I'm a little weirded out by the blatant attempt to sell stuff with this. I like books because they're stories, but these stories feel contrived, like they're just there to contribute to the bigger product, the purpose of which is not to tell stories but to make money. I read the first one but didn't continue the series. I'm not surprised it's on Netflix, considering the empire/cash cow they're so desperately trying to create here.

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  2. Well, that's a shame. But I think it's cool all the things you discovered about this series and how it came to be.

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    1. I couldn't help it. I was SO curious about how everything worked.

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  3. I wonder if Shannon Hale even enjoys writing them? Or, if she just does this for the paycheck. Hmmm.

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    1. I wondered that too, but in her acknowledgements she thanks everyone and said she liked playing around in Mattel's playground.

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