Title: Malice
Author: Heather Walter
Publication date: April 13th 2021
Age-range/genre: YA / Fantasy, Retellings, LGBT+, Fairy Tales
Trigger warnings: child abuse, torture, blood, bloodletting (graphic), medical trauma, death
Rating: 2.8/5 stars
Summary: [from amazon]
Once upon a time, there was a wicked fairy who cursed a line of princesses to die, and could only be broken by true love’s kiss. You’ve heard this before, haven’t you? The handsome prince. The happily-ever-after.
Utter nonsense.
Let me tell you, no one actually cares about what happens to our princesses. I thought I didn’t care, either. Until I met her.
Princess Aurora. The last heir to the throne. The future queen her realm needs. One who isn’t bothered that I am the Dark Grace, abhorred and feared for the mysterious dark magic that runs in my veins. Aurora says I should be proud of my gifts. That she . . . cares for me. Even though it was a power like mine that was responsible for her curse.
But with less than a year until that curse will kill her, any future I might see with Aurora is swiftly disintegrating – and she can’t stand to kiss yet another insipid prince. I want to help her. If my power began her curse, perhaps it’s what can lift it. Perhaps, together, we could forge a new world.
Nonsense again. Because we all know how this story ends, don’t we? Aurora is the beautiful princess. And I-
I am the villain.
Malice is a a retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty tale with a twist in that its also a love story between the Princess Aurora and the Dark Grace Alyce. I’m always a big fan of retellings, especially ones that make things sapphic, so I was incredibly excited for this. Throw in the fact it’s with a princess and a villain and I had very high hopes for this – perhaps too high because I wasn’t a big fan of Malice.
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