Retelling revives classic fairy tale
I can’t believe it’s here, but this is the final book review for the year. I’m heading off on new adventures in unknown places and won’t be coming back to USU. It’s been great being an Aggie. I’ll always love the school and especially the people I’ve met while here.
Anyway, I hope by now we’ve established that I love romance in my books, and I will not stray from what I like to read for this last book. It’s the typical fairy tale romance that I love to read and hope you’ll enjoy as well.
“Before Midnight” by Cameron Dokey is anothering retelling of a fairy tale. Can you guess which one by the title? That’s right: “Cinderella.” Now, “Cinderella” is honestly one of my least favorite fairy tales. It only ranks above “Snow White” for me, but this version of “Cinderella” makes me actually love the fairy tale again.
So, let’s just start with the technical stuff about the book. Dokey is an amazing writer. Her phrasing and style just set the mood and time of the book perfectly. You feel the sorrow and joy of the characters. I remember times I would just feel sick about something that had been happening in the book because it felt so realistic to me. Books that do that are my favorite, and I will recommend them over and over.
I would love to say she wrote with no grammatical errors – which I’m pretty sure she did – but there were some errors on my Kindle, which I attribute to the Kindle edition.
Now, on to the fun stuff. The story was true to the time period and stuck to the speech and mannerisms that would be present in that time. The most interesting conflict was the one that made up the story. The conflicts in “Cinderella” retellings can take so many various approaches, but this one was a completely new twist to the others I’ve seen.
While having the conflict be a little different is fantastic and much more interesting than most retellings, my favorite difference is the characters. They don’t stay the same to the stories many of us know. There are many additional characters who I’ve never seen before and different personalities for the ones we do know.
Another thing I really loved was that it didn’t stick to anything basic that would perhaps be seen in most plots. It had a lot of plot twists that totally threw me off and sometimes made me angry until they got resolved.
The last thing I want to mention about this book that I don’t mention about many books is the moral of it. A lot of times, I read because I love to read and I love being swept away in the story. I don’t care what the book is trying to teach or what I should be learning, but “Before Midnight” actually talks a lot about something I think we need to keep in mind a lot: the power of wishes. I can’t tell anything more without giving away the book, but certainly keep that in mind while reading.
Yes, you know the story. It’s a common one, and even if we don’t like it, we still know it. So, if you’re looking for a refreshing change from the day-to-day story that you know, “Before Midnight” is a great choice for this, especially if you enjoy fairy tales and fantasy stories and, most importantly, happy endings.
– Gillian Ponce is a sophomore majoring in journalism. She was an editor for her high school newspaper and received a scholarship for an article she wrote. Send comments to gillian.ponce95@gmail.com.