Spell of the Sinister coming December 17, 2024 from Bloomsbury Publishing; 454 pages
Content Warning: Violence (mild)
About the Author: “Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, Stealing Snow series, Mera: Tidebreaker, and the upcoming book The Ravens co-written with Kass Morgan. In addition to writing young adult books, she works in the television industry, where she’s received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and currently lives in New York City” (Bio from author’s website).
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Picking up where Wish of the Wicked, a Cinderella retelling, leaves off, Spell of the Sinister follows the fairy godmothers, also known as Entente, who have been fighting for revenge after being taken advantage of by humans. Implicated in the fairy godmothers’ struggle, friends Bari and Farrow experience rising tensions between them when their loyalties and priorities begin to differ. Bari finds herself on a mission to find a new prince to take over the queendom in Prince Mather’s absence, while Farrow seeks to find Prince Mather and Cinderella before Bari can succeed in her endeavor. As Farrow grows closer to Mather, however, the drive for vengeance starts to seem insignificant. Meanwhile, Bari, enacting Galatea’s plan, grows closer to South as she continues her mission.
Spell of the Sinister is a solid sequel to a promising concept that offers a unique perspective on a classic fairytale. In particular, I enjoyed Farrow’s characterization and development as she begins to challenge the views Hecate and the other Entente instilled in her. When it comes to her relationship with Bari, it was refreshing to see the difference between this book and the first. Their relationship changes throughout the story, but when tied back to the themes of sisterhood, platonic and romantic love, and how “happily ever afters” can be achieved even after embracing differences, it certainly fits well. While my main strife with the last book was that it tried to address too many aspects of world-building that only made it more complicated than it needed to be, I felt like that wasn’t as much of an issue in Spell of the Sinister. Though still action-packed and plot-heavy, the sequel seemed to be more internal and character-focused. Some of the dialogue felt out of place and unnatural at times, which could, in part, be due to the fact that I listened to the previous book on audio but read this one. Regardless, the phrasing of some sentences seemed to be trying too hard to not sound modernized, like when Galatea says “this situation is fraught for you” but later says “this will be difficult.” If conveying the same idea, why is the verbiage so different? Despite these minor issues, Spell of the Sinister is a strong conclusion to the series.
Spell of the Sinister releases on December 17th, 2024
Pine Reads Review would like to thank NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Vanshikha Vij, Pine Reads Review Writer