Retellathon Wrap-Up
Hey guys! Today I wanted to talk about my experience participating in the Retellathon. It was a fun readathon, and I’m glad I participated in it. Overall, I managed to read two out of the three books that I wanted to get to, which isn’t bad. Let’s talk about the ones I did finish.
We’ll start with the first one, which left me feeling a little salty. It was the group book ‘The Surface Breaks.’ A fitting title given that the story is a ‘Little Mermaid’ retelling. It was described to me as a feminist ‘Little Mermaid,’ retelling, but that’s not what I got from it. Sure, the whole book seemed determined to show how terrible the Patriarchy is, but we already know that. I can understand some of the book being dedicated to that, but it was literally the whole book. I need to get this stuff off my chest, so there will be spoilers. All the characters are terrible. The girls are all catty and competitive. The main character bounces between not wanting to be a participant to being the best darn example of an upholder of the system. Let’s review, she talks down about her sisters. Not in a normal sisterly way, but calling out their so called shortcomings and how they’ll never get a husband acting that way. She becomes obsessed with a human man. Which yeah, is exactly what happens in the original tale. But, then he is a total dick and she just ignores it. She even acknowledges how awful he is, but pushes it down because she is dependent on him to save her from the spell. She gives up her voice because women don’t need it.
The male characters are all the lowest of the low scumbags. The king beats his daughters and does the worst emotional abuse to get them to fight each other for his approval. This disgusting character badgered a 12 year old to marry him until she did so to stop a war. Then he was more than happy to give his daughter to another older man, just because. That man blackmails Gaia and sexually assaults her. No one believes her, of course. Let’s take a minute to talk about Oliver. He is just annoying. Whiny. A dick to his mother. Friends to a boy who rapes women. The only almost good guy is George, he does save one girl from the guy, but he knows how evil his ‘friend,’ are and doesn’t do anything to stop him. The ending felt more like a beginning. I believe that it was meant to hint that she is changed and that she was going to tear down the Patriarchy, but that’s what I wanted from this novel itself. Not some far off fight, but a current one. For a Feminist retelling, it seemed to just focus on all the negatives of the Patriarchy instead of trying to fight against it. It just left a bad taste in my mouth. Which, is why I was almost afraid to start the next book, ‘A Court of Thrones and Roses.’ It is a popular book that I had heard a lot of great things about. But sometimes the hype can be too high for the actual novel to reach. I tried to leave all my expectations at the door before starting it.
Personally, I love ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ I know it has a lot of problems, but it is tale I look back on fondly. ACOTAR does have some issues. There is one scene that sticks out to me. SPOILER ALERT. It’s when Feyre goes downstairs and is in the kitchen when Tamlin is still hopped up on mystical energy, so he bites her shoulder to keep her from leaving. No matter how I think about it, I just don’t find it sexy. I keep thinking about how awkwardly his neck must have been to get to her level. Then it was enough to apparently leave a bruise. Overall, it was a fun read. It was a solid start to the series. I found it a little annoying how long it took to answer my questions and I still have quite a few. I do look forward to reading the rest of the series. Is a ‘Court of Frost and Starlight,’ part of the main series though? I’m not really looking forward to that one after seeing the amount of rant reviews flood Booktube.
I only read one chapter in ‘A Study in Charolette.’ It’s not that I didn’t like it, I just ran out of time. Charolette Holmes is a character that I would like to read more of at some point. I’ll probably finish it soon. It just may get a little buried in my other books on my other TBR’s
I was able to accomplish 4 out of 5 of the challenges. Which, I’m ok with. This was a fun readathon and it gave me a great excuse to read my favorite kind of stories: retellings. Fingers crossed it becomes at least a yearly event. If you participated, please let me know what you thought of the books you read and how many of the challenges you were able to accomplish. Thanks guys. I’ll see you later.