Thus I continue in my life’s journey to read every Holly Black book ever.
And I am doing well thank you. I really adore how she writes faeries, so I was super keen to try Heart Of The Moors about Maleficent and set after the first movie!
This didn’t feel like her other faerie works, granted, because it had a lot of source material to shape around. But I love the little barbs from Maleficent herself, the wholesome goodness from Aurora, and the plot of dismantling decades of hate to show warring people (faeries vs humans) that they can be friends. This is also Middle-Grade, so it reminded me of a Spiderwick!
[characters]
Look Aurora could’ve been sickly sweet and insufferable — because she literally is PURE GOODNESS embodied — but she wasn’t! She wanted kindness, but she got cross. She loved so deeply and fiercely, but she wasn’t a mary-sue about it. Soft soft girls deserve all the love too.😫💛 And Maleficent was over here still being a snarky knifey thing with exceptional cheekbones and I do approve, monumentally. Prince Philip…well he had about as much personality as a doorknob, but that’s usual for his character. And the villains were really relevant for today; men who think they could do a job better than a woman so they try to manipulate her out of it. HA. Maleficent will bite u, fool.
[plot]
it’s set after the movie (which I realised I didn’t remember much of but my bad) and basically is Aurora trying to rule, sorting out her feelings for Philip (if she wasn’t in love with him originally…does that mean she’ll never be in love with him? He just smiled at her WHAT IS HER HEART BEAT DOING OMGG), and how to make the faeries and the humans play nice. It kept everything simple, but not watery, and it’s definitely something 8+ year olds would enjoy too! It also made the politics of making peace accessible to kids! As well as being…a bit Disneyfied and feel good. But you’re signing up for that because IT’S DISNEY.
This was fun! A quick read, engaging, and with characters you can easily feel for!
Thanks Scholastic AUS for the review-copy! It came out October, 2019!
From New York Times bestselling author Holly Black comes a captivating original novel set between Disney’s Maleficent and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in which newly-queened Aurora struggles to be the best leader to both the humans and Fair Folk under her reign; her beau, Prince Phillip, longs to get to know Aurora and her kingdom better; and Maleficent has trouble letting go of the past.
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| what do you think? |
have you read Holly Black’s books before?! tell me your favourites! and do you ever read movie-books?
Like you I am reading every Holly Black book I can get my hands on. This is one of very few I haven’t read yet, maybe the only one! I need more…
No one told me about this?? Why on earth haven’t I heard of this? I’m currently doing a buddy read of the Curse Workers series and instantly fell in love with the writing and characters!