Fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't end in Happily Ever After

Kill Me Softly: Sarah Cross

Modern fairy tales are always good but not always executed properly. Sarah Cross went above and beyond with her debut novel, Kill Me Softly. In which she tells the story of Mirabelle, raised by her "aunts" until her 16th birthday. When she gets restless with not knowing about her past, she leaves the week before her birthday to the town where she was born and meets quite the cast of characters, who like her, are cursed. Everyone in the town has what they call a "Marchen Mark",
a birthmark that designates what fairy-tale they are bound to follow. Such as someone with an apple Marchen will play a part in Snow White. When Mira arrives she meets brothers, Felix and Blue, who introduce her to her past and find what fairy-tale she is destined to play a role in. When she purposely starts her tale, Sleeping Beauty, her true feelings are revealed and settles down with her family.

I really enjoyed how Sarah takes these classic tales and puts that modern spin on them. Really puts then into perspective of how some old tales sometimes don't always translate to modern times. Obviously, it's not common nowadays for a young lady to be cursed at birth to prick her finger on a sharp object and sleep for an eternity and be awoken by true loves kiss, but the way she tells the story of the casino getting covered by thorns and her friends have to get in and wake her is so magnificent I thought I was really there. I have looked for this book for a while. I read it when it first came out at my local library but every time I went back for it, it was checked out and I could no longer remember the title or author's name, just the cover so it took me a few years to track this down but I have read it close to ten times since I came into possession if it and plan to read it many more times.

Pros:
Incredibly modern spins on classic tales
 
Cons:
Characters not super relatable