Re: The Land of Stories 2 : The Enchantress Returns Read and Discuss thread!

[ColdFlame96]

Heather, I'm going to pretend like you didn't just spoil yet another thing for me and just accept my compliment.   

[MoviesAreLife]

Heather, I'm going to pretend like you didn't just spoil yet another thing for me and just accept my compliment.   

     

Read faster, damn it!!!  

[ColdFlame96]

Heather, I'm going to pretend like you didn't just spoil yet another thing for me and just accept my compliment.   

     

Read faster, damn it!!!  

I just got it today! I have a job, woman! I got it to chapter 6. Isn't that good enough?

[MoviesAreLife]

You got it today?? Oh...oops! How did I miss that?  

Carry on, then.  

[ColdFlame96]

I'm up to chapter 11 now. I just love how all these stories are so entertwined with each other. The Princess and the Pea, Evly.. 

But DAMN! Ezmias delightfully evil. Her and Mother Goose are my 2 favorite new characters. OMG. Is Charlotte pregnant?

[fantastica]

Yes. She will lay a golden egg.  

[MoviesAreLife]

I'm up to chapter 11 now. I just love how all these stories are so entertwined with each other. The Princess and the Pea, Evly.. 

But DAMN! Ezmias delightfully evil. Her and Mother Goose are my 2 favorite new characters. OMG. Is Charlotte pregnant?

I don't know, Bailey Triplet. Is she???! 

[ColdFlame96]

I finished it!  

[Lottie2303]

I finished it!  

Yeah!!! Overall thoughts?!

[ColdFlame96]

I finished it!  

Yeah!!! Overall thoughts?!

I can't get them written down. I'll probably just make a video or something and post it on tumblr.

[Lottie2303]

Ahh, I love to hear you talk. I'd never reveal my real name or picture on Tumblr. Never  .

[MoviesAreLife]

Yay! What did you think?

[arina]

I’ve just finished the book (I was very unpatient so I read it rather quickly and some things are little bit unclear to me, I plan to read it again very soon, this time more carefully and with dictionary).

I am not good with reviews and even less in english but here are my few thoughts:

I start with the more negative things:
I am not native speaker so I cannot say much about his use of words etc.. but he should definitely work on not repetititing words too much, especially the word „said“, sometimes he used that it like eight times in row….I still not underestand why his editor didn’t pointed out to him (someone really should because I think it's one of his biggest visible flaw that he does in every of his book and if he was aware it and focus on the problem more it could be easily fixed), it unnecessarily makes the book look more amateriush. Also I think these sentences could have been longer and not just „Conner said., Alex said.…

I like the story but I think Chris definitely shouldn’t do another colecting items story for the third book because it would be really repetitive.

That is all I can think of for now :-)

Chris has a great imagination, I really love the way he connected all these characters from different fairytales together.
I love the characters, the twins are likeable and the supporting characters are just hilarious,, mother goose was pretty funny, so is Trollbela, Red Riding Hood is just so annoying that I just canot not love her  ….Froggy, Jack, Goldilocks… – I like them all and their dynamic (Goldilocks and Red are hilarious duo  )

The main villain was interesting, I loved her backstory and I think for some things she said Chris definitely draw inspiration from his own experinces (I am definitely not excusing her – but some of her statements were pretty thoughtful and unfortunately true), while I loved evil queen in the first book I was also glad he wasn’t making that many excuses for the Enchantress as for her…. He went little overboard with that in the first book.

I also love he decided to give the mother new love interest and not let her to have just one true love like in most fairy tales strories.

I don't what my favorite chapter is, but I loved the The Lady of the East for example.

I think the book is entertaining, easy to read, I found it less predictable than the first one, there were definitely things I wasn’t expecting like what the „one of the four travelerss, one will not return“ meant…. Well, the whole end was unexpected, when they beat Ezmia I was expecting only the happy things afterwards… While I definitely wish Conner found out sooner a not in the last minute and it’s kinda hard to undertand 13 years old girl prefered to spend her life in Land of stories with knowing she’ll never see her closest family again and the mother let her, the ending definitely made impression, it’t not easy to forget and made the people want another book even more. I need the twins together!!!
¨
Cannot wait to hear all these harph's songs on audio book!!!

(I must say it's very nice when your favorite does things you enjoy, I would probably watch and read everything my favorite does, but it's great when you doesn't have "force" yourself to do it but read because you truly curious what happens next.

[Glorfindel]

I love the characters, the twins are likeable and the supporting characters are just hilarious,, mother goose was pretty funny, so is Trollbela, Red Riding Hood is just so annoying that I just canot not love her  ….Froggy, Jack, Goldilocks… – I like them all and their dynamic (Goldilocks and Red are hilarious duo  )

What's surprising about this is that in this little love quadrangle Chris made the vendetta  between Red and Goldilocks, when most other writers in cases like this would make it all about the men, with some stupid bickering and fighting over the maiden, while the maiden has no say in it.
Red loved both Froggy and Jack, so the men should have been the ones to feel insecure and even jealous towards one another, but they didn't. They were friends throughout, and they didn't try to 'fight' for the love of Red. Jack didn't want to fight over Red because he loved Goldilocks, but Froggy was the one who could lose Red and who therefore could have felt jealous and might have taken it out on Jack.

Goldilocks had nothing really to worry about, as she knew Jack loved her unconditionally. And yet she was the one constantly throwing daggers (figuratively and literally!) at Red. I think it's because the mutual dislike between Red and Goldilocks already started when they were mere children, when Red tricked Goldilocks to go to the 3 Bears' house which ended in her becoming a fugitive.
And Red did all that back then to get Jack, but she failed, and kept failing to get him for years. So Goldilocks had nothing to worry about when it came to Jack, but the old resentment and anger for Red making her a fugitive was the basic reason to keep biggering with her anyway. And Red kept biggering with Goldilocks because she partly still wanted Jack.

I really liked that dynamic, as it could have turned out as more of a standard sappy love-triangle with almost no agency for the women.
Chris let the men simply be friends without them being cocky roosters in a hen house, and his female characters are simply fierce!


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I forgot to mention that I really liked the talk that Conner had with Mrs. Peters. She has her flaws as a teacher, but it was nice to see that she also could overcome her biases and be encouraging and inspirational. Despite not appreciating Conner as a student when he was in her class, as a principal she could see what his strengths were and helped him on his way.
There's always 2 sides to a coin. I loved that. 

[arina]

What's surprising about this is that in this little love quadrangle Chris made the vendetta  between Red and Goldilocks, when most other writers in cases like this would make it all about the men, with some stupid bickering and fighting over the maiden, while the maiden has no say in it.
Red loved both Froggy and Jack, so the men should have been the ones to feel insecure and even jealous towards one another, but they didn't. They were friends throughout, and they didn't try to 'fight' for the love of Red. Jack didn't want to fight over Red because he loved Goldilocks, but Froggy was the one who could lose Red and who therefore could have felt jealous and might have taken it out on Jack.

This is a very good observation and totally right. Overall I love the way Chris writes female characters, it's definitely refreshing.

And I loved Connor's talk with the new principal too and the advices she gave him.

I am so happy I was brave enough to avoid spoilers (expect for the fact Rumpelstilksin dies because of Chris's slip :-D) and I could enjoy reading it without knowing anything beforehand... Maybe we would be able to enjoy (well that is probably too strong word) even Glee a little bit more if we didn't know everyhing before the episode airs.... or maybe not.

There were alot of good stuff and some interesting things to think about and I really cannot wait to read it again and more carefully. I think I am going to read TLoS 1 first (I wanted to read it before TLoS 2 came but it came earlier than I expected and because I had it already in my hand I didn't have patience to pospone the reading) because I don't remember it that well and then immediately follow with the second book...

[MoviesAreLife]

Conner's talk with the principal (Mrs. Peters) was one of my favorite moments in the book for sure. I'm so proud of him and how much he's grown!

[ColdFlame96]

Here's my video review of The Enchantress Returns!  

[brisallie]

Here's my video review of The Enchantress Returns!  

Nice too meet you ColdFlame

Unlike most of you, I haven't been able to read the book faster because I've pretty busy, but I just want to say that I kinda understood what Conner and Alex felt when they found out their mom was dating someone. For children who had experienced either the lost of one of the parents, or a divorce, is hard to accept that someone new is taken the place of his mom/dad. So,even though this person is the coolest person ever, is feels like you're being a betrayer.

[ColdFlame96]

Here's my video review of The Enchantress Returns!  

Nice too meet you ColdFlame

Unlike most of you, I haven't been able to read the book faster because I've pretty busy, but I just want to say that I kinda understood what Conner and Alex felt when they found out their mom was dating someone. For children who had experienced either the lost of one of the parents, or a divorce, is hard to accept that someone new is taken the place of his mom/dad. So,even though this person is the coolest person ever, is feels like you're being a betrayer.

I read that sucker in like 2 days so no worries. I mean, I totally get why they feel that way because I was around the same age when my dad started dating my stepmom, and I hated her. I thought she was trying to replace my mom and I hated it.

[arina]

Here's my video review of The Enchantress Returns!  

Awesome review and I gree with majority (maybe with all) of it! And yeah, Red is just the best. 

[brisallie]

@Coldflame96, It made me laugh when you say "I read that sucker in like 2 days", it sounded like stole your life for two days, and you couldn't reading.

I finally met Goose Mom, and count me as someone who actually believed was a goose lol, but having said that, this woman is awesome. She's like those old ladies who has countless of stories to tell, so are not so innocent, and are slightly crazy. However, she's so amazing to me, that I'm afraid she could turn into a betrayer.

[fantastica]

i actually don't like mother goose, except the rhyming part. that was cool.

[MoviesAreLife]

Hi, ColdFlame! Nice to "meet" you finally! :D I like your real name. Is it French?

Mother Goose was hilarious, IMO.

YES to Alex and Conner being (non-incestuous) soulmates! This is why I

Spoiler:

! And yes, I reacted in anger when I first learned of the ending as well before reading the book. When you read it, it makes sense....but I still feel sad about it and feel bad for Conner (he handled it really, really well). I want a third book just to see these two

Spoiler:

again.

[brisallie]

I may be wrong, but I believe that soulmates (sometimes) are not necessarily a couple, for me are just two people who have an special bond between them and whatever it happens, they are there for each other. The thing is we usually connect this with our significant other.

I forgot to say something else, as regards Conner and his newly found writing skills, is Chris putting something of him on Conner?

[MoviesAreLife]

I may be wrong, but I believe that soulmates (sometimes) are not necessarily a couple, for me are just two people who have an special bond between them and whatever it happens, they are there for each other. The thing is we usually connect this with our significant other.

I forgot to say something else, as regards Conner and his newly found writing skills, is Chris putting something of him on Conner?

Soulmate does not have to mean romantic soulmate, you're right. Our romance-obsessed society has twisted what it's supposed to mean.

Of course he is! Remember, he is both Alex and Conner!

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