Tear You Apart

by Sarah Cross

[Berls]

3.5 stars

I have incredibly mixed feelings about Tear You Apart. I think that you have to really KNOW your fairy tales to fully appreciate this book - and I do not. However, the last 30% was so incredibly gripping and grim (pun intended) that I almost would give the book 4 stars. It is book 2 in the series, but (at least as far as I can tell) reads completely as a stand alone.

So the struggle in the first 70% of the book was two-fold. One, as I already mentioned, the references to really obscure fairy tales confused me. There's the familiar Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk... but then there's also the 12 dancing princesses and the diamonds and toads (I think?). It took me out of the story because I don't know what they're based off of. And even the familiar fairy tales - Snow White particularly, since that's Vivian's curse - is getting into the less commonly known details. So if you're a fairy tale buff, you will probably love the hell out of this, but for me it was just confusing.

The second struggle was just that I didn't like this predestined feeling of being defined by your curse. This struggle though, is sort of the point of the book I think (at least in part). The way it really screws with Vivian's decisions about who she loves - her huntsman or her prince? - made the first part a struggle and made me frustrated with her, but as she grows to realize she has to take her life into her own hands (the last 30%) makes that first part kind of worth it.

I read past midnight, knowing I had to get up at 6 am because I couldn't put it down in the last bit. Things are brutal and very much use the Grimm fairy tales for inspiration. The weaving of multiple fairy tales together is fascinating and Sarah Cross definitely has done her research. That being said, I probably won't be in a hurry to pick up the other books in the series... because I haven't done mine and I think I'm missing out on some of the potential greatness of the book by not knowing my fairy tales better. I am glad I finally got around to reading this though and recommend it for fairy tale buffs for sure!