A Wicked Thing (Wicked Thing, #1)

by Rhiannon Thomas

[KitsuneBae]

It’s such a wicked thing that I spent most of my time cursing this book instead of appreciating it. A Wicked Thing is not exactly a retelling of Sleeping Beauty but more of a sequel telling us the ‘what-could-have-been’ after Princess Aurora woke up and decided that the Prince is not hot enough to be her true love. With A Wicked Thing, Thomas proved that there are really many ways on how to spin a yarn and what she did with this well-worn tale is definitely inventive and refreshing. I liked that the author didn’t the follow the usual fairy tale formula and that she was brave enough to take the risk of doing something different. If only those are the only standards I can use to rate A Wicked Thing, then this book is a sure winner.

Unfortunately, despite the ingenuity of the author, A Wicked Thing failed to weave that amazing magic the original Sleeping Beauty possesses. Aurora is stupidly naïve and infuriatingly headstrong… in a bad way. She wants to achieve a lot of honorable things with the belief that she can accomplish all of it just by speaking them out loud or through rebelling against the incumbent royal family. She doesn’t think of the consequences her actions might bring. I understand some of the things that she did given the fact that she slept for a hundred years but for the most part, I’ve really wanted her to behave like an 18 year old princess and not a petulant 10 year old kid.

There’s also the almost non-existent plot. A Wicked Thing is more than two hundred pages long that mostly consist of Aurora going on dates with Prince Rodric (which was pointless because they’re not eveninlove with each other), getting groomed by her attendant, Aurora getting reprimanded by the Queen (Rodric’s Mother), and Aurora sneaking out from the Palace. And then, the story just became a silly mess of puzzle that didn’t fit together… if there’s such a thing. It felt like it was suffering from a multiple personality disorder.

And don’t even get me started on the romance. If you picked up this book because you are looking for a heartwarming romance that would end in a toe-curling true love’s kiss and a happily ever after complete with flying unicorns amidst a rainbow filled sky, then you better turn around and reread your original copy of the Sleeping Beauty.

Overall, A Wicked Thing was a sore disappointment. It didn’t even make an effort to tie the loose ends. It promised me a lot of things only to get cheated at the end.