Ugh... not only did we struggle to finish this one, but now we have to review it. Okay, so not every book that we pick turns out to be a 'must read.' And we often find that after 50 or so pages, we have started to enjoy the story. But in the case of Kill Me Softly that just didn't happen. We blame the lead character, Mirabelle- or Mira, as she is often referred to in the story.
Approaching her sixteenth birthday, Mira hatches a plan to return to the city of her birth, Beau Rivage, in order to seek out the graves of her parents. Apparently, when she was just a babe in arms, they were killed in a fire and she was adopted by her two godmothers. Wishing to protect her from harm (and anything sharp), they take Mira to another suburb and raise her for fifteen years, flatly refusing to let her visit her birth place. Of course Mira sneaks out the night before her party and boards a bus to her old home town. Upon arrival, she finds that she has no idea of where to begin her search and that Beau Rivage is a town full of strange characters. Along the way, she meets a Snow White, a Beauty and a Beast, several Prince Charmings, and even a Bluebeard or two. At the end, Mira must decide how best to deal with her curse (she's a Sleeping Beauty) while trying to protect Blue, the boy she now loves.
The author did a great job of intertwining Grimm, Anderson, and Perrault tales. Keep in mind that the originals and many of their later variations are not Disneyesque so the overall mood is quite dark. The idea of giving each character a sort of birth mark that foretold their destiny was a cool idea. Mira has a birthmark shaped like the spinning wheel in Sleeping Beauty which puts her squarely in the somnambulist genus. So, dark mood- good. Mixing tales- good. Setting it in modern times- good. Where did it all go wrong? Mirabelle.
Now just because we didn't really like this one, doesn't mean that another reader will feel the same. If you are at all curious about this one, try it out and let us know what you think. We can agree to disagree on books. In fact, most reviewers seem to love this one. Maybe we've just seen one too many episodes of Grimm and Once Upon A Time.
Next up: Marcelo In The Real World- July 20th
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