Language : English
Hardcover : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 1787632369
ISBN-13 : 978-1787632363
Book Blurb
Light and dark – this is the destiny placed upon Natasha and Clara, the birthright bestowed on them by their godfather, the mysterious sorcerer Drosselmeyer. Clara, the favourite, grows into beauty and ease, while Natasha is cursed to live in her sister’s shadow. But one fateful Christmas Eve, Natasha gets her chance at revenge. For Drosselmeyer has returned and brought with him the Nutcracker, an enchanted present which offers entry to a deceptively beautiful world: the Kingdom of Sweets.
In this land of snow and sugar, Natasha is presented with a power far greater than Drosselmeyer: the Sugar Plum Fairy, who is also a giver of gifts . . . and a maker of dread-filled bargains. As Natasha uncovers the dark destiny laid before her birth, she must reckon with powers both earthly and magical . . . and decide to which world she truly belongs.
My Review
The Kingdom of Sweets was a book that I treated myself to over Christmas. I seem to have a fondness for the dark retelling of fairytales at the moment, the magical stories of childhood retold with an added darkness and menace. The Kingdom of Sweets is the retelling of The Nutcracker, again one of my favourite ballets, and Erika Johansen keeps the main characters, with Drosselmeyer still being the orchastrator of Clara’s trip to The Kingdom of Sweets. But that is where the similarities stop, in this deliciously dark read.
As I mentioned above, the central character is still Clara, who receives a Nutcracker from the sorcerer Drosselmeyer that eventually leads her to the kingdom of Sweets. In Erika Johansen’s version Clara has a twin Natasha, the opposite of her, dark where she is light, social where Natasha is a wallflower, and where Clara can do no wrong, Natasha is unloved and left to her own devices. Natasha is left out of everything, but seems to accept her situation, until she is pushed to the limits with the ultimate betrayal by her sister, parents and Drosselmeyer. For Natasha the Kingdom of Sweets is not all sugar spice, like that of her sister, but a place of darkness and vengeance, a place where she can punish her sister, a place where the darkness in her is accepted. Natasha’s Kingdom of Sweets all is rotten and the Sugar Plum Fairy is a scary and frightening character, far removed from the ballet character. These characters were brilliantly drawn, complex and for once I was on the side of dark with Natasha, who I had sympathy for.
Erika Johansen’s reimagining of this tale is wonderful, building a very different Kingdom of Sweets that is menacing and sinister. Her writing is lyrical and haunting as she pulls you into the darkness of this other world, where all is not what it seems. She furthers add a foreboding undercurrent by having the darkness of the other pulled into the real world, leaving the characters no way to escape the horrors or their destiny, the moral being that all actions have consequences. Once I entered Erika Johansen’s world I found myself lost in it, needing to read what happened next, the shocks and twists that make this such an addictive read.
If you love your fairytales rewritten with a sinister quality then The Kingdom of Sweets is for you. Perfectly plotted with not only good versus evil, but also evil versus evil and the idea of light and dark with a touch of grey as the worlds merge. If ever there was a book that says you should be careful what you wish for, this is it. Deliciously dark and menacing, I adored this book.
