Title: Because You Love To Hate Me
Author: Renée Ahdieh, Ameriie, Soman Chainani, Susan Dennard, Sarah Enni, Marissa Meyer, Cindy Pon, Victoria Schwab, Samantha Shannon, Adam Silvera, Andrew Smith, April Genevieve Tucholke, Nicola Yoon, Benjamin Alderson (Benjaminoftomes), Sasha Alsberg (abookutopia), Whitney Atkinson (WhittyNovels), Tina Burke (ChristinaReadsYA and The Lushables), Catriona Feeney (LittleBookOwl), Jesse George (Jessethereader), Zoë Hardt (readbyzoe), Samantha Lane (Thoughts on Tomes), Sophia Lee (thebookbasement), Raeleen Lemay (padfootandprongs07), Regan Perusse (PeruseProject), Christine Riccio (PollandbananasBOOKS) & Steph Sinclair and Kat Kennedy (Cuddlebuggery)
** Click the names and it will take you to the author goodreads page or the BookTubers channels – Yes I linked all 24 people!**
Genre: YA Fantasy Anthology
Publication Date: July 11th, 2017
Pages: 339 (Hardcover)
Publishers: Bloomsbury
Rating:
Leave it to the heroes to save the world–villains just want to rule the world.
In this unique YA anthology, thirteen acclaimed, bestselling authors team up with thirteen influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains’ points of view.
These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like “Medusa,” Sherlock Holmes, and “Jack and the Beanstalk” provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains’ acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage–and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again!
So this is only going to be my thoughts on each of the short stories in this book! Some I didn’t care for and some I loved! I won’t be able to talk too much about each as there isn’t much to each and I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone.
Rating: 2.5 stars
So this was one of the stories that were just kind of meh for me. It was interesting but didn’t wow me too much. I liked that it showed that some people can’t control their anger (kind of like Bipolar I guess, I’m not sure if that is actually the case though for the MC).
Rating: 3.5 stars
This one is a Jack and the Beanstalk retelling from the Giants POV. I enjoyed the main character and also Jack. I have never read the actual Jack and the Beanstalk story but I have seen the movie adaptations and I rather like this more than what is usually the case. This one wasn’t my favourite either but was pretty good.
Rating: 1.5 stars
Strongly disliked this one. I didn’t like the format as this one is written in text messages. But it’s not just 2 people texting back and forward it’s the MC texting about 4 different people and it gets so confusing. Even if they had left an extra line of a blank text when it changes character so that way we can more easily follow who is talking at the time. Having to stop and look at how the message is to and from every couple seconds really messes with the flow of the book. And also I could not stand Gwen. Not just because she is technically the villain, but she is a petty, pathetic, immature and selfish person.
Warning! Love triangle!
Rating: 3.5 stars
I enjoyed this one. I liked the mysterious aspect of Jim and I also liked the hidden corner of the library setting of the book! I didn’t fully see the ‘villain’ aspect of this one that much though honestly. So as a story about Villains I was kind of disappointed but as a story, in general, it was pretty good.
Rating: 2 stars
I honestly barely remember this story so it must not have been too exciting. But I remember the ending being really confusing and the plot was dull. And also who is this author?! She has no other books on Goodreads but this one? So I honestly don’t see why she is in this book.
Rating: 4 stars
Now we are getting somewhere! This one was really good. So this one was a twist on The Little Mermaid. I liked the Villain in this one and I wasn’t at all angry when she committed the crime that made her a villain. But at the same time, I thought she was very immature at the start as it seems most of Marissa Meyer’s MC are like (I’ve only read Heartless and Cinder and both the MCs started out similar to this story).
Rating: 4.5 stars
Trigger Warning: Rape (Not descriptive, just implied)
This one is a retelling of Medusa and I really enjoyed it. I also enjoyed the meaning behind this story and how it relates to things that are happening all the time in the real world. I enjoyed that Benjamin brought this up in his part too. I enjoyed seeing Medusa in a different light, I don’t have a massive knowledge of the Medusa story though.
Rating: 5 stars
Honestly, I had to take a second at the end of this book because it was just so good. This story is beautiful but has an extremely unexpected twist right at the end. I haven’t read anything by Victoria Schwab but I love her writing in this book. This felt like more than a short story but this was literally under 20 pages! I also loved Jesse’s Dear Death and it honestly nearly made me cry!
Rating: 3.5 stars
I didn’t love or hate this one. It was pretty good and I liked the aspect of girls can stand up for themselves and not just be used. And that twist at the end I was not expecting. Isaac I kind of enjoyed but also he was naive and didn’t even realise the damage he could be doing or that another was unhappy. George was just a pathetic and selfish person.
Rating: 3 stars
So, honestly my first thought when reading this book is what the heck is it with Adam Silvera and altering memories. In his book More Happy Than Not messing with memories is a big part and in this one there is something called a memory drug. But anyway, moving on. This one’s, MC is kind of a Psycho really by the way they do things. I didn’t love or hate this story. It was okay but nothing exciting. The writing of this book kind of through me off too as it’s written in second person POV which I don’t know if I like or not, being my first experience with it.
Rating: 3.5 stars
For this one, I liked being in Julian’s head. It was funny and I liked his general way of thinking most of the time. Granted he is still a psycho and does very much overreact a little. But I also liked that there are the real life problems in this book too. And I also liked that the being able to break every rule part also shows that that isn’t always the best thing either!
Rating: 3 stars
This one was kind of dull and predictable. This is a beauty and the beast retelling and I did like that the gender roles were kind of swapped in this book and that it was a little different as the MC was (according to Whitney) a retelling of Gaston. This one didn’t wow me but I did like some small aspects of it.
Rating: 2.5 stars
I didn’t really get this story. I understand the basic meaning behind the story after reading Steph & Kat’s part but throughout the story, I just kind of didn’t get it. I didn’t mind the swapping from present to past to present. And I didn’t mind the skipping ahead months or years at a time just to show the main things that happened with Serra. But a lot of it felt forced, it didn’t just flow nicely and I think that was because there was so much skipping and straight info.
Well, I think that is all for this review!
HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK? WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON IT?!
IF YOU ARE GOING TO SHARE SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS THEN PLEASE WARN IT SO OTHERS DON’T GET SPOILED!
Dusk Angel Reads 
I’ve wanted to read this for ages! I love short stories. Hope to pick it up soon 🙂 Great review, I liked getting a glimpse into each story!
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Well I hope you love it! Thank you
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Ah! Lots of not very impressive stories, it seems. In your opinion. I haven’t read the anthology yet so I’ll come back to your review when I have. Bookmarked on the Feedly!
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Yeah I was a little underwhelmed considering how much excitement was surrounding this book. But a couple of them are definitely worth the read.
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Wow, I didn’t realize Booktubers were involved with writing the stories! Some of those are my favourite channels.
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They weren’t involved with the actual story. The author wrote it and then the booktuber read it and did a couple pages of something else. Like Jesse wrote a letter to death, others were like guides to what is good and evil and that sort of thing.
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