Wayward
How to Survive This Fairytale managed to TUG on my heartstrings every which way. I went into this one barely knowing what it was about other than “queer fairytale.” For some reason, I didn’t actually think it was a romance, even while reading it, which may have been part of why some of the emotional nuance and sacrifices hit me as hard as they did. Or it could be some personal life stuff I unintentionally found myself correlating to these love interests on a symbolic level. That being said, even the non-romance elements were written in a very… heart-clenching way. I felt every single one of the beats of this story. For being a fairytale with magic and curses, the characters were EXTREMELY humanized. The pain and the longing and the fear and the hope and the SUFFERING they all felt and went through, especially the main character, Hans, I also felt on some level. I found myself tearing up several times, especially towards the end, which I rarely do while reading anyway, and I’m not even in my luteal phase, haha. This book will genuinely make you CRY, sometimes sad tears and sometimes happy ones, but with both, it will wreck you. At least, it did me.
You know, I’ve always been one to say, “I’ll read first person and third person all day long; it doesn’t matter which, just don’t give me second person.” So I looked at the writing askance when I started this book and realized it was in second person. A part of me was hoping and maybe even assuming that it would change once I read through the many-chaptered prologue, but the writing was so good that I got sucked right into the story during that prologue and didn’t even care that it was second person. It was… strange, but it didn’t detract anything. In fact, it may have played into why I found myself relating or empathizing or correlating my life so much with Hans’s. I don’t know. I’m not one to insert myself, and I still didn’t fully, but the author did an amazing job of making me FEEL, one way or another. At the end of the day, I think Hallow could have done it just as well from any person because it was the writing that was so… emotionally riveting and stark that both painted a picture and built a very human, very emotive, very sympathetic character. Characters. Honestly, the whole cast, especially on the “good” side were full of life and full of pain and full of hurt that I FELT. I love a book that uses not only good writing but builds good characters and not only does that but makes a story that’s INTERESTING.
The plot of this thing is so very interesting because yes, it merely follows closely Hans’s life, but it also breaks the fourth wall in a way because the Story is pushing and pulling Hans where it wants him to go until he eventually, finally, tells it no. I don’t want to spoil anything, but oh my gosh, it’s so good. Painful, dark, and timed perfectly. The story really doesn’t waste words. It’s UNIQUE, it’s fresh, and yet it’s familiar. Tales as old as time being retold from a deeply human perspective. It’s alive with every single feeling, and I felt every single one with Hans.
Honestly, this book is just objectively GOOD. In a world full of regurgitated pandering and lifeless slop, this story is richly human. Human made and human felt. It’s exactly why art NEEDS to exist, and it succeeds with every one of its purposes. I dunno. I’m getting pretty freaking dramatic, but the older I get and the more the world turns gray, the more I appreciate not only something as fresh as this but as human. As much as parts of this story—let’s be honest, MOST of it–hurt my heart, not normally an experience I seek as a reader, it felt good to feel alive. I can only ask the author to please keep writing exactly like this. And no, I don’t mean fairytales necessarily or second person stories necessarily. But characters with hearts that beat. Characters that yearn and that want and that suffer and that somehow find a way to stand up, to sacrifice, and to cut and claw and drag their ways to their version of a happy ending. Keep feeling and keep writing stories that make your readers FEEL. Really feel. There aren’t enough of those anymore, and I’m thrilled to have found this diamond amongst the rough.
This is a happy story, eventually, but there’s a lot of deep-seated pain you have to get through first. It’s a thrilling, fascinating, enchanted, and dark ride to get there, but if that’s something you’re open to, I strongly suggest you check this one out. It’s definitely worth the read.
How to Survive This Fairytale managed to TUG on my heartstrings every which way. I went into this one barely knowing what it was about other than “queer fairytale.” For some reason, I didn’t actually think it was a romance, even while reading it, which may have been part of why some of the emotional nuance and sacrifices hit me as hard as they did. Or it could be some personal life stuff I unintentionally found myself correlating to these love interests on a symbolic level. That being said, even the non-romance elements were written in a very… heart-clenching way. I felt every single one of the beats of this story. For being a fairytale with magic and curses, the characters were EXTREMELY humanized. The pain and the longing and the fear and the hope and the SUFFERING they all felt and went through, especially the main character, Hans, I also felt on some level. I found myself tearing up several times, especially towards the end, which I rarely do while reading anyway, and I’m not even in my luteal phase, haha. This book will genuinely make you CRY, sometimes sad tears and sometimes happy ones, but with both, it will wreck you. At least, it did me.
You know, I’ve always been one to say, “I’ll read first person and third person all day long; it doesn’t matter which, just don’t give me second person.” So I looked at the writing askance when I started this book and realized it was in second person. A part of me was hoping and maybe even assuming that it would change once I read through the many-chaptered prologue, but the writing was so good that I got sucked right into the story during that prologue and didn’t even care that it was second person. It was… strange, but it didn’t detract anything. In fact, it may have played into why I found myself relating or empathizing or correlating my life so much with Hans’s. I don’t know. I’m not one to insert myself, and I still didn’t fully, but the author did an amazing job of making me FEEL, one way or another. At the end of the day, I think Hallow could have done it just as well from any person because it was the writing that was so… emotionally riveting and stark that both painted a picture and built a very human, very emotive, very sympathetic character. Characters. Honestly, the whole cast, especially on the “good” side were full of life and full of pain and full of hurt that I FELT. I love a book that uses not only good writing but builds good characters and not only does that but makes a story that’s INTERESTING.
The plot of this thing is so very interesting because yes, it merely follows closely Hans’s life, but it also breaks the fourth wall in a way because the Story is pushing and pulling Hans where it wants him to go until he eventually, finally, tells it no. I don’t want to spoil anything, but oh my gosh, it’s so good. Painful, dark, and timed perfectly. The story really doesn’t waste words. It’s UNIQUE, it’s fresh, and yet it’s familiar. Tales as old as time being retold from a deeply human perspective. It’s alive with every single feeling, and I felt every single one with Hans.
Honestly, this book is just objectively GOOD. In a world full of regurgitated pandering and lifeless slop, this story is richly human. Human made and human felt. It’s exactly why art NEEDS to exist, and it succeeds with every one of its purposes. I dunno. I’m getting pretty freaking dramatic, but the older I get and the more the world turns gray, the more I appreciate not only something as fresh as this but as human. As much as parts of this story—let’s be honest, MOST of it–hurt my heart, not normally an experience I seek as a reader, it felt good to feel alive. I can only ask the author to please keep writing exactly like this. And no, I don’t mean fairytales necessarily or second person stories necessarily. But characters with hearts that beat. Characters that yearn and that want and that suffer and that somehow find a way to stand up, to sacrifice, and to cut and claw and drag their ways to their version of a happy ending. Keep feeling and keep writing stories that make your readers FEEL. Really feel. There aren’t enough of those anymore, and I’m thrilled to have found this diamond amongst the rough.
This is a happy story, eventually, but there’s a lot of deep-seated pain you have to get through first. It’s a thrilling, fascinating, enchanted, and dark ride to get there, but if that’s something you’re open to, I strongly suggest you check this one out. It’s definitely worth the read.