La Vengeance Du Petit Chaperon Rouge (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
We tend to censor our fairy tales, preferring the romance and adventure to the darker truths. Most people grow up believing that Sleeping Beauty was awakened by a courtly kiss from a handsome prince, but the truth is that Talia was raped, only awakening to the pangs of childbirth nine months later. Talia later killed the prince for his crimes, but now the prince's mother desires her own revenge, and has hired the dangerous assassin Roudette to take Talia down. Talia, Danielle, and Snow find themselves swept away to the country of Arathea, where they soon discover that there are bigger problems facing Talia's homeland.Red Hood's Revenge is the third book in Jim C. Hines's Princess Series, and I found it to have more in common with the first book in the series, than the second. Like The Stepsister Scheme, Red Hood's Revenge features all three princesses, but the focus here is really on Talia, the Sleeping Beauty character. The shift in settling gives us a new place to learn about. Arathea is an arid desert country where water is viewed as precious, and many of the people have adopted a religion centered around fairy worship. Exploring this new setting was one of my favorite parts of the book, as was getting to deal with some of the issues that have been plaguing Talia for the duration of the series. I also really enjoyed the back story of Roudette, which is an interesting take on the familiar Red Riding Hood myth.Admittedly, I didn't find this volume quite as engrossing as previous books in the series. I can't quite put my finger on why, but it may have something to do with the fact that while Talia gets a nice story, Danielle and Snow end up feeling a bit underused (although there is a fantastic scene involving Danielle and the Wild Hunt near the end of the book). Also, while there was a lot of fun action, I had a harder time with some of the emotional parts of the book. A primary example of this is the romantic storyline involving Talia and a new character, which kind of left me cold.Despite my quibbles, Red Hood's Revenge is an overall solid book that delivers pretty much what you'd expect from the series: plenty of action, a diverse cast of strong female characters, and interesting takes on fairy tales. I'm looking forward to finishing up the series with The Snow Queen's Shadow. Danielle and the gang, plus Little Red Riding Hood, end up in Talia's home land dealing with evil fairies, Wild Hunts, court politics and quite a few women out for revenge. I was describing the plot to Mum and she asked, "so are there any nice men in it?" To which I could list quite a few. I really like the gender balance in these books. Women and men are treated like characters with rational and irrational motivations for their actions that don't at all depend on that being what girls like, or whatever. I also really enjoyed finding out how those motivations were discovered, and how various revelations affected the plot. It was also really nice to see a bit more of Talia's character, especially on home ground.
What do You think about La Vengeance Du Petit Chaperon Rouge (2011)?
Great third book. A little surprised to see Snow, of all people, jealous of Talia! :)
—mel
A pretty good book. This series is entertaining.
—Berezuha
