What is Molly Reading?

To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christo

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was able to bring The Little Mermaid to life in such a satisfying way. It was a beautiful marriage of the original story by Hans Christian Andersen and everything we love about YA novels.

*MINOR SPOILERS BELOW*

I was skeptical at first, but once the character, Lira, became human and was on land, the banter and relationships developed between her and the humans had me giggling, laughing, and squealing with delight. The pacing of the character development as well as relationships development across characters felt natural, realistic, and unforced. It could have easily slipped into a rushed and forced story attempting to adhere to expectations of The Little Mermaid, but Alexandra Christo did a beautiful job of adapting and including various nods to the original as well as Disney versions.

The world created in this novel was vivid and well-explained. I never felt confused nor did I feel that I'd heard it all before and it was a cop out of bringing together aspects of other worlds and environments that I've already seen. It was original and beautiful, and I loved it!

*I realize that the last 5 books I've read all have 5 star ratings. I do try to be and think that I am critical and don't just hand out 5 stars. I like to think that I've just picked some amazing and well written books. I think know what I like and how to spot it.*

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 My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book has everything that I love  and nothing that I hate in a novel. When I read the synopsis, I knew that it was something up my alley and filled a void that I had in books. I was incredibly happy and surprised to find that it was everything I could have asked for. I love science fiction. I loved the movie Alien and this felt similar. It is by no means the same story or even all that similar apart from space and suspense and death, but the feel was there and that's what I've been missing. It had the vibes.

Contagion is told from a third-person limited POV jumping from character to character. This is an effective way of telling this story because it keeps things moving, we see what's happening all over the ship/planet/etc, and it creates so much suspense! With the changing POVs, we get mini-cliff hangers throughout that, I think, are essential for sci-fi/horror. It's just perfect. The character development in this book is well paced and feels like it follows a realistic and logical path without giving us too much at once or too soon. I felt like all the characters whose perspectives we receive are fully developed throughout the story.

Be prepared to immediately read the sequel because you won't want to wait! And, good news, it's a duology so it should all wrap up in the sequel, Immunity.

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