Book Review: Hiddensee by Gregory Maguire

About:
Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker by Gregory Maguire is a novel in which the author takes a look, from a different view point, on another beloved story. Mr. Maguire wrote several successful novels in the same vein.

• 304 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062684388

The publisher is giving away 1 copy of this book – enter using the Rafflecopter form below.

My rat­ing for Hiddensee— 4
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Thoughts:
I have read several of Mr. Maguire’s books, while I’m not a big a fan as others, I do enjoy a different perspective on old stories. My wife and sister really enjoy the Gregory Maguire‘s books which is another reason that I wanted to read Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker.

The first thing I did was refamiliarize myself with the Nutcracker story. I have heard of the story before, but never knew exactly what it was about. After taking a few minutes (literally, it’s a short story) to re-read the synopsis I felt I was ready to start this book.

The writing style is simplistic, but stylish which somehow works. The story of Dirk Drosselmeier though seems to be stuck on permanent slow motion. I kept waiting for something to happen, which when it finally does we jump a few years to the future. The story mainly consists of something happens, time passes and when it gets interesting, all of the sudden it’s over.
It’s almost as if the author tried to keep the book neutral, or couldn’t decide what he wants to make out of the protagonist.

I did, however, enjoy the structure of the story, much like the old German fairytales many of us grew on. Mr. Maguire assumes that the audience has some background in those stories and uses analogies and little hints in the book. An aspect which really made the book enjoyable for me.

Even though, I wish the author would have renamed the two mischievous boys Franz and Moritz to Max and Moritz.
Maybe they were copyright issues?

Synopsis:
in the Nutcracker story, a sickly girl named Klara is magically guided by an enchanted, carved nutcracker into a wonderful land on Christmas Eve. This is the story of Klara’s godfather, the mysterious Drosselmeier who just happened to be a toymaker who gives the Nutcracker to his goddaughter.

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More Books by Gregory Maguire

Give­away

• Give­away ends: November 09, 2017
  

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Dis­claimer: I got this book for free from TLC Book Tours
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