Castor Starr reviewed Hello, Cruel Heart by Maureen Johnson
Review of 'Hello, Cruel Heart' on 'GoodReads'
3 stars
I received an ARC from Edelweiss
3
Estrella grew up on the streets, with only two other orphans to call her family. Growing her skill as a designer via elaborate disguises to help get away with stealing, she doesn't expect that fashion expertise to sweep her away into the upper class world, or wind up with a rising star musician as a boyfriend. But not all things can last forever, and not all friends are real.
I requested this book partially because I'm always up to give Maureen Johnson some love (and the benefit of the doubt), and two because I really can't think of any way of making Cruella de Vil sympathetic. I do think that she did what she could to hit that mark, since it was such an impossible mark, but the result is pretty baffling.
I have to say, if I were a far, far younger …
I received an ARC from Edelweiss
3
Estrella grew up on the streets, with only two other orphans to call her family. Growing her skill as a designer via elaborate disguises to help get away with stealing, she doesn't expect that fashion expertise to sweep her away into the upper class world, or wind up with a rising star musician as a boyfriend. But not all things can last forever, and not all friends are real.
I requested this book partially because I'm always up to give Maureen Johnson some love (and the benefit of the doubt), and two because I really can't think of any way of making Cruella de Vil sympathetic. I do think that she did what she could to hit that mark, since it was such an impossible mark, but the result is pretty baffling.
I have to say, if I were a far, far younger reader, I might have found something fun about this book. It reminds me of those "nothing needs to be realistic" girl-gets-everything kind of pre-teen era books, except add in sleeping in an underground lair and some really ridiculous backstory. Still, I can see people liking the things that put me off, to a degree.
However, even without the really flat and unrealistic story, and the fact that it's a story about basically the least sympathetic Disney villain, it was over the top. I mean, her mother was mauled to death by dalmatians. And no, folks, this is never really explained. In a tongue and cheek way all the references kind of work, but as an actual story they feel disjointed in a way that's actually kind of startling.
It took me halfway through the book to realize that that weird "not quite right but it feels like the author's having fun with what they've got to play with" feeling actually was pretty much just the "I'm reading a fanfic I don't totally understand or agree with" feeling, and after I shifted my brain in fanfiction mode it was way easier to read, as well as way easier not to get mad about.
The only part that I totally can't give a pass to- fanfiction or not- is that after everything in this story comes to an end there is totally no change. If you can skip the middle of a story and feel like you didn't miss anything in the ending, that means there's no arc. Bad in general, but really bad if you're writing a prequel/origin story. There is no origin here, no reason at all to have honed in on this part of Estrella's life in relation to her future. Nothing happens! Or, at least, nothing sticks around from any of that. Not even an ominous remark in the finale. It's a self sustaining organism, which doesn't make any sense at all if it's meant to show us something about Cruella and her progression.
What I can say to that is- again, you really can't make Cruella de Vil sympathetic. Unless you declaw her, try to avoid any talk of what she actually does in the movie, and focus on a zany narrative. So, really, I get it. I think this was probably a story Johnson was asked to write and she did what she could with it. It definitely wasn't one of my favorite reads, and I personally had plenty of issues, but I don't see how anyone could have done much better plot-wise, and the kookiness may attract some readers.