DNF

I got two chapters into this book and had to put it down because there was just too much going on and I found it very difficult to focus on just one aspect of the story itself.

Unfortunately, this book was just not for me.

I'm a pretty easy person to please. Give me Disney, give me villains, give me dark-and-gritty fairytale retellings, and I'll come away appeased.

So, of course, I found this title absolutely FASCINATING.

Yes, as described in the blurb, these are the Disney villains; Maleficent, Ursula, Captain Hook. And yet, they're not the full-fledged baddies that we know -- not yet, at least. And they're not the only Disney characters. With appearances from BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and PETER PAN favourites (just the tip of the iceberg), the cameos alone are sure to fill a Disney fanatic's heart.

And the setting! The atmosphere! The tone! It was gritty, it was dark, it was atmospheric -- and it gripped me in a way few titles have before. The action is pretty non-stop, but that just adds to the dark and urgent feeling of the tale. Every time I picked this title up, I lost track of time, so engrossed in flipping through the pages.

Suffice to say, I loved it. CITY OF VILLAINS was the dark fantasy Disney retelling of my dreams (or, well, nightmares, but in the best way possible!), and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!

I book talked this one to my 6th graders and they were fascinated by the way these different Disney villains were recreated in this story. Such a fun concept. I read only part of it before buying copies for my classroom and for my students to read and enjoy..

I received an eARC courtesy of Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This books premise is fascinating, it was much darker story than I thought it would be. I was sucked in within the first three chapters and I actually quite enjoyed the world building in this story. I felt it really helped me visualize the world in which this took place. I think the one big pickle I had with the world building however is that this is very much immersed in a world we recognize. I feel like there are a lot of gaps due to this because it supposedly takes place in the United States, characters talk about other places such as California. From what I gathered, this was the only place where magic had existed. I think I would have liked some more info on that in this first book related to how magic worked within the space of the rest of the world and The Scar.

That being said, I did enjoy this story! This is a YA novel which is on par for some of the darker elements in the story, I was surprised by some of the gory descriptions but I didn’t feel like it took away from the story. Due to the storyline, it does make sense especially in the field in which our main character currently interns in. This being said, sometimes the dialogue read more like a middle grade book than a YA one.

I truly enjoyed trying to figure out what villains certain characters would become prior to their reveals! However, I am curious to see what Mary Elizabeth ends up being revealed as though I have my theory!

There were some sentences that felt awkwardly written that unfortunately brought me out of that reading trance. Which is why, at times, it felt a little more juvenile in its writing. This being said, it only happened a few times and for the majority of the story I was completely hooked! I think despite my small gripes with the story, I felt like it was a good introduction to the series and the author did a wonderful job at giving the reader reasons to care about the characters. I truly was absorbed into the development of the story and the characters as it unfolded. I’m excited to read the second installment of this series when it debuts to see how the story continues to unravel!

A great world building book that will take readers on the adventure of a lifetime! It’s the rise of the villains where a world is not ready for the destructive chaos. The characterization of each character was brilliant as it blended perfectly with the plot and overall story arc!

I am a sucker for villains and I loved the idea of this mash up. While the book felt a bit more middle grade than ya, I did enjoy it. I liked seeing some of the more known villains in teen form and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

I'm having a few mixed feelings here.

I love Disney stories, especially if they are villain's backstories about how or why they became evil. That's what lured me into this book, even though it is totally different from their original tale. But I just love the villains enough to want more of them.

Our beloved, or not, villains are now teenagers living in the Scar. A city previously called Wonder, where fairies, wizard and what not used to live and have magic, before the Great Dead. Magic is no more and Legacy, used-to-be magic holders, are now looked down upon by Narrows, us humans, and their city is now getting filled with people that bully and oppress them. Normal underdog, "We will rise against them" type of story, dystopianish, I love that.

I'm not a huge fan of murder mysteries, as this originally seemed to be, but the mystery-solving part of it was pretty entertaining and I don't have any complaints about it, it moved the story pretty well. There are few scenes, like fight or action scenes, where it felt more like Mary Elizabeth was telling us what she was doing or was going to do that felt very dragging.

It feels very predictable, the moment the real villain of this book appears it's a dead giveaway and takes away from the enjoyment of the plot. They also give us the reason of his actions pretty much in the first half of the book. It becomes a search of How, instead of Who and Why, which I feel is essential on a mystery story. We also know who villain they are all going to become, and I feel like the cover was a little bit misleading by making me think Mary Elizabeth was going to be Maleficent (y'know... the shadow on the wall and all) and was confused at the beginning.

My favorite part was probably the characters, I loved seeing their Disney counterparts in them, and the game in their names to figure out who they were. We get more Peter Pan characters, I believe some Beauty and the Beast, there are also a lot of references to their characters you can have fun with if you look for them. Might read the rest of the series mostly to see more of this.

Might continue the series, second book comes out in 2022 so my interest might come back once I know more about what is going to happen or at least see the cover.

This might be a case of mismatched reader and book. City of Villains is billed as YA but reads more like a MG novel, in my opinion. The idea behind this book is extremely clever, and while the book felt geared at a much younger crowd than I was expecting, it's quite a fast paced read, and one I'm definitely going to recommend to a younger reader if requested at work. If you aren't a fan of MG novels, you might have the same issues I did, but if you're open to something on the younger side of the genre/age spectrum, I definitely recommend giving this one a try for yourself!

This just didn’t end up being a book that interested me. When I first read the premise, I was very excited and invested, but getting into it made it clear that it just wasn’t for me. Hopefully it works for others out there!

I had high hopes for this as a potential Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, but I didn't end up feeling like it was a good fit. I can see a certain type of reader really enjoying it though.

This was a really unique take on the Disney villains, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a Disney geek!

I received an e-ARC from the publisher.

I thought the premise of this book was interesting. I do think it was a little short for all the action the author tried to pack into it, which made the ending very rushed and confusing. I’m giving it three stars because I was engaged in knowing more but I was honestly eft with more questions than answers. It was easy to pick out which fairytales some of the characters were based on, but others were hard.

I’m honestly not sure I’ll want to read the rest of the series. I just don’t think it’s for me. I do believe this book would appeal to older middle grade readers as well as younger YA reads.

This book grabs you on the first page and doesn't let go until the end. There were just enough plot twists and new ideas to keep me turning pages, biting my nails, and racing towards the end!

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

To me, this reads just like a Descendants story, though a bit darker with things like the criminal Mad Hatter leaving body parts all around for people to find. You have all the characters from Ursula, to Maleficent (Mally F. Saint), Smee, Flora, Fauna and more in teen forms and living in Monarch, a city that is divided by the Scar where a building (called Wonder) just disappeared one day several years ago. There are Legacies and the newcomers called the Narrows constantly at odds with each other. Magic is gone as well (except for Traces) and now people are going missing too. This story is from the point of view of Mary Elizabeth Heart, who, along with Bella, is tasked with finding the missing girls. It definitely reads as a younger story, more middle grade, despite the ages of the characters (most are about 17 or so) though it was still fun to read. A word of warning though, it is a first book and so there are no resolutions or important answered questions and it is setting up for some big stuff which I hope will be in the next book. Still cool though.

I had really high hopes for this book. I really wanted to like it, but in reality, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and that made it difficult to get through. It felt like it could have been the next "Descendants' but just flopped and didn't hit the mark.

The pace was hard to follow and it just didn't flow the way I was hoping it would.

I love a good villain origin story. It’s great to see my favorite villains in an unfamiliar setting. There was a bit more cursing and adult content than I would expect for a Disney book with YA rating. It was worth my time and I’ll read more in the series to find out the dark turns the characters take.

Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Hmm, what can I say about this? What I was expecting: something like a Disney villain & dark DC cross-over? What did I get: not this, NOTHING like this (and I mean the villain life was confusing)

Mary Elizabeth is the main character that you follow, a youth detective trying to make her way in the department, but also throw in the random body parts, the disappearance of magic and the disappearance of her friends and things start to get a bit...frazzled? Ya, that seems about right. (Also, I have NO IDEA who's villain parent is Mary Elizabeth, i was leaning towards the Queen of Hearts but it's never really said?)

Back to the actual mystery; basically, random body parts are showing up in the city and Mary Elizabeth wants to help solve the case. Good idea, ya? Now, what happens when the case just...disappears? Like, it's just not mentioned anywhere past the second half😅 honestly that was the only thing that had me continuing to read so I kinda skimmed the second half of the book.

I found that the book was too short, but also dragged out or constantly repeated certain parts. Also, things just happened but there was no explanation and you had to accept that🤷🏻‍♀️

Overall, I really don't know if I'll continue with this series. If I do, I may see if my library can get copies of the next books instead of purchasing my own copies. While the book is pitched as YA, I think it fell a bit more to the younger side of YA.

this was an extremely fun read! as someone who grew up with Disney but also was intrigued by the villains, this was a truly fun time to read. This gave me big Descendents vibes but it didn't feel like a rip-off by any means
But upon finding out this book was meant for a younger audience I find it deeply alarming that there are so many cuss words and adult conversations.

As a born and raised lover of Disney, I was highly appreciative of the subtle (and not so subtle) nods to various “classics.” That combined with the advertised amateur detective aspect made this a highly enjoyable read. The next installment can’t come soon enough!

I was excited to see that this was a book that took place in Gotham. I'm a huge Batman fan, but I also just love the unhinged vibe of the city. I will say that the target audience of this book is younger than I expected. It was marketed as YA, but I think it's more of a middle grade book. The cursing within the book felt out of place and unnatural, especially with how young this book feels. SO if you're giving this to a young reader, I recommend keeping that in mind.

The atmosphere in the beginning of the book was great, and I was so immersed in the city vibes. But as the plot was introduced, i felt that there weren't really any stakes in the story (at least for me). It was hard to follow, and I was really bored for the majority of it. I think fit would work much better for the target audience, so I'm not knocking any points off just cause it didn't work for me. Overall, this was just an average book that did stand out fo me.