Malice is part one of a retelling duology of Sleeping Beauty that shows what happened before the princess fell under the sleeping curse. To refresh the story the author not only shows how much of a gray area lies between “good” and “evil” but questions what a fairytale love really is by introducing characters from the LGBTQ+ community. I think people who really love fairytale retellings, especially twists to tell the villain’s side, will like this one.

My opinion: It did take me a bit to really feel like I had truly gotten into the story enough to care about the characters outside of what we “traditionally” know about them. The story does pick up to a decent pace as the characters move to having more meaningful conversations and development, which I was really happy with; however, I have a little bit of a love-hate relationship with the pacing at the end. While I think the book, storyline wise, ended at the perfect place, it felt like a long build up that ended kind of abruptly. I really did enjoy seeing a different take on Sleeping Beauty, especially what could have led up to the story we grew up with. I’m interested in seeing how part two really ties the stories together.

DNF at 62%

Malice is sleeping beauty with a twist. Alice finds herself mixed up in a world of Grace's, greed, and isolation with a promise of romance but I found the book slow paced that I was skimming while I read

I absolutely loved this. What a great twist on a classic fairytale. Alyce is such an amazing character. Walter creates this connection that you're on Alyce's side for the duration of the story. Alyce and Aurora would be the best power couple. My heart was so broken at the end of this. The ending was too good. There is definitely room to expand the story, but I didn't feel "left hanging." I definitely want to know how the story ends, but I don't feel like I'll die waiting for the second book- I'm just eagerly anticipating the release.



Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my honest opinion.

Fantasy

Creative, imaginative and just what you want in a twisted fairytale.

First things first: this is book 1 of a duology. It is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but this first book is really focused on the events leading up to a Princess sleeping for a 100 years. We have a lot of political machinations going on in the kingdom of Briar. There are royals plotting against royals, humans plotting against the Fae, the Fae keeping watch to make sure that the humans are holding up their end of a bargain, Graces against other Graces and everyone it seems is against Alice.

Who are all these creatures? The Fae, are magical creatures, the Vila, are magical but evil, the Graces, women who are part Fae and part human and then there is Alice. She is called a dark Grace, but her blood is green not gold and she is half Vila. She is reviled by everyone, but people still pay her to make them "curses" they can give to their enemies. Alice's potions may make a dancer's feet falter, anything that has ill intent falls under her bailiwick. Her opposite are the Graces. There are several kinds of Graces - Beauty, Wisdom, Pleasure, etc and people purchase embellishments from them as well. The house she lives in makes money from all of their work, but Alice is treated horribly.

Looking for respite, Alice stumbles into some old ruins and discovers Kal. He has been imprisoned in the ruins and claims to be Vila like her. He befriends Alice and she keeps returning to the ruins and Kal where he shows her how to enhance her powers. During this time, Alice also becomes friendly with the Princess Aurora. Aurora is cursed and must find her true love by her 21st birthday or die. Aurora hopes that Alice can help her remove the curse. Aurora has no desire to marry anyone and has plans to change how Briar is ruled. While Alice is working with Kal and Aurora, she is contacted by the King and asked to curse various objects. She knows that the King is up to no good, but feels she has no choice. She is keeping every action she takes a secret from everyone but Kal because she feels he is the only one she can truly trust. She wants to trust Aurora and her growing feelings, but years of systemic abuse by the royal family keeps her cautious.

Just when it seems that Alice will find true happiness, everything implodes. Her own magic gets usurped and turned against her and those she cares about. This last third of the book is magnificent in it's story telling. All of the plotlines come together in a bloody glorious mess. The finale of this novel is grand and establishes the story for what looks to be an amazing 2nd book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for my ARC of this novel.

I love books that re-write old fairy tales. This was another take on the Sleeping Beauty and a pretty good attempt, at that.
Alyce (Malyce to her sister Graces) is a Dark Grace, the only one of her kind. Her ancestors (the Vila) were charged with unleashing a curse on Briar's princesses. Each royal princess must find her true love before her 21st birthday or she will die. Queen are supposed to be the rulers of Briar but they have slowly, through the centuries, ceded power to their kings. When Alyce meets the Princess Aurora (Love how the names are the same as in the Disney film; actually LOTS of similarities, especially at the end.) Anyway, they meet, fall in love & Alyce is the one to break the curse. And then all kinds of hell breaks loose! The last chapter is SO worth it!
Very enjoyable read. I love how Alyce came into her power at the end. 3.5 stars.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this e-arc.*

This was a fun take on an old storyline. I love the affable "villian" Alyce. After a slow start things really picked up in the second half. I do wish that Aurora had been a little more fleshed out as a character but I guess we already know her pretty well.

I love a fairy tale retelling, now make it make it about the villain and make it queer and I'm hooked.

Malice is everything I'd hoped for when I first picked it up, and so much more. Alyce as the Dark Grace is so magnificent, and I really felt for her and everything she goes through. As an origin story, this book is amazing. If you're looking for a romance, it definitely gets off to a slow start and leaves something to be desired, at least in the first half. I do wish we'd gotten a little more romancin', because I was very drawn in by the princess and villain romance promise in the blurb.

I love the exploration of morality and the shades of grey that we live in that are the reality between the stark, bright, black and white concepts of "good" and "evil," or "light" and "dark." The history, the world building, the magical system... just wow. WOW. There are a few things that feel like plot holes, but there is a sequel so I'm hoping those will be tied up in the next book!

CONTENT WARNING: bullying, child abuse

Rounded to 4.5 stars.

I’ve heard a lot of great things about this, and it all makes sense now. I’m a sucker for a great retelling, a queer romance, and a villain backstory, and this book rolled all of those things into one amazing story.

Alyce is the Dark Grace, forced to use her powers in ways she doesn’t want to. She has no other options, she isn’t well-liked, and she doesn’t blend in with anyone around her on account of her unpleasant appearance. In addition, she’s grown up hated and ostracized. Monsters aren’t born, they’re made, and this book illustrated that perfectly. Even though Alyce is half-Vila and considered a monster, she has such a good heart and just longs to be treated like a person.

So when she meets Princess Aurora, she is shocked to make her first real friend. Of course there’s politics involved, because Aurora is a princess and Alyce works for the crown, and I knew that the story wasn’t going to have a happy ending. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and wondered exactly how much Alyce would manage to put up with before she completely snapped. She managed to put up with way more than anyone should have ever asked of her.

I didn’t even realize how many pages there were in this story, because they flew by. I just couldn’t put this book down, and was completely absorbed in what was going on. The entire world was richly imagined, as were the characters. It painted what is usually a drab fairy tale in vivid colors, and made it way more interesting than I’ve ever found it. I think her desire to connect with others made her susceptible to manipulation, and I knew that someone would betray her, but rather than being predictable, it just made me suspicious of everyone.

There’s a point in Malice that I had to look at myself in the mirror and realize as much as I wanted to enjoy a book almost seemingly explicitly curated for me, it’s just a lousy date situation. Any book pitched as ‘villains but sapphic’ sounded entertaining and freeing from publishing’s overwhelming expectation that women, and Queer people, fit into a place absent of messy behavior and character development. What I got, however, turned out to be more of a purely innocent and stereotypical story.

Inspired by the likes of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Heather Walter’s gaze veers towards the twisted and sinister seduction of Maleficient. With Fae Courts and magical beings called The Graces, wishes are given by spilling blood in lieu of a wand. A human kingdom of both mortality and magic, gifts of the Fae but with the greed of mortals, Briar is a matriarchy gone wrong. The first warrior queen’s descendants granted their mortal husbands more power as the years passed. Transferring power led to more greed, militarism, and corruption in Briar. Aurora, the last daughter of the Briar Queen, must kiss her true love to break the curse, or she will die, and so will the last of the Briar queens.

Reviled and hated for her evil spells and her even more sinister heritage, she’s known as Alyce or by her nickname Malyce. Alice’s ancestors hail from Malterre, the land of Vila. A mysterious land of powerful but dark faerie beings.

Alyce spends her days conjuring dark magic for the nobility of Briar, unlike her graceful house companions and their wish fulfillments for beauty. She hopes for freedom, an escape from the abuse. With no mother of her own, the kingdom placed her in a home, one that demands Alyce pay for her place by performing dark magic for their customers. For Alyce, this place is bliss after the body experimentations and abuse she suffered at the hands of a vicious man trying to discover her otherly nature. Her hope for an escape looks more evident than before. And then Alyce meets Aurora.

Aurora is more of a political take-down-the-system kind of gay princess albeit blissfully ignorant about her privilege compared to raven-haired Alyce. Wanting a political fantasy of two gay girls is a dream of mine. Now, I have to talk about the part where it’s more a thin layer of ideas than an all-consuming world of complex politics, where issues like blood purity, strict class systems, and power feel more like something casually inserted.

Things like blood purity, class systems, and corrupt power involve very complicated histories from many societies, and they are such faceted and multi-layered subjects that include deep dives into history and politics. In this book, the assumption is that blood purity, and all the politics revolving around that is simply something to explain by the color of blood rather than something that people, like the English or Spanish, came up with to dominate and assert power over people. Some things in our world are invented and manipulated by corrupt systems of power, and Walter does some work but doesn’t go the whole way to build her world’s current political system with detail and nuance. In that regard, I found it a very old fashioned idea that does little to critique something built into our own world’s history.

When I see authors dealing with such heavy subjects, I need to visualize the work. In The Unbroken, C.L. Clark builds the prejudice-based politics in their world by showing me, largely through intricate and detailed character work, rather than inserting a very simplistic backstory. I don’t expect every book to be the same. An author giving me complicated issues and only giving broad sweeping stereotypical ideas but then focusing on other aspects of the story makes it difficult for me to enjoy that story. Nothing here feels oganic or seemless and so everything ends up clunky.

I want to have fun with romance and politics in the fantasy I read. I’m very interested in the politics of this world that I live and breathe in, and therefore I want to see that rally and that cry against corrupt systems with the same level of complexity. I need that sweet build-up in politics, in romance, in characterization. I can then feel the attention to detail and see such care for creating a sentence, a description, a character.

I want to sink into that world as if I can touch it and feel it, and hopefully cry about it.

A simmering chemistry-full romantic plotline did not develop as I had hoped. I wanted to love one relationship in the book, and I hoped for a slow, agonizing, and borderline ferocious sapphic romance between Aurora and Alyce. As a Queer reader, I’ve been desperate for publishing to boost adult sapphic fantasy with a bite. Malice sounded exactly like that, but obviously, it hasn’t worked out according to plan.

I could tell that Walter wanted me to feel the tension in her book, but the problem is that she did not put in the build to that possible tension. A lot of developmental gaps are apparent. There’s a difference between being told something and going through something where you are agonizing with them, the character chemistry so raw and real, wrung out so much that you’re screaming ‘just kiss!’

If it’s not the severe lack of moments between Aurora and Alyce, it’s the way the moments with each other never take time to pause, slow down, and reflect on the emotions between characters. The same also goes for any romantic moments. The prose itself is often crucial to creating tension. With prose so strikingly abrupt and awkward in its delivery, I found my interests were waning in the characters and their lackluster relationship.

What could have been some very smoldering tension between a villain and a princess started to look more like a cinderella story, almost not at all what I had expected. Alyce and Aurora feel very ‘the bully’s victim’ and ‘the princess that saves her’ rather than a sapphic villain fantasy. That turn of expectation, I suspect, does a lot to squish all the interesting bits of the story.

What’s more interesting is the survivor-hood of villains and their struggle with ethics. If I had gotten more characterization, I could see this working. There was such little done with the intimacy between me as a reader and Alyce’s intricacies that I couldn’t summon any interest for her or her relationship with Aurora.

The one thing that hurts most of all is that I didn’t feel any joy or interest in Malice.

A dark retelling of a classic fairy tale - wicked & vengeful. A villain to see the princess - not a prince. A shocking end that makes you say "WHAT?!?". #fairytale @heatherrwalter5 @NetGalley

I love fairy tale retellings and I thought this is a particularly great one. The story mainly parallels the story of sleeping beauty, but there are clear influences of other stories throughout the book. The setting and magic systems bring some wonderfully fresh details to the story. I was particularly impressed with the magic system and its history in the realm.

History plays an important part in the book illustrating how it is written by the victors and how important parts of the story can be lost to time. There was also great social commentary in the political system of the kingdom and its leaders. Additionally the characters were very well written and fleshed out. I greatly enjoyed the romance and the friendship that bloomed first. All around this is a great book.

I didn't know that I needed an LGBT retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but it turns I did. Plot holes aside, I really enjoyed this-though I may have some slight preferential bias towards the tales of Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent. And in the highest of my honors: I will read the sequel and that so rarely happens for me.

For Libraries: This is a great addition to not only your New Adult and fantasy collections, but it is also a nice LGBT romance.

Ahhh this book is everything! Do we still say that? Something is everything? Well I don't care cause I really loved this book! To be fair I already love re-tellings A LOT so I may be a bit biased. It's been a while since I've really rooted for a "villain" in a book but was Alyce really a villain? I absolutely loved the Lgbtq+ representation and it added such a great element to the whole story and was one of the biggest things that had me hooked and excited to keep reading. I really loved the writing and worldbuilding in this book and can not wait for the next in the series! Though its early in the year Malice is definitely going to make it into my favorite reads of 2021!

Malice is a book that revolves around deconstructing this villianess narrative. Because of her differences, Alyce is ostracized, even as they need her magical skills. Alone and reviled, Alyce questions whether her power is a curse or blessing, wondering if she will be hated by everyone she meets. What intrigued me about Malice is the way that Alyce's society has constructed her monstrosity. The ways they've perpetuated lies and ignorance, those who stand by and watch her treatment, to perpetuate this myth of her own monstrosity.

But what Alyce needs to do is figure out not only her own powers, but the truth of the world around her. She struggles to embrace, and train, the power within her while she searches for allies and friends. While Alyce makes mistakes, like having power you never thought you had paired with vengeance, she is still very much entrenched in a system which seeks to destroy her. To tolerate her when she's needed, but as soon as she leaves the boundaries of their cages, will do whatever it takes to turn her into what they always believed. As Alyce, how does she figure out who she wants to be, without falling into their traps?

MALICE is an immersive and imaginative retelling of “Sleeping Beauty.” The worldbuilding is vivid and original, and I’m obsessed with the aesthetic of the entire book. I love that it’s told from the villain’s perspective and that it’s kind of a villain origin story. I’ll be honest and admit that I don’t recall much about the story of Sleeping Beauty besides Aurora, a princess who needs true love’s kiss to wake her from an eternal slumber, but the way Heather Walter tells the tale leading up to that event had me accidentally skimming pages ahead just to see what happened next. The last 20% needed to happen but I was hoping for a happier ending. I am glad that Alyce got to claim her full power by the end, though. I am desperate for the sequel, and eagerly await its publication in 2022!

Actual rating: 4.5.

Malice is the sapphic Sleeping Beauty retelling of my dreams. It was one of my most anticipated reads of 2021, and it (mostly) did not disappoint! I really loved the unique magic system and world building (especially the system for the Graces' magic), and the characterization of Aurora as anything but the swooning princess in need of a savior.

My only real gripe was about the ending. I wasn’t disappointed with what happened in the ending, moreso with how abruptly it came and went. The entire book was so thoughtfully written and everything slowly built up to Alyce’s transformation to full villainess (not a spoiler, this is explicitly mentioned in the blurb) and I didn’t feel like the ending did her story justice.

This is the first book in a duology, and I have high hopes that Book 2 will more than make up for the ending of this first book, but I still felt it was worth noting. That being said, please read this book! It was phenomenal, and I honestly can’t believe it’s a debut novel.

From the opening pages of Heather Walter's debut, I was hooked on Malice. Alyce is a complex character, so reviled by all of her peers it's impossible not to sympathize with her plight. The last known member of her kind, Alyce is a Dark Grace, part Vila, green-skinned and blooded. Vilas deal in curses and terror, punishment and revenge. The rest of the Graces of Lavender House and throughout Briar have gifts in magic in beauty, wisdom, art, and other attributes everyone desires, blessed by the fae of Etheria. Universally hated, all Alyce wants is to save up enough money to escape Briar and go somewhere to live out her own life without being forced to use her gifts to create elixirs and curses for the petty people of Briar.

But all of that changes when she has a chance meeting with the crown princess Aurora. The last surviving heir to Briar's throne, Aurora has only months left to live before the curse that claimed her sisters ends her, too. If she doesn't find true love's kiss before her 21st birthday, Aurora will die just like her sisters. When Aurora is the only person to accept Alyce as she is and not judge her for the actions and crimes of her ancestors, Alyce finds herself unable to resist helping Aurora in any way she can.

This LGBTQIA retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the evil sorceress's point of view was engrossing right from the beginning. While some may find the pacing to be slow, I loved that Walter takes the time to describe so many elements of world-building. It's intricate and vivid, and Walter nails the details of the history of the realms, the magic of the Graces and Vila, and the war between the fae and the humans. Walter's characters are all vivid and interesting, with so many dwelling in that gray area between hero and villain it's nearly impossible not to empathize with them all.

Malice ends with enough closure to be satisfying and still leaves readers wanting more. I'm so excited for the second book. Thank you very much to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing me with an ARC of this book.

This was such a compelling read. I’m a sucker for any fairytale retelling, but I definitely have a soft spot for stories told from the villain’s perspective. Understanding their motives, getting a glimpse inside their brain, seeing how they think they’re the hero -- that’s one of my favorite things. And this is a wonderful example of just that.

I will admit this book had a bit of a slow start; the worldbuilding was very cool but very intricate and it took me a while to really understand what was going on. The history of Briar and the hierarchy of their particular realm is decently convoluted -- but once you’re in, you’re in. I found myself drawn in almost without realizing it, blowing through pages just to see what happens next.

Poor Alyce. That girl did nothing wrong and yet everyone hates it for it. You know I love an antihero but Alyce was only ever a villain to everyone else; her motives are pure and entirely understandable. The most recognizable aspects of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, the ones that paint the picture of a dark fairy, are mostly not even of her doing. And yet the poor thing cannot catch a break.

The LGBTQ+ aspect of the novel was so lovely, though the prejudice around it was a bit confusing. Briar is described as a realm in which same-sex couples exist and are allowed to live and love freely -- except in the case of royalty. That’s a no-no, entirely forbidden. That being said, I love how there are no labels used for either girl. They just are. Two girls that pair up to fix a problem, become friends against all odds, and then something more.

Malice sets up the Sleeping Beauty story we’re familiar with and yet also leaves the door open for so much more.

I was not expecting a cliffhanger, but I can’t say that I mind; I’m very curious to see where this story goes.

This fairytale reimagining is definitely one to pick up if you like dark, dangerous, and unpredictable. In the very best of ways, of course.

An interesting take on a familiar fairy-tale! I love imaginings of old stories so this was right up my alley.

I absolutely love retellings and I mean all retellings, there isn’t one genre of retellings that I don’t love but I do have a special place in my heart for fairy tale retellings and this one is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a twist, it’s queer!

Aurora is the heir to the throne and Alyse (Maleficent) is a dark grace who is treated with fear and hatred from her fellow graces because she uses darker magic. The two need each other to defeat the curse and that is all I’ll say of the plot because it’s just so good I feel like you should read it yourself and I’m not sure I wouldn’t actually reveal a spoiler.

I really like retellings that take a character who is usually a flat villain and tells a different story from their perspective do redeem the characters who we are taught from childhood to hate. Heather Walter really does a lovely job turning the Disney tale on its head and making you sympathize with Alyse from the very beginning of the story and that only grew for me throughout.

I adored this and recommend this to anyone who loves fairytale retellings.

CW: bullying, manipulation, kidnapping, various forms of violence