Just a few days ago, The Land of Stories 2, by my idol Chris Colfer, came out and so of course I immediately bought it. I published a few posts on how good the first one was and let me tell you, I didn't know how much more he could do after exposing all the secrets he created behind the fairy tales, but he surpassed my expectations.
So to summarize the first book, Alex and Conner, the protagonists, wound up in TLOS (the land of stories) and had to complete the wishing spell to get out. In doing so, the crossed the paths of major fairy tale characters and found out the true stories behind them all. The biggest one that carried over into the 2nd book was the tale of Goldilocks, Jack the Giant Slayer, and Red Riding Hood. In the first TLOS, it was explained that Red was in love with Jack who was in love with Goldi, so Red played a prank on Goldi by getting her to go into the three bears house which led to Goldi's arrest and life as an outlaw.
Anyways, the story picks up again with Alex and Conner sneaking into TLOS when they find out the Evil Enchantress, who happens to be the pupil of the Evil Queen (from Snow White) in the first book, and is also responsible for many of the curses in the fairy tale world including the prince being turned into a beast and the woman being turned into a magical harp, etc.
Colfer revealed so much about the true nature of the fairy tale characters, that I didn't think there was anything left to expose, but boy was I wrong. One of my favorites comes from the tale of Cinderella; everyone's favorite princess. Alex and Conner visit the wicked stepmother who explains to them that she was so in love with Cinderella's father, whom Cinderella was the spitting image of, and when he died, the stepmother couldn't bear to look at Cinderella because it reminded her of her husband, so she gave Cinderella chores that would make her dirty and unrecognizable, and kept her in the basement so she wouldn't have to be reminded of her loss.
I spoke in my previous posts about how humorous Colfer made the book. And of course he did it again. My favorite part was also in the tale of the stepmother. She explained how after the Cinderella ordeal, the people of the kingdom grew to hate she and her daughters and would make up stupid tales about them like saying that the girls had tried to cut their toes off to fit into the glass slippers in order to marry the prince. The irony in this is that, that was true. In the original Brothers Grimm tale, that is what happens. And I enjoyed how Colfer made it a joke in this present-day fairy tale.
Another interesting revelation came with the introduction of Rumpelstiltskin who was not in the first book. It turns out that in TLOS 2, Rumpelstiltskin confronts his family members whom he betrayed when he went to work for the evil queen. Who are these family members? Well the seven dwarfs of course! Rumpelstiltskin is himself a dwarf and turns out he's the 8th brother (in TLOS anyway).
In previous posts I spoke about how I loved that Colfer was able to relate all the Prince Charmings: four brothers, Chance, Chase, Charlie, and Chandler. In TLOS 2, he seemingly easily relates two of the most famous princesses: Sleeping Beauty and Belle. It is revealed that the evil Enchantress had been in love with a prince who did not love her back, so she turned him into the Beast. However when the 'beauty' fell in love with him, the curse wore off. Everyone told the tale of Beauty and the Beast and so the name Beauty became a family name, which stuck for later generations, including the second Queen Beauty, the granddaughter, Sleeping Beauty. Freaking brilliant.
Finally, I point out how I love that Colfer takes old tales but makes them present day. I was secretly hoping that Peter Pan would make an appearance in the book despite the fact that he is not a Grimm Brother/ HC Anderson tale, and got excited that B and the B was in there because neither is that, but I only partially got my wish. In the end, Alex is met with her favorite and most easily relatable fairytale characters: Wendy Darling, Lucy Pevensie, Dorothy Gale, and Alice from Wonderland. These are the most recent fairytales of our time, but we don't often consider them fairytales because they are so young in comparison.
Finally, I give all my admiration to Colfer who has done what others can't. In explaining why the Enchantress did what she did, she discusses how she was forced to leave the royal council because she was ridiculed by those who were jealous of her, and when they became threatened that she had more talent than them, they replaced her with someone who was most simply more popular and prettier.
"The world always listens to a pretty face over an average one."
Amen. We all try to ignore this simple fact, but it stands true. Despite our efforts to say that looks don't matter as much as brains or heart, we know it's not true. I cannot tell you how many times I have been passed over for something because of someone else who was prettier than me, and I applaud Chris Colfer for using a fairy tale to point out a most obvious fact of our world today. Thanks Chris.
All in all, two thumbs up. Colfer again managed adventure, excitement, genius, mystery, and magic. Can't wait for more.
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