UnEnchanted by Chanda Hahn
""Was this really the best Grimm candidate? Couldn't someone stronger have been chosen, if she was tired already?""
This quote sums up the extremely one-dimensional protagonist, Wilhelmina "Mina" Grime/Grimm--but don't hate on the name sidetracking...＼(^。^ )Personally, the name of a character draws me in as much as a cool cover. That's why I have a shelf on Goodreads called "In need of a better heroine name," because names like Meghan and Anna just don't cut it for me. I like nicknames, and therefore was inherently biased towards Mina simply because she had an outdated name with a cutesy abbreviation.
HOWEVER, poor Mina is fighting a curse she cannot break. No, not the "Grimm curse" that she learns her family is plagued with. Not even the over-emphasized, evident-from-beginning, more-teen-angst-than-an-actual-curse of BAD LUCK
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| Please don't let me trip in front of my crush!!!! Anything but that! |
..............except that it's the kind of typical bad luck that everyone faces as a normal human being, which makes it nothing special.
anywhoosle
Alas, no. Mina's ultimate curse is the curse of BAD EDITING/WRITING!!!!!!!
What do you mean punctuation makes a difference?!
The overwhelming presence of bad punctuation [or even better, the lack of employing even the most basic of comma rules] really distracts from the story UnEnchanted is trying to make us believe in. However, it's not just awful grammar that's distracting. UnEnchanted is just poorly planned out. It's as if the author wanted to jump to the scenes she had daydreamed about the most, instead of giving as much time and attention to the filler as well as the actual outline.
To put it simply, it was like having too much bun and not enough hamburger.
One of the worst examples is how Mina comes to accept her destiny. I can't even write this review without providing this example: "Reluctantly, Mina put on the white shirt and red jacket and was thankful that the curse hadn't tried changing her jeans or shoes red too. These events only encouraged Mina more, by Saturday, she was even more determined to find the Grimoire. She had to, her life depended on it."
NOT RED CLOTHES!!!!!!!
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| A perfect example of bad red clothes...teeheehee |
I'm sorry, is your impending death not enough motivation for you? Guess not. How about your family....no? You do realize that your little brother that you claim to love so much will be cursed if you die, right?
...no? Okay, how about your prince charming? You've crushed on him for--no?! Aw come on, give me SOMETHING to work with!
It's just one awful motivation after another. Poor Mina isn't even given a fighting chance by her own author. What's sad is Mina actually has the potential to be a stronger character. I know it's there, I just think that maybe Hahn needs a creative writing workbook or something. Not enough attention is given to Mina, or any of the other characters at that. Her best friend serves the purpose of providing enough pop culture references for me to dread hearing about what Twilight shirt she has on next, and her love interest can only mope about how rich he is and why Mina doesn't like him. If the characters were stronger, I think UnEnchanted would have won me over a lot more, in spite of the grammatical errors and lack of editing.
In short, great idea, but extremely poor execution. I'd only recommend it because it's an interesting premise, and because I just finished every episode of Once Upon A Time. But this is nowhere near enchanting enough to recommend as a good read.
