The Land of Stories

The Land of Stories' saga are by far, the best fairy-tale novel I have ever read in my entire life. Being a fairy-tale freak myself, my mind was completely blown away after finished reading them. Who knew Chris Colfer who portrayed Kurt Hummel from Glee could write so well. His writing and imagination has reached beyond the maximum level of creativity, in my humble opinion. The way he twists the stories around really makes you want to stick to the novel like a superglue. As I was reading them, I literally could not bring myself to put the book down because I was always hungry for more on what's the story about to become and go next. As a result from two sleepless nights and three days of locking myself up in the bedroom, I managed to finish those three books on the third day since I started reading them. And yes, I did look quite like a zombie and gotten a bit skinny from the lack of sleep and eat, having only to survive on coffee in the middle of the night and throughout the rest of the day because I refused to get tired even for a little bit, but in the end it was all very much worth it.

To begin with, the story revolves around the life of Alex and Conner Bailey on the twins' spontaneous adventure when they accidentally traveled to a fairy-tale world called The Land of Stories through their grandmother's book. And being in the fantasy realm which is every little girl's dream, including mine obviously, it's no surprise that they get to meet with Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, The Charming Princes, The Frog King, Goldilocks, Rapunzel, Jack and his famous beanstalk, The Fairy Council, The Little Mermaid, The Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast, Rumpelstiltskin, the Big Bad Wolf Pack whom are the descendants of the one and only Big Bad Wolf himself (he was the wolf who hunted and swallowed Red Riding Hood and her grandmother all those years ago), Cinderella's Wicked Stepmother and ugly stepsisters, the Evil Queen whom is Snow White's evil stepmother, the evil Enchantress whom cursed Sleeping Beauty with the legendary 100 year sleep, The Sea Witch, The Snow Queen, Hansel and Gretel, the children-eating Witch and her gingerbread house, Alice, Lucy Pevensie, Wendy Darling, Dorothy, Bo Peep and the list goes on and on with just about every single fairy-tale characters you know. Oh yes! Last but not least, how could we ever forget the lovable Fairy Godmother whom made all Cinderella's dream come true with just a flick of her wand. To the twins' amazement as well, The Fairy Godmother actually turns out to be their own grandmother!

As the story develops and the twins were now trapped in the homeland to the most historical classic characters, they have to do everything in their power to figure out a way to get back into our own world. The Otherworld, as they called it. But with all the legendary villains hot on their trail at the same time, the twins could never imagined that these characters whom they fear reading about so much while growing up could eventually happened to them in reality. But with the assistance and help from all the royal princesses and princes, the twins realized too that there are simply much more of unexpected events and truths behind the perfect fairy-tale that everyone practically only learned and loved by the surface of it. One of the reasons I love most about Colfer's writing and his imaginative creation of the story is that as you read and understand the story deeper and deeper, you will learned the crucial truth on why the Evil Queen tortured Snow White. Why did the Enchantress place a 100 year-old curse on Sleeping Beauty and her entire kingdom. Why did the Wicked Stepmother hate Cinderella so much. Why did Rumpelstiltskin want the royal first-born that he was promised to so much. How did Goldilocks first came to the Three Bears' house. All these stories that we grew up with by reading Hans Christian Andersen and the German writers, the Brothers Grimm were all just the surface of it. The masks, as I like to call it. I think that's why my mind could not properly function after reading The Land of Stories because I was just too blown away by it.

And so, I simply want to share my enthusiasm on this novel for those of you who might be interested in reading them and to let you know that if you love fairy-tales as much as I really do, these novels are definitely worth buying. Also as I am writing this post, I just couldn't wait to start on the second round of the novels which they are currently displaying on my bookshelves right now, calling and inviting me non-stop. I just wish they would shut up. On that note, I couldn't wait for the fourth series of The Land of Stories which will be published this fall because the ending of the third book was just too evil for me. I mean, why did Colfer have to end it in that way? It's just too...un-human. Too unreal. And pure evil. Nevertheless, please please please grab this book and read it because it has definitely inspired me so much. It's definitely a must-have book in your collection for all you fairy-tale lovers out there. For now, I am going to travel and embark on another journey to The Land of Stories for the second time. Farewell.