The Wide-Awake Princess

The Wide-Awake Princess - E.D. Baker

This book could have been so awesome. But it wasn't. It was disappointing.

First of all, there is zippo character development. And too many characters. All of them felt like cardboard cutouts of people, with no real personalities. I wish the author had focused more on character development (particularly with Annie, Liam, Gwen and Beldegard. They were the most interesting) instead of the action going on in the story. Which leads me to my next point.

At lot happens, but very little of it has anything to do with the actual plot of finding Gwen's true love. They talk to random people and go to random places, but little of it has anything to do with the main story.

Too many fairytales are crammed into this one book!!! The author should have stuck with one fairytale (Sleeping Beauty) and maybe added elements of other fairytales, but trying to cram in Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, the Frog Prince, and Rapunzel into one story is not a good idea.

There is little to no world-building. I had no idea of what the setting looked like. The author spent no time on this.

Annie's power ruins the story. Think about it; the only power any of the villains have is magic, and not only is Annie immune to any and all magic, but she can suck out any magic that the villains have. What?!? Annie's power should have been limited to only being resistant to magic, and only some magic. Otherwise there is no conflict!!

Because of the absurdity of Annie's power (more specifically, the fact that is has no limits), the lack of world-building, the absolute absence of character development, too many fairytales crammed Into one story, and lots of pointless action, I give it one star. Absolutely disappointing. I'm sure even 9-11 year olds will be disappointed with this book.

I'm pissed. So much potential, so poorly executed.