Book Review #5: Because You Love to Hate Me

Hello my fellow bookworms! Welcome back to the blog! Yes, the blog not the vlog. It occurred to me that it's been a while since we've seen a book review, which was startling considering this is a book blog. So many apologies, I am definitely going to try and get more book reviews up going forward I promise.

So today we have a fun review given the time of year! Though it's a few days late, we have a Halloween-ish book review! Today I am super excited to talk about the book Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy edited by Ameriie. I figured, Halloween is when we see a lot of villains and demons and what not, so this book would be perfect to review this week! The cool thing about this book, is that it is short stories written by authors in tandem with famous book bloggers and booktubers. It was a really interesting read and I'm excited to share it with you guys, so let's get into it!

I first picked up this book because Sasha Alsberg (abookutopia) was going to have an event at the bookstore I work at and I had watched her YouTube for a while and I wanted to get a better feel for her as a writer with her new book, Zenith, coming out soon. So what I didn't know about this book going into it, was how the book bloggers and book tubers would be incorporated into the stories. I figured that they would be writing stories with the authors or writing their own stories as well. What actually happened, which I seriously loved, was that the book tubers and book bloggers gave authors challenges for stories to write, and then wrote commentaries after them. I first loved the concept of book lovers and authors working together, combined with the idea of challenges created a really awesome book!

Two things about this collection made me sad though... First, a few of the stories were so good I could have read an entire novel of them. But they were just short stories so I wasn't totally satisfied by the end, and I just wanted to keep reading. Honestly, not a bad thing but I was sad when I got really into a story and then it just ended kind of abruptly. Another sad thing that happened, which also isn't really a bad thing, but anyway some of the stories I would really be rooting for a character and I wanted to believe in them so hard but then they ended being evil or twisted. But I should have seen this coming since it's literally just a book of stories of villainy.

I really liked how unique these concepts were, and they're not just your average stories of villainy and many are not tales you would find in your beloved edition of Grimm's Fairytales. Some of them take a classic story like The Little Mermaid and expand upon it, but others were completely original. I've always been fascinated by villains and this collection really showed how complex villains are as people. And at times I would find myself really rooting for a character, and they would do something villainous, and I wouldn't really be mad about it. But others, I would just get sad because I really wanted them to be good people, and it feels weird rooting for the bad guy! Overall this collection really makes you think about complex character dynamics, and makes you look at villains in a different light.

I also loved that with the collaboration of authors and book lovers, I got to explore new people. I had definitely heard of authors like Renée Ahdieh, Marissa Meyer, and Adam Silvera I just had never been able to read anything of their's yet. But after reading stories like these I was able to better gauge their writing style and decide whether or not their books would be something I'd enjoy. But also I was able to learn about new booktubers and book bloggers that I hadn't heard of before, and check out their content. I had heard of BenjaminofTomes and thebookbasement, but I hadn't gotten around to looking at their channels and this was the perfect opportunity to see what they had. So really, in addition to some amazing stories I got to learn about some amazing people, and in the book world it's always great to learn about new people that share the same passion as you.

Now for the stories themselves. I will admit that this collection had a bit of a sleepy start. It took me a few stories to really get into this book but once I did I loved it. The stories were all the perfect length that I could read one story a day and feel like I had gotten my lit fix for the day and satisfied that I had finished something. It really helped my time management because each story didn't take me too long to read, but there was a definitive stop so I didn't get lost in the book like I usually do.

I actually really liked seven of the stories, and I'm going to share my favorite three and their challenges so you can get an idea of how this book works. To give you an idea of really the broad range of creativity and form this book covers, we're first going to talk about the other stories that I liked that weren't my favorites. First we have "Shirley and Jim" which was a gender-bent Sherlock Holmes/James Moriarty romance which was done amazingly, and one of those books that I wish was a full length novel because I couldn't put it down.. Soman Chainani crafted the story of (high school) Lancelot and Guinevere through text messages and IMs which was a hilarious twist on the classic British tale, that read super quick in the story "Gwen and Art and Lance". And finally, Adam Silvera put together an amazing story called "You, You, It's All About You" that was super engaging and interesting to read, because the reader was the protagonist and the villain! This format was really unique, and not something I've read very often before, so it was a really awesome idea!

Now I've given you three stories I liked and I'm about to give you the three that I loved, can you figure out which one was in the middle to round off the seven stories I enjoyed?

Let's get into the good stuff! My three favorite stories from Because You Love to Hate Me! First up we have "Death Knell" by Victoria Schwab! I had never read anything by Victoria/ V.E. Schwab before so I was looking forward to getting to her story. By the time I actually got to the story, I didn't even realize that it was Schwab until I got to the very end and I was so in love with her writing that I had to go back and see who had written it. In "Death Knell" Death is personified and is seeking to take the life of a young girl, who spends the story trying to evade, romance him and show him what it is like to live. This story was in response to Jesse George's (@Jessethereader) villain challenge: "Hades wakes up after being unconscious at the bottom of a well in Ireland." It was really unique, and kind of random idea that came together really nicely. Victoria Schwab really answered the call on this story and her writing was so lovely and gave the piece a nice kind of timelessness that I could re-read over and over again. Also in Jesse's commentary he talks a lot about the idea of death and reveals how this story is super personal to him and his life which was awesome to read. It really makes you think about death in a different way and also how literature relates to each of our own lives as readers.

The second story I really liked was Marissa Meyer's "The Sea Witch". It was a retelling of the classic "The Little Mermaid" which is one of my favorite stories and Disney Movies. I love mermaids and they're possibly one of my favorite mythical creatures. So this story was just my cup of tea! Meyer created the origin story for the sea with Ursula, and I. Loved. This. Story. It talks about how the sea witch was just a misunderstood social outcast with magic mermaid powers that just wanted to fit in. So she finds love in the human world and she thinks her life has finally come together, and uses her magic only to learn the heard way that all magic comes with a price as her plans unravel. This story showed that the sea witch was really just a badass woman bring to get some revenge and it was amazing. This story idea is brought to you by Zöe Herdt's (@readbyzoe) challenge: "What if the sea witch had previously been in the little mermaid's shoes but decided to kill the love interest and turn back into a mermaid herself?" Such an interesting lens to look at a classic story through and showed that villains are just not that different.

And finally... for the grand finale...my favorite story was "Indigo and Shade" by April Genevieve Tucholke. I had never read anything by her, but I had been eyeing Wink Poppy Midnight for a while. After reading "Indigo and Shade" I will for sure be picking up a copy! Everyone knows that Beauty and the Beast is my all time favorite fairytale and so it only makes sense that the Beauty and the Beast retelling would be my favorite of the whole collection. I loved that in this story the beauty and the beast were the same person which was an amazing twist! The beast was a beautiful girl named Indigo that at night turned into an awful beast. The main character was Gaston's character and it was weird to be sympathetic to usually my least favorite character. Tucholke really emphasizes the idea that Gaston was previously a hero with good intentions, who was turned dark by unfortunate circumstances. It was so wonderfully put together with classic details from the Beauty and the Beast story, for example Brahm always finds Indigo in the forest reading, which is a nod to the now beloved idea that Belle is a bookworm herself. Tucholke wrote this story in response to Whitney Atkinson's (@Whittynovels) challenge: "Beauty and the beast: Suitor's revenge," and it was honestly spot on.This story really had a whimsical feel to it that made a me love it even more. When I read it the first time, I had to read it again and then another. Seriously, this was an amazingly original retelling of Beauty and the Beast tale.

And that about does it for this review of Because You Love to Hate Me! So overall, I really enjoyed this collection, even more than I thought I would! At first I was hesitant about the idea at first but I thought the execution was really wonderfully done. I thought it was super creative and the idea of author/reader collaboration was genius! I would definitely recommend this read if you're looking for something really engaging, fantasy oriented but also easy and quick to read. It will really make you think about the complexity of villainy and the idea of evil and darkness in literature, and really how complicated characters within stories can be especially in their interactions with each other.

Overall, I give Because You Love to Hate Me a 📚📚📚📚 out of five! A great read! Have you gotten your hands on Because You Love to Hate Me yet? What did you think? What were some of your favorite stories in the collection? Let me know in the comments down below!

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-Kayla