Books › Tales from a Not-So-Happily Ever After
Tales from a Not-So-Happily Ever After
320 pages
A chaotic, laugh-out-loud collision of middle school angst and fractured fairy tale absurdity.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like flipping through the secret, doodle-filled notebook of your most dramatic, hilarious friend. The pace is incredibly brisk, propelled by a conversational, highly emotive prose style that relies on capitalization and exclamation points to convey the sheer urgency of tween life. It plunges the reader into a playful, chaotic mood where everyday middle school anxieties like mean girls and crushes are magnified through the wacky, distorted lens of a fractured fairy tale dreamscape. The emotional texture is lighthearted but anchored in genuine feelings of insecurity and the comforting power of best friends. It is a perfect, breezy escape for readers who delight in visual storytelling, relatable social drama, and a healthy dose of goofy, imaginative absurdity.
- Mood
- playful
- chaotic
- lighthearted
- wacky
- Tone
- dramatic
- humorous
- conversational
- sarcastic
- earnest
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- middle school social dynamics · power of friendship · reimagining classic tropes · tween angst
- The writing
- The writing is highly visual and conversational, utilizing capitalization, exclamation points, and doodle-like illustrations to mimic a highly emotive tween's private journal.
- The arc
- The journey moves from everyday middle school humiliation into a wildly disorienting fantasy, ultimately resolving in a comforting reaffirmation of friendship and self-confidence.
- Who it's for
- Tweens who love highly illustrated, fast-paced stories full of relatable middle school drama and goofy, laugh-out-loud situations.
Content notes
- mild bullying
About the book
After a bump on the head by a dodgeball throne by MacKenzie n gym class on April Fools Day, Nikki Maxwell has a wild dream in which she, her BFFs Chloe Garcia and Zoey Franklin, her crush Brandon Roberts, and mean girl MacKenzie all end up playing the roles of some familiar classic fairy tale characters.
Description from Open Library.
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