Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Nov 2023
368 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
This gloriously transportive reimagining of The Nutcracker tells the tale of twin sisters, divided by envy and magic, set against each other one fateful Christmas Eve.
Light and dark—this is the cursed birthright placed upon Clara and Natasha by their godfather, Drosselmeyer, whose power and greed hold an entire city in his sway. Charming Clara, the favorite, grows into a life of beauty and ease, while Natasha is relegated to her sister's shadow, ignored and unloved.
But Natasha seizes the opportunity for revenge one Christmas Eve, when Drosselmeyer arrives at the family gala with the Nutcracker, an enchanted gift that offers entry into an alternate world: the Kingdom of Sweets.
Following Clara into the glittering land of snow and sugar, Natasha discovers a source of power far greater than Drosselmeyer: the Sugar Plum Fairy, who offers her own wondrous gifts...and chilling bargains. But as Natasha uncovers the truth about a dark destiny crafted long before her birth, she must reckon with forces both earthly and magical, human and diabolical, and decide to which world she truly belongs.
"The famous Christmas ballet takes a sinister turn in Johansen's spooky retelling...It would be a simple thing to take the outlines of The Nutcracker ballet and make it grim, but Johansen is doing a lot of delicate character work here, primarily around envy, social limitations on women's choices, and accountability. The world beyond the candy fantasy is satisfyingly creepy but also an effective landscape for exploring what happens when you ignore the rotten core of your deepest desires. An eerie and sophisticated dark fantasy." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Johansen transforms a beloved holiday classic into a dark tale of vengeance...Fans of artistically influenced, realistic historical fiction wrapped in moral allegory will relish Natasha's Nutcracker-adjacent narrative." —Booklist (starred review)
"Johansen's dark and sprawling historical fantasy reimagining of The Nutcracker starts with a bang but loses a bit of steam as it goes on...[W]hile the plot meanders, there's no denying the lushness of Johansen's prose or the allure of her atmospheric setting. It's a mixed bag, but fans of thorny fairy tales and inventive retellings will want to check it out." —Publishers Weekly
"In this stand-alone novel, Johansen writes a beautifully twisted version of The Nutcracker, exploring the nature of revenge and its costs in horror-tinged fantasy. Recommend to fans of V.E. Schwab and Hannah Whitten." —Library Journal
"The Kingdom of Sweets is a deliciously dark fairy tale that transports one to a world of magic, fantasy and family intrigue. Erika Johansen has written one of the most wonderfully original novels I've ever read, a story so imaginative, so filled with dangerous beauty, that you will never forget it." —Danielle Trussoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Puzzle Master
"The Kingdom of Sweets drags you headfirst into its world of horror and whimsy, where the lines between reality, dream, and nightmare are far thinner and more porous than you think. Dark, twisty, and delicious, Johansen will keep you guessing until the curtain falls." —Vaishnavi Patel, New York Times bestselling author of Kaikeyi
"Fantasy, history, and horror make an incredible confection in The Kingdom of Sweets, a terrifying and sugary take on The Nutcracker that you'll devour as quickly as you can." —Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
This information about The Kingdom of Sweets was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Victoria Webb
Erika Johansen grew up and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She went to Swarthmore College, earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and eventually became an attorney, but she never stopped writing.
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