Unfortunate Soul Chronicles Book Review

As an avid reader and an aspiring writer myself, I find it only fitting to start sharing my opinions on the stories I read. I am going to start off this new chapter in my writing career by reviewing not one book but a series of three written by Stacey Rourke called the Unfortunate Soul Chronicles. I was first introduced to Stacey’s work by a man on a popular social media app who was also reviewing these very same books. I am a sucker for a reimagined spin on classic stories, myths or fairy tales, and these books deliver. Fans of the classic Disney tales such as the little mermaid or peter pan will enjoy the unique spin the author has put into not only the classic stories but also the characters themselves.

Starting us off with the first book titled ‘Rise of the sea witch’, we get a first hand look at just what made Ursula become the villain of her story. I’m sure most of you reading this know the story of the little mermaid and some of you probably even remember watching the movie on VHS, we all know how the story ends. The problem with this is we don't really ever know why the villain is the way they are, we just accept the fact that they are the antagonist and must be overcome. This story gives us a glimpse of what had to happen to the young girl to force her to become the evil sea witch. I love the quote the author uses on the cover of the book as it perfectly summarizes the goal of this story; “Evil isn’t born, it is conjured in the depths.” I for one love a story where the villain also has goals and a motive; A past that has dealt them horrible hands and forced them to see the world differently. This book does the best job of sticking to one story but is also able to set up the characters for the other two books as well.

The second story breaks the mold of the first since it is not composed of just one classic tale but a mixture of a few. Titled ‘Entombed in glass’, our two main characters, the love interest of the sea witch Alastor and a rather odd fellow named Sterling team up to try to return to their home under the sea and save the sea witch from a fate neither knows has befallen her. Their adventure takes them through a couple of brilliantly reimagined classic Disney stories and sets the stage for Alastor to grow and become the hero. Although their adventure ends in what seems like a failure, it sets the story up perfectly for our next hero to finish out the trilogy.

If the second story broke the mold of the first one, the third story took that broken mold and pounded it down to sand and blew it into the wind. The third and final story titled ‘Pursuing madness’ takes us on quite the ride. Without giving too much away, the first chapter makes no sense of what the first two books prepared us for until you get to the very end, and although I didn't care for the beginning at first, once I figured out what was going on, I absolutely loved it. The last book in the series leaves us jumping from realm to realm, or classic story to classic story and left me feeling like the third book was a little rushed. That being said, the third book may have been my favorite for the sole reason of the character development, and not just for one character, but multiple characters.

Just as most fairy tale stories, the trilogy ends with a happily ever after that honestly feels more deserved than any of the classics. One of the main things I really enjoyed about these stories is that although all of them were a continuation of the main story, each book had the unique feel of being its own story to the point that it is highly unlikely you will confuse what part happened in which book. All in all, I feel these stories accomplished the two main goals that I personally expected them to; a great twist to the character development of some favorite Disney characters and a reimagining of the classic stories instead of just carbon copies. I highly recommend these books and am looking forward to reading some of her other works.