Hiddensee: Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker

It was a strange start to the story, with a lot of philosophical magical realism. Hiddensee was an easy enough read and I finished it quite quickly. The beginning and last 40 pages were good and held my attention, but the middle felt like nothing was happening. I was put off with the descriptions of female characters which gave “men who write women” Twitter thread vibes.

Another reviewer from Storygraph puts it into words better than I can “It is both broader and deeper than it seems at a glance, ranking much more a dense literature than a fantastical story. But maybe its complexity is its flaw. In trying to be about so much, it just confuses the reader and ends up being about very little, and certainly not anything that is easy to have an emotional connection with.”

It’s supposed to be a Nutcracker origin story/retelling but it’s only ever talked about in detail during the last 60 pages or so. I really wanted to love this book and have it put me in a holiday mood! The Nutcracker is a very nostalgic story for me so I was disappointed with this one.