Author: Ab. Cynthe
Genres: Retelling, Christmas, Horror, Monsters
Published: December 9, 2024
Pages: 86
Format read: Epub
Triggers: Death, Violence, Drug use, Death of Parent, Murder, Not so happy ending
Quick Thoughts: This might be one of the best retellings I’ve read in a long while!
This book was an ARC and given to me for free.
All reviews are entirely honest and my own opinion.
Rating:
Characters:
Plot:
Spice:
‘Tis the season for revenge.
Words can not describe how much I loved this book. It had all the things that I love, with its horror elements and monster-romance vibe. I absolutely loved it to bits and read it in one go. And the ending! Ahh! I loved it SO much!
You’re Next, Martha-May.
When this book graced my instagram feed for the first time, I was immediately intrigued. I loved the idea of a spicy Grinch retelling. It made me curious to how one could make the story spicy and how the writer would give us the connections to the original book & movie. Boyyyy, I definitely wasn’t disappointed!
Cynthe has a fast-paced writing style that is incredibly comfortable to read. There is enough description that it plays into my vivid imagination. The way that they did this retelling was absolutely amazing and I haven’t seen a retelling like this yet. Let me just say that I was eating this up!
Ab. Cynthe definitely doesn’t shy away from the darker topics, and this book is no exception to that. If you’re thinking about reading this book, please give the trigger list a good look. It definitely makes each and every one of those true.
Mean One has plenty of spicy scenes, and they were done so well! Like I said before, I was very curious about how this was going to work. After all, the whooville characters are very cheery and happy and definitely PG 13. But Cynthe grew them up and gave them a dark twist. This was so well done, without making the characters unrecognizable.
And the easter eggs to the original story & book! Oh my! I absolutely gobbled those up. They were sprinkled into the story, just enough to make me gasp and giggle, but not so much that it didn’t feel like its own story. That is something else that Ab. Cynthe did SO well! This didn’t feel like a retelling at all. It felt like its own story. Of course, I knew it was about the Grinch and I saw the easter eggs (Max? As in the dog?! As his partner in crime? OBSESSED!) but they felt like their own characters.
Surprisingly enough, even though this was a Novella there was plenty of depth and development. That is not something I generally expect to such an extent in a novella due to the limited amount of pages. There was a nice balance between the spicy scenes and the plot. Yet, I would still categorize this novella as ‘Smut with a side of plot’ because of the sheer amount of spicy scenes that happen.
Then why don't you put that pretty mouth and sharp tongue of yours to good use?
The story is sexy and gory, the perfect combination for my deprived little mind. It’s full of revenge, it’s full of emotions, and the ending just blew me away! This Novella 100% convinced me to read more of Cynthe’s books!
Good bits
Bad bits
- Plenty of easter eggs
- Fast-paced
- Depth and development
- A really good retelling! Felt like its own story
- Plenty of smut scenes
- And also plenty of gore for the horror-lover in me
- The ending is amazing!
- I would like a full length book of this story
I am not sure what else there is to say about this Novella. I think it is pretty clear I am absolutely obsessed. This might be one of those books I will re-read every Christmas, that’s how good it is! Give me more of this, please!