The Kingdom of Sweets

September 1, 2023

Departing from her "Queen of the Tearling" series, Johansen reimagines the beloved Nutcracker tale, with Clara's scorned sister Natasha finally getting her moment when she travels to The Kingdom of Sweets one Christmas eve and meets the Sugar Plum Fairy, far more powerful than godfather Drosselmeyer and not altogether sugary. Prepub Alert.

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October 2, 2023
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. In the 1900s, Natasha and Clara are twins cursed as infants to be “Dark” and “Light,” respectively, by their sorcerer godfather, the mysterious and dastardly Drosselmeyer. The girls live out these designations, with Clara stepping into the limelight while Natasha is relegated to the shadows. Natasha has a secret, though: her love for Conrad, the heir of a duke, who slips through her bedroom window at night, then out with the dawn. On the eve of the twins’ 17th birthday, which falls on Christmas, Drosselmeyer presents them with gifts—a large nutcracker for Clara and a creepy clown for Natasha. Those simple presents open the door to a portal realm of magic, mayhem, and many types of monster, complete with a complex love triangle, some murderous twists, and a thematic exploration of haves versus have-nots. Though this late turn to class struggle feels a bit abrupt, it’s not unwelcome, and, while 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. Agent: Dorian Karchmar, WME.

October 15, 2023
The famous Christmas ballet takes a sinister turn in Johansen's spooky retelling. All the pieces of the well-known story are here. At the Stahlbaum family Christmas Eve party, darling Clara receives a gift of a magical nutcracker from the mysterious magician, Drosselmeyer. That night, Clara journeys to the magical Kingdom of Sweets, alongside her nutcracker prince, and is welcomed by the Sugar Plum Fairy. But there's more to this fairytale dream than classical music fans might remember. In Johansen's telling, Clara is the beautiful and beloved counterpart to her twin sister, the plain and bookish Natasha. Drosselmeyer is a feared sorcerer who blessed (or was it cursed?) the twins as infants, giving Clara a charmed life and Natasha a desolate one. At that fated Christmas party, Drosselmeyer makes the happy announcement that Clara will marry Conrad, a wealthy future duke with whom Natasha is desperately in love. When the evening turns magical, Natasha follows Clara into the Kingdom of Sweets. Seething and resentful of Clara's unending good fortune, Natasha finds a sympathetic ear in the Sugar Plum Fairy. Natasha can see that the Fairy is not what she seems, but she's so consumed with envy and heartbreak that she accepts the Fairy's dark bargain: Natasha can take her revenge against Clara for the small price of helping the Fairy fulfill her own sinister plans for Drosselmeyer. 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.

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Starred review from October 15, 2023
Johansen (The Queen of the Tearling, 2014) transforms a beloved holiday classic into a dark tale of vengeance. Natasha, the narrator, and Clara are twins, born on Christmas day in a city reminiscent of early twentieth-century St. Petersburg, Russia. At their christening, they are ""blessed"" by the mysterious Drosselmeyer, to whom their father owes money. Natasha, declared ""dark,"" is considered unlucky and left alone to her own devices, but being ignored allows her to observe many unsavory details about those around her as she grows up. Clara, deemed ""light,"" is beautiful, popular, and invited to every party, but she is flighty, with a tendency to ignore the consequences of her actions. Natasha loves her sister while also envying her, but an unexpected announcement at the Christmas party on their seventeenth birthday has a devastating impact on the young woman. When a gift from Drosselmeyer draws Clara into a winter-fantasy realm, Natasha follows, hoping to confront her sister, but encounters the Sugar Plum Fairy instead. The powerful fae offers a bargain that would literally change Natasha's life if the pact were accepted. Fans of artistically influenced, realistic historical fiction wrapped in moral allegory will relish Natasha's Nutcracker-adjacent narrative.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.