Quick Review of The Kingdom of Sweets

I recently read/listened to The Kingdom of Sweets: A Novel of the Nutcracker by Erika Johansen on Spotify.

This dark fantasy novel popped up on my recommendations around Christmastime so I thought I’d give it a go.

I absolutely adore the Nutcracker ballet so I was extremely interested in someone else’s interpretation of it.

Penguin Random House describes the novel like this:

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.

Let me start by saying that, for the most part, I enjoyed this story. There were parts that weren’t to my taste, but in general I stayed open to this unique re-telling of the Nutcracker and appreciated it for what it was.

**Mild spoilers beyond this point**

Now, I have to admit, I was curious as to other people’s take on the story so I hopped on over to Goodreads.com and read through some of the reviews.

I was surprised at the extremely average (bordering on overly critical) rating of this book because I thought the descriptions were visceral and grounding, the characters had decent dimension, and it had a satisfying ending.

I think the general consensus was that the readers didn’t like/connect with the main characters, the characters had a lot of antiquated views about feminism and morality, and there wasn’t enough Christmas magic in it.

(As a side note: the complaints about the character’s antiquated views about the world was strange to me because the story is set in late 19th century Russia. Of course, they are going to see the world in a different way than us…)

Anyway, it seems the real problem here is that the Nutcracker holds a very particular and treasured place in people’s hearts, and the author made the artistic choice to turn this glamorous, enchanting story we typically watch as a ballet — into a heavy, semi-horror story.

I think if the author had decided to write this story without any association to the Nutcracker, I imagine people would have been more forgiving.

I know I personally started listening to it and was surprised at the turn it took. And I do think part of me felt slightly disappointed I wasn’t getting a more fleshed-out interpretation of the ballet…

But then I took a moment and remembered that this was not the Nutcracker I know and love, and I could appreciate it like fanfic. This was just one person’s re-telling of it. Maybe not the way I would have re-told it, but a unique telling all the same. Also, once I knew that this story was set in Russia, that helped me re-orient my brain…

For those who have read Dostoevsky or Tolstoy, you know their works are deep and dramatic as the bleak mid-winter. If you look at it from a classic Russian author’s perspective, this re-telling actually fits that aesthetic quite nicely.

Again, I think it was more of an unmet expectations situation that contributed to the rough Goodreads reviews. I wonder if any of these critiquers have ever read the original story of the Nutcracker — The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by Prussian author Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. Talk about subverting expectations…Whew!

So I would recommend this book if you like serious Russian authors, deeply flawed characters, or can keep an open mind to someone else’s interpretation of a beloved classic ballet. You might be surprised with the right mindset.