Serena Valentino - Poor Unfortunate Soul

Serena Valentino - Poor Unfortunate Soul

So here's the thing. I knew that there were two other books in this VILLAINS series: Fairest of All (which retells Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and The Beast Within (which retells Beauty and the Beast), and I guessed that they might be a shared universe, but I had no idea that these books are NOT standalone books.

I got this book purely because I'm more interested in The Little Mermaid than the other two films being retold, so I was unprepared to find a story populated with more original characters than film characters, and at least half of its content focused on the plot and machinations of said original characters instead of the TLM characters.

TLM characters: Ursula, Triton, Ariel; to a lesser aspect Eric, Flotsam & Jetsam.
Original characters of the book universe: the witch trio Lucinda, Ruby, Martha; Pflanze the cat, Circe, Tulip, Nanny, Popinjay

Ursula gets a tragic backstory but it doesn't get explored beyond what she tells the witch trio, because the book seems more interested in continuing two story threads already started in the previous series books, i.e. about the witch sisters, and something about Princess Tulip (the book mentions quite a few times how they're connected to Snow White and the Beast), while Ursula's plot feels an interlude in between the "main" plot that the book is interested in telling.

A good comparison would be with the television series Once Upon a Time, which is very much focused on the main plot of Storybrooke, and uses the fairytales/movies as backstory and worldbuilding. That's all well and fine, but I didn't sign up for that. I signed up for a retelling of The Little Mermaid from Ursula's POV, not an original story with Ursula and co. slapped on top.

Needless to say, I was confused for much of the book (because who are all these new characters and why should I care about them?) and frustated for the remainder of it, because it's trying so hard to make Ursula more epic by spelling out her motivations in full detail yet those motivations only end up flattening her as a character driven by hate hate hate tragedy hate.

The blurb at the back confuses me, too, because it describes the book as the triumphant finale of a trilogy, and I can report that the ending isn't that of a finale, nope.