The memoir style, and lack of Odd Sisters really made this a huge improvement from the last two books.


However, Cruellas story is one that is difficult to provide any kind of reasonable backstory on as her Villainous thing is murdering puppies. There isn’t really a sympathetic take on that. So this being essentially a backstory fell a bit flat for me. The biggest thing was this huge emphasis on her Jade Earrings that… have a feel of being the source of her evil and insanity (and perhaps a product from the Odd Sisters) but it’s never really confirmed in any satisfying way. Or maybe I misread the earrings and they were meant to hurt her when she was being evil. Either way the earrings seemed mystical but we never get MORE on that.


The conflict with her mother I do think was a logical choice for a lot of her emotional imbalance. She was struggling to please a woman who had no interest in her, and I think that where this book struggled most was that it was a YA book. I think if this book was aimed at an older audience the story couldve dig deeper and darker and made this a truly horrific tale. But as is the way with Disney it stays fairly surface level and it’s just Okay.


If you’ve liked all (or most) of the Villainous stories you’ll enjoy this installment too. It’s very different from the rest and it definitely is better for it.