I was so excited for this book only to be completely disappointed. As other people have noted, it is poorly written.

I read the first 200 pages, just after the twins get their first item. It was such an anti-climactic event that I didn't want to through another seven. I then skipped to the last 70ish pages because I was curious how it could end.

The end justified my DNF. The "moral" or this story is that evil people are "victims." This theme is stated in the first chapter by the evil queen and is the ultimate theme at the end of the book. The author makes it clear that the evil queen is to be pitied and vindicated because she had sad things happen to her. 

But just because someone had a hard life doesn't mean they get a free pass to do evil things - like MURDER people. At the end, the author had a much better juxtaposition of lost/unrequited love and how to respond to that reality; he could have really leaned into that and shown how yes, the evil queen had some awful things happen but that didn't justify her choices afterwards. 

Overall, it was a great idea that was poorly executed and with a horrible lesson for kids.