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Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess
Around two hundred years after her discovery by the Brothers Grimm, Sleeping Beauty has lost her happily ever after. Mortal authors can enslave fairy tale folk as muses with the flash of a camera, and Beauty has long since left her enchanted castle for the anonymity of city life in modern Washington, D.C. Worse, her relationship with Prince Charming is on the rocks; her crush on her best friend Lancelot is going nowhere; and her boss, Titania, is about to fire her from the Tale’s End Bookstore and Café, where she lives and works as a barista. As if that weren't enough, alone among the immortal fairy folk, Beauty is changing. She’s not sure how, or why, but she isn't the same person who walked out of the Dark Forest and it terrifies her. If she’s no longer a princess – if her life is no longer a fairy tale – will there be a home for her with the fairy folk when the last words are written?
348 pages, ebook
First published February 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 3, 2014
A mashup of urban fantasy, fairy tale, and chick-lit, the debut novel of Andrew G. Schneider is ambitious, adept, and boldly written. Weaving between Washington, D.C. mundane life, the nature of fiction itself, and the dwindling dollops of fantasy that exist, Undercaffeinated occasionally suffers from a muddled tone as it shifts focus page to page, but such shortcomings are easily forgiven for its fully developed female protagonist, well-conceived story, and unique manner of telling.
The Good
Schneider writes a first person present tense story. At first, this scared me to death both as a writer (I don’t think I could do it) and as a potentially awkward way to read a whole story. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Schneider effortlessly slips into the stream of consciousness of his main character and creatively punctuates and bends grammar rules for the right effect. The story creatively twists figures from folklore existing alongside, and conflicting with, modern society. Rather than lazily making its female lead into a stereotype, the author depicts a fully realized woman full of strengths and weaknesses struggling with not only the challenges of womanhood, but of her own fantastical nature.
The Bad
Undercaffeinated bravely switches tones and locations, playing up the clash between the fantastic and the mundane, but sometimes this change of pace creates mood or setting whiplash. Part of this is surely intentional, after all these two worlds exist on top of each other, but for a reader sometimes the effect is cacophonous. Whatever shortcomings the novel has, they do not interfere with enjoying it for its multitude of good qualities.
The Ugly
For reasons unknown, folklore metafiction is huge right now. I have read Fables for years, but with Sleepy Hollow, Grimm, and Once Upon a Time being televised these days a relatively obscure genre has exploded into mainstream popularity. In that regard, if you are tired this conceit then there is no way around it. Undercaffeinated is unabashedly folk-inspired.
The Verdict
Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess is a great story. It has a few bad words and depiction of sex and violence, but I could easily see this as a great read for a young girl that wants more women protagonists in her fantasy reads. For a devoted fantasy nerd like me, it’s a little light on the fantasy and heavy on the real, but that is pure reader preference. For bigger fans of the genre, this could easily be rated higher.
The Good
Schneider writes a first person present tense story. At first, this scared me to death both as a writer (I don’t think I could do it) and as a potentially awkward way to read a whole story. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Schneider effortlessly slips into the stream of consciousness of his main character and creatively punctuates and bends grammar rules for the right effect. The story creatively twists figures from folklore existing alongside, and conflicting with, modern society. Rather than lazily making its female lead into a stereotype, the author depicts a fully realized woman full of strengths and weaknesses struggling with not only the challenges of womanhood, but of her own fantastical nature.
The Bad
Undercaffeinated bravely switches tones and locations, playing up the clash between the fantastic and the mundane, but sometimes this change of pace creates mood or setting whiplash. Part of this is surely intentional, after all these two worlds exist on top of each other, but for a reader sometimes the effect is cacophonous. Whatever shortcomings the novel has, they do not interfere with enjoying it for its multitude of good qualities.
The Ugly
For reasons unknown, folklore metafiction is huge right now. I have read Fables for years, but with Sleepy Hollow, Grimm, and Once Upon a Time being televised these days a relatively obscure genre has exploded into mainstream popularity. In that regard, if you are tired this conceit then there is no way around it. Undercaffeinated is unabashedly folk-inspired.
The Verdict
Undercaffeinated and Overexposed: The Tale of a Coffee Shop Princess is a great story. It has a few bad words and depiction of sex and violence, but I could easily see this as a great read for a young girl that wants more women protagonists in her fantasy reads. For a devoted fantasy nerd like me, it’s a little light on the fantasy and heavy on the real, but that is pure reader preference. For bigger fans of the genre, this could easily be rated higher.
October 20, 2014
The Fair Folk have walked straight out of the pages of fiction into the real world. Now they are struggling to survive in the modern world, under threat from immigration officers, each other and would be authors trying to capture them on film.
Beauty has just escape the Dark, the place Fair Folk go to when captured by an author's camera. Now she is being pursued through the streets by another would be author. The only place she can go, the only place she knows will be safe, is the Tale's End, a bookshop come coffee shop, run by Titania, one of the sisters Le Fay. She is rescued in the alley by the shop by Maeve, a former enemy and now friend, who has a penchant for red apples. Safe for now, Beauty must do a job for Titania before she is allowed to take her old job, barrista, and her old room back. She must steal Morgana Le Fay's book of magic; a quest that could potentially blow the cover of all Fair Folk and start another battle between the Le Fay sisters. To make things worse for Beauty, the Dark isn't finished with her, and there is a small matter of a ghostly author haunting her every step.
Beauty is the main character and is literally the archetype princess. She was Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. She is portrayed as being a sassy and mercurial lady, the only Folk who seems to be constantly changing and adapting to her situation. Everyone else around her seem to be stuck with their original personality. Take for example, Charlie, a.k.a Prince Charming, who is still looking to find his perfect partner in Beauty, despite centuries of marriages and divorces with her. Or Lancelot, who still holds a grudge against Arthur and Mordred and is looking for a damsel in distress to rescue or a dragon to slay, whilst serving as the Tale End's chef.
The story is set in modern day New York, and mostly in the Tale's End. The world-building is simple but effective enough, and puts me in the mind of the episodic videogame, The Wolf Amongst Us, and the tv show, Lost Girl.
What makes this story standout though is the excellent writing. Schneider has a talent for turning a sentence and finding words that just fit together so well. In some ways, the writing itself carries what is otherwise a simple enough story, making the characters more engaging and the settings believable. Give it a try and I'm sure you'll find yourself turning the last page and wondering what comes next.
Beauty has just escape the Dark, the place Fair Folk go to when captured by an author's camera. Now she is being pursued through the streets by another would be author. The only place she can go, the only place she knows will be safe, is the Tale's End, a bookshop come coffee shop, run by Titania, one of the sisters Le Fay. She is rescued in the alley by the shop by Maeve, a former enemy and now friend, who has a penchant for red apples. Safe for now, Beauty must do a job for Titania before she is allowed to take her old job, barrista, and her old room back. She must steal Morgana Le Fay's book of magic; a quest that could potentially blow the cover of all Fair Folk and start another battle between the Le Fay sisters. To make things worse for Beauty, the Dark isn't finished with her, and there is a small matter of a ghostly author haunting her every step.
Beauty is the main character and is literally the archetype princess. She was Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. She is portrayed as being a sassy and mercurial lady, the only Folk who seems to be constantly changing and adapting to her situation. Everyone else around her seem to be stuck with their original personality. Take for example, Charlie, a.k.a Prince Charming, who is still looking to find his perfect partner in Beauty, despite centuries of marriages and divorces with her. Or Lancelot, who still holds a grudge against Arthur and Mordred and is looking for a damsel in distress to rescue or a dragon to slay, whilst serving as the Tale End's chef.
The story is set in modern day New York, and mostly in the Tale's End. The world-building is simple but effective enough, and puts me in the mind of the episodic videogame, The Wolf Amongst Us, and the tv show, Lost Girl.
What makes this story standout though is the excellent writing. Schneider has a talent for turning a sentence and finding words that just fit together so well. In some ways, the writing itself carries what is otherwise a simple enough story, making the characters more engaging and the settings believable. Give it a try and I'm sure you'll find yourself turning the last page and wondering what comes next.
December 16, 2014
Undercaffeinated and Overexposed is a story about storybook characters living in modern-day D.C. trying to break out of their old habits & narratives, all while running a coffeeshop/bookstore, and fighting the machinations of Baba Yaga and Morgana le Fey. It's lively, tightly-written, and feels original for all that it's hardly the only "modern day fairy tale" out there-- full of humor, action, and genuine feeling & growth.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews