Robin Hood, The One Who Looked Good in Green by Wendy Mass, 2018

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Robin has a bad habit of getting into trouble–and a better habit of getting out of it (barely). He lives on an isolated outpost in the middle of nowhere and has no idea why his parents disappeared years ago. Then a strange delivery arrives at his doorstep, and the past is suddenly very present.

Marian was raised to be a very powerless girl in a very powerful family. But that hasn't stopped her from making her own adventures–and trespassing in some places her parents definitely don't want her to see. She has no idea what life would be like outside of her home–until a mysterious invitation forces her to leave everything behind.

Robin and Marian have lived very different lives in every different places. Their paths should never, ever cross–but before they know it, they are thrown together on a quest that requires legendary bravery, quick-witted escapes, and the ability to . . . get along with each other.

The sky's no longer the limit on what Robin and Marian can do–as long as they manage to do it together.

(224 pages)

This is actually the fourth Twice Upon a Time book, but they're all standalones so they can be read in any order. I was a huge fan of the first three books in the series, but it had been several years since Beauty and the Beast: The Only One Who Didn't Run Away came out so I was extra excited when I learned this one was coming out. 

I have to say that I was surprised with how different Robin Hood is from the previous entries in the series. They usually stuck pretty close to the original tales, just embellishing and reinterpreting the stories from fun new angles. I suppose Robin Hood continues this pattern, but it does it to such an extreme that the story is set in a dystopian inter-planetary future with impressive healthcare tech but also an oppressive, omnipresent government (headed by Prince John, filling in for his brother King Richard, as per the original tale). There are spaceships and futuristic technologies, meshed with this very old-timey legend. It's an interesting mix, and I found it very intriguing to see how Mass did it.

Honestly, though, I felt like there was something . . . missing. Maybe it was that Robin and Marian spent very little time actually together, so their romance felt like it came almost entirely out of nowhere. Or maybe it's that neither of them or their backstories felt quite fleshed out enough. It seemed like we could have gone deeper into their lives before they met to understand their personalities and motivations, so their actions later in the story seemed less disjointed. I think this was more of an issue with Robin: Marian's backstory and personality were pretty well-sketched, though I would have liked a little more details, but Robin just seemed like too much of an archetype for my taste. The backstory of his family is interesting but still kind of hazy, even by the end of the book.

Also, this is a small point, but a character passes some time with Friar Tuck at what can only be assumed to be some sort of Catholic-esque school, but the setting is basically scrubbed of all religious messages and replaced with basically meditation techniques. I didn't like this at first, but I can understand why Mass chose to keep those spiritual-ish scenes without weighting them with the trappings of a particular religion.

At the end of the day, though, the truth is that I really enjoyed reading Robin Hood. Basically, I just wanted it to be longer. At only 224 pages, there wasn't enough space to explore all the characters, scenarios, and issues that Mass introduced with her worldbuilding. It's still a fun read, though, and I hope Mass decides to add even more books to the series in the future. I would love for her to continue fleshing out this universe, adding more depth to it by creating new interpretations of more fairytales.

What about you, what do you think of fairytale retellings? Should they stick close to the base material, or do you like it when the author completely picks them apart to make something new? 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.