The Kingdom of Sweets

Author/Guide: Erika Johansen

Why a Booktrail?

A magical retelling of The Nutcracker

ISBN: 978-1787632363
Genre:

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What you need to know before your trail

Light and dark – this is the destiny placed upon Natasha and Clara, the birthright bestowed on them by their godfather, the mysterious sorcerer Drosselmeyer. Clara, the favourite, grows into beauty and ease, while Natasha is cursed to live in her sister’s shadow. But one fateful Christmas Eve, Natasha gets her chance at revenge. For Drosselmeyer has returned and brought with him the Nutcracker, an enchanted present which offers entry to a deceptively beautiful world: the Kingdom of Sweets.

In this land of snow and sugar, Natasha is presented with a power far greater than Drosselmeyer: the Sugar Plum Fairy, who is also a giver of gifts . . . and a maker of dread-filled bargains. As Natasha uncovers the dark destiny laid before her birth, she must reckon with powers both earthly and magical . . . and decide to which world she truly belongs.

Locations

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Travel Guide

Moscow and St Petersburg

A fictional world in its entirety. Erika says:

“The Russian Revolution has interested me since high school as one of the clearest historical examples of how well-meaning social movements often become so extreme that they cannibalize themselves, becoming the very thing they despised. I’m also a sucker for fictional tales in which history is not placed front and center as part of the plot, but provided in tantalizing snippets around the edges. So while The Kingdom of Sweets begins in a place that could probably be anywhere at the close of the Gilded Age, it gradually becomes centered in St. Petersburg in the dying days of Nicholas II’s reign.”