Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsI wish it was just the story
Reviewed in the United States on November 3, 2020
I bought this to read to my children because it's one of my all time favorite movies, and books are always better than movies, right? Well I started reading and quickly realized that this was not appropriate for little kids. Don't get me wrong, the Princess Bride story is excellent for kids, however, the first quarter of this book is the author writing about himself. He talks about how much he hates his life, how he despises his family, how the world is always unfair, and how great it would be to have an affair with the beautiful woman by the pool. It's just disgusting, and it's not something I would ever wish to read to myself, let alone to my kids. When the actual story finally starts, each chapter is interrupted by the author, where he goes on and on for several pages about his opinion on the characters or he explains why he wrote it a certain way. Honestly, who cares? I just want to read about Westley and Buttercup! And at the end, when they escape the clutches of Humperdinck and ride off into the sunset, the author ends it with saying he doesn't believe in happy endings and life sucks. Pretty uplifting, huh? Needless to say, I'm very careful about which parts I read aloud to the family. I really don't know why the publishers were okay with this version being released. It would be so much better if it was just the story.
