Of all the gifts under the tree on Christmas Eve, only one captures Marie Stahlbaum’s heart: a humble nutcracker.

He’s a curious little man, with kind eyes, sweet red cheeks, and a friendly appearance.

And as midnight nears, he comes to life, revealing a fairy-tale world of magic and wonder, wicked princesses and fierce battles . . . and an ancient curse that can only be broken with the help of a true friend.

With the evil Mouse King looming and her dream world threatened, Marie will have to find the strength to stand up for her nutcracker—no matter what it takes.

This is basically a Nutcracker retelling. The author explains her inspiration in the author’s notes at the end of the book, which helps to understand why she created this story and her motivation for writing it. 

For the most part, I really enjoyed this whimsical story. The illustrations were beautiful. I loved all of the artwork; however, the colors didn’t quite feel like Christmas time. There were more oranges, blues, and greens than the typical red, green, white, and gold that we see around the holidays. So I was a little bummed that it didn’t feel more like a Christmas story. But the colors were bright and vibrant and helped to tell the story.

The novel is split up into chapters, so it was easy to read and quickly get through. However, at times, it got word-heavy with too many word bubbles in the tiles. I prefer the artwork to shine more than the content in graphic novels. 

I’ve never read the original Nutcracker story, but I have seen the ballet in person and have watched a few movie adaptations, so I am familiar with the story. This was a fun, creative, and compelling retake of this classic fairytale. However, when the Nutcracker fights the Mouse King, it gets a little graphic and shows the violent fight with blood from the wounds the mouse obtains. So it did get a bit dark and graphic during that scene. I wouldn’t recommend this for very little kids, but middle grade and older could definitely handle it. 

The first part of the book feels like the typical Nutcracker story, but once Marie gets sick and her uncle tells the story of how the Nutcracker came to be, I enjoyed it more because we are whisked off to this fantasy land. I preferred this part of the story and wished it had happened sooner and that we had spent more time in the fantasy realm. Because I did get a little bored in the first half of the book. I also didn’t like the disruptions of the storytelling. Because the uncle tells the story over several nights, the story keeps getting interrupted, which pulled me out of the story and became annoying. So then it made the general story feel disrupted and disjointed. 

But overall, this was an enchanting, lovely retelling of a beloved classic Christmas story. I listened to the Nutcracker soundtrack while I read this graphic novel, which made it even more fun and entertaining. Highly recommend doing that as you read this book. I don’t know if this will become part of my annual Christmas reading tradition, but I’m glad that I experienced it once during the holidays. Definitely recommend it!