Loved this! So great to get more of Cruella's background and find out why she is what she is. Brilliant.

I didn't realize that was this apart of a series so I won't be able to read this title. I also lost interest in wanting to read this title.

I suggested and purchased this for my middle school library. I believe it will be enjoyed quite well there.

*Laughs maniacally* Dahling's! How could any true lover of backstories and tales of the underdog not want to thoroughly ravish this series?

Cruella and Maleficent are my villainous Queens forever! In this installation of the series, we learn about dear sweet Cruella. We get snippets of her friendship with Anita who later becomes the owner of Perdita. We see Cruella struggle to fit in and the final straw that will turn her to the dark side once and for all!

I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a quick read, anyone looking to root for the villain, and anyone who just loves good old fashioned revenge plots.

Fun, fast-paced but ultimately a bit forgettable. I enjoyed it when i read it, but couldn’t tell you a single thing about it! I do remember enjoying getting to learn a bit of a backstory for one of my favourite villains.

I love this Disney Villains series and this book was great. Telling the tale of how Cruella de Vil came to be. When you see villains in this light, you kind of feel sorry for them...kind of. Dealing with childhood neglect, and a warped sense of what love should be, Cruella was destined to be a villain from the start.

We love a villain origin story, and Cruella has always been one of my favorite Disney villains. Was this original and unique? No, not really. But it was such a fun time regardless!

I love the Villains series. My class also likes when I read excerpts without saying what character I am portraying and they have to use clues to guess. The villains point of view usually has us rooting for them over the typical protagonist.

"It had never occurred to me that Mrs. Baddeley loved me. Not until Anita said so. And it made me wonder - had I had it all wrong? Maybe she had always loved me, the way Jackson had, since I was a little girl. Why had it taken me so long to understand that? ... It was almost like the woman I had been in that moment was an entirely different person than the woman I was now. And she had come out without my knowledge or permission. I didn't like that person inside me who said and did mean, awful things. But sometimes it felt as if I had no control over her."

In full transparency, I have not read any of the other books in the Villians series. I'm not sure what possessed me to request this book on NetGalley in the first place, but I have to say: I am loving that so many "evil" characters in our classic fairytale stories are finally getting their spot in the spotlight. A few years ago I read Heartless and I fell in love with this notion that every evil character has their own story to tell from the time before they were known as the villain we all love to hate in our fairytale stories. Disney has obviously capitalized on this idea, spending money developing both books and films sharing the origin of villains such as Maleficent and of course, Cruella De Vil.

If you've seen the movie Cruella, this book follows a different origin to Cruella's hatred of dalmatian puppies, so know that going in. We start Evil Thing following Cruella from her early childhood days living in a loving family to her teenage years sent away to boarding school with her only friend, Anita, to her life as an adult, happily married and ready to take on the world. Cruella's life as a child and teenager was difficult, but by no means would I have expected Cruella to turn into the villain she is, if I didn't know better. I think my favorite thing about villain stories is that we get to know who the character is behind their pretty horrible decisions. As with everyone, no one can be reduced to a single story. Learning more about what leads people to make the decisions they do is a powerful responsibility of humans and one we often forget about taking the time to do. There are a lot of things I don't like about Disney and what they choose to spend their money and time on, but I truly appreciate what they're doing in giving villains a story and voice beyond what we know from the original story.

TW: fire, death of a parent, abandonment, eating disorder, grief, animal cruelty, depression, suicide

**Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Book Group/Disney-Hyperion for the advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I love this series of books! I think it’s one of the coolest think to teach kids to be not as quick to judge the bad guy. That sometimes the bad guy isn’t so bad after all, or sometimes their is a reason they do the things that they do.

I found this to be an enjoyable read, keeping me on my toes throughout. The storyline was written well and flowed seamlessly. I look forward to reading more by this author!

Another in the long line of “back stories” for some of pop culture’s favorite heroes and villains, this version of the history of Cruella De Vil attempts to make a sympathetic character out of one of the cruelest of the cruel - and succeeds!!
Author Serena Valentino takes readers all the way back to a neglected little girl whose desperate (and misplaced) love for her mother leads her to a life of delusion, devoid of love. Cruella’s heartbreaking story helps readers understand how a cold-hearted mother, a gone-too-early father, and a tragic loss of true love led to the mental (and physical) demise of a bright and full-of-potential young girl. Although Cruella feels glimpses of love throughout her life, the lack of consistency and the domineering presence of her malevolent mother lead her to the infamous evil doings.
One thing that bothers me … Cruella was portrayed so pathetically that I kept waiting for a redemption. I wanted this poor little girl to find some sort of love or comfort that stayed - but it never happened. I understand that a villain has to be tragic, but readers are led to so much understanding about Cruella’s behavior that I really wanted the happy ending for her that I seemed to be promised. But, alas… I guess there are constraints imposed when dealing with a classic.
This novel is perfect for my middle school classes and as this was my first experience with the series, it definitely inspired me to check out the rest of the related stories and add them to my classroom collection.

I loved this twist on a Disney villain and I especially loved getting a back story to Cruella. The book cover really drew me in, but the story had me staying and wanting to read it all in one sitting.

Heartwarming tale of how Cruella became her misunderstood, evil, dalmation hating self! Slow start, but the story picked up about halfway in, and I was fully invested in learning her story.

Evil Thing is the seventh in the Villains Series by Serena Valentino, told from the perspective of Cruella De Vil and how she changes and ultimately, how she becomes evil. If you have not already started this series, I strongly recommend them, but you can read them out of order as I did. You see Cruella, in her child years, teen years, and as an adult. This book is really great and I do recommend it!

This is another successful addition to the Villains series. I love getting to know these villains before we originally know them. Cruella was life was a constant struggle between two identities. It was so interesting to see how little aspects of the 101 Dalmations was woven into her backstory. I also really enjoyed how it brought us full circle in the end and through some of the events in the movie.

Great read!

One of life's great questions is answered when we try to make sense of why certain individuals appear to hold so much hostility and evil within their person. I have always enjoyed all the books Serena Valentino writes because she helps to paint a picture that explains why these treasured Disney villains are the way they are. In some respect it helps a reader come to love them in their own, sometimes messy, way. This book, Evil Thing, did not disappoint; Cruella de Vil has always been tied with Ursula for my favorite villain, so I had been waiting a good long while to delve into Cruella's back story! I am so thankful to Serena Valentino for writing this book and for Disney-Hyperion for publishing this installment and the other titles in the Disney Villain series. I am also thankful to all the above and to NetGalley for allowing me to have early access and be able to read this book before it was released to the general public. I will be reading and re-reading the Disney Villain series for ages to come and look forward to sharing them with my children as well! Thank you for the opportunity to read and review Evil Thing by Serena Valentino.

**I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review. All opinions are entirely my own**
These villains books always intrige me because you get to see the progress of how the villain got to be the villain we know and love.
This book is the back story of Cruella De Vil. Reading this, I truly do feel bad for her and I believe that she did what she did because she's truly gone insane. I honestly think if she would have gotten some help and had people there for her who truly did care (at the end at least) it might not have gotten so bad.
I loved that this book was written from her POV. She was telling the story after the incident with the Dalmations and it really shows in the way it was written. You can tell that someone who's a little crazy (and I don't mean that in a mean way) is telling the story, which makes the story more interesting. It does make it difficult to read at times, but sticking through to the end makes you realize why it was written the way it was and you really start to appreciate it.
Overall, this book was great. This series overall is amazing and I can't wait to see what other villains they do (I'm personally hoping for Scar or Hades.

This was an interesting and unique read! So often the villain is seen in one light: as being evil. But this book fills Cruella in as a complex character in her own right. Especially her childhood and friendship with Anita gave insight as to why Cruella reacted the way she did.
I definitely recommend Evil Thing. While it is not your typical YA novel, I think you will still find yourself enjoying it.

Cruella De Vil was a spoiled little girl. Her father loved her and spent time with her, but her mother only bought her gifts to show her love. When Cruella’s father died, she was abandoned by her mother, who decided to travel the word after sending Cruella away to school. The only way that Cruella knows how to give and receive love is through money and gifts. The ultimate gift to her is fur, and it would be an even more special gift if it was a unique fur coat made from black and white puppies.

This is the first book I’ve read in this Disney villains series and I loved it! Cruella De Vil is one of the meanest Disney villains. She wanted to make a fur coat out of Dalmatian fur. This story didn’t try to justify what Cruella wanted to do, which is so horrible it can’t be explained. What the story does though is show how Cruella became a woman who wanted a coat made out of puppies.

Cruella narrates this story herself. She tells the story of her upbringing and her confusing relationships with other people. Cruella was from a high class family, who lived in a large house with servants. She would describe the people who she was close to, but weren’t quite at her high level in society, as in-betweens. This included her best friend Anita, who lived with an upper class family but was not given the same privileges as them. Anita later becomes the owner of the Dalmatians which Cruella wants to have for their fur. The relationship between Cruella and Anita was much more complex than in the movie 101 Dalmatians. This story explained why Cruella behaved the way she did.

I really enjoyed this story!

Thank you Disney Book Group for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.