“I bet she’ll randomly show up here and poke her head in these bars to chat ‘Cause that’s so likely to happen.”Īs May says, “You all were a lot cuter in the cartoons, you know.” Jack: “I can’t even begin to tell you how stupid that was.” How am I supposed to rescue you when I’m all locked up?” “He makes stupid choices when I’m not around! He’s going to get himself killed!”

May: “Like you can’t pull off a little stupid.” It reminds me of a phase my urchins went through in which their favorite answer to everything anyone said was “your mom!” or “your mom eats Oreos!” Don’t try to understand it’s sarcastic, only funny the first 100 times, middle school humor. Jack and May communicate almost entirely in sarcastic asides and insults, but they’re supposed to care about each other in an embarrassed middle school way. May’s favorite rejoinder when obstructed in her journey is, “Just stand still long enough for me to kick you in the face!” If that threat doesn’t work, May does a lot of yelling in all-caps and words pronounced clearly and distinctly with periods after each one: “SEND.

Of course, they are impeded in their quest by various uncooperative or plainly evil fairy tale characters. Jack, May, and Prince Philip are on a quest to find out the secret of May’s true identity. Twice Upon a Time, the sequel to Half Upon a Time, by James Riley is middle school sarcastic humor at its best or worst, depending on how much of it you can enjoy/tolerate. However, 340 pages of unremitting sarcasm, and not-very-witty sarcasm at that, surpasses my limit. (“Where do you think we get the sarcasm from, the postman?”) I have a fairly high tolerance for snark and sarcasm, which may or may not be a good thing. Let’s give you a prize!”) Said urchins have been known to blame their propensity for sarcasm on me, their long-suffering mom.

(“Wow! You cleaned your room without being asked. I have been known to use a bit of sarcasm in dealing with my urchins.

Twice upon a time james riley