This is a “Jack and the Beanstalk with a different gender retelling,” which has never been one of my favorite fairytales.  I don’t hate it, but I could never be completely on Jack’s side.  I mean he did break into someone’s house and steal their shit so why wouldn’t the giant be angry about that?

As with most fairytale MC’s the mother is absent, though this time not dead.  She left when Jack was younger, leaving her with an abusive and alcoholic father, though apparently this was by Jack’s own choice, because if she’d gone with her “who would’ve taken care of the animals” 🙄.  Of course there needs to be a catalyst for a story (had Jack gone with her mother there wouldn’t be a plot), and I think Huchton is trying to say it wasn’t that the mother didn’t want her, but rather Jack made her own (poor) choices, but it’s pretty infuriating.

Finally, I found something I’ve been seeking for years.  Long, long ago at a makeup counter far away, I bought a lip gloss made by Prescriptives called Meteor.

It was the best lip gloss every.  It perfectly mirrored my lip color and just made them look so shiny.  Also, the name…Meteor?  I mean come on.  Perfection.

Unfortunately, Estee Lauder, the parent company, stopped selling Prescriptives in 2010 and with it my favorite lip gloss.  I tried googling “discontinued cosmetics” but to no avail.  Well, I finally had the foresight to pull up a picture of it when I was in Sephora last week, and a reasonable facsimile was located.  Makeup Forever’s Pearly Plum lip gloss.