Cruella de Vil has been my long-standing favorite villain from the Disney world. Yes, her actual motives and desires to make a fur coat out of puppies is unforgivably abhorrent, but her character design, flair, smooth animation by animator Marc Davis, and unparalleled voice by Betty Lou Gerson just make her too cool.I have been buying most of Serena Valentino's novels in her Disney Villains series, and for the most part, my complaint has always been the same: I don't really care much for her original characters of the Odd Sisters, for even though they manipulate important events in the stories, they always really slowed things down for me. I want to read about the star villain and get a stronger feel for their thought and feelings, and really get down to what makes them tick. Note that I never bought the Ursula book "Poor Unfortunate Souls" (due to the reviews that Ursula was hardly featured) or the one titled "The Odd Sisters" (because why would I want to know more about the characters that I felt dragged things down?).Enter: "Evil Thing." I have to admit that even if the novel were a letdown, I would still have bought the book for the art on the slip cover and the actual cover. As with the other villain-featured books, the slipcover has a portrait of the villain and the actual cover has an alternate version of said villain. Those never disappoint. In terms of the content, I was very pleased that it serves as a standalone novel that has zero appearances by the Odd Sisters and their lot. Unlike the more fairy tale type villains, Cruella is from a story set in the more mundane "real" world England: a world without magic or witches or meddling fairies. The premise is that our author (Serena Valentino) has visited with a defeated Cruella after the events of the 101 Dalmatians to get her story back from childhood and continuing on to her present predicament. I liked this approach very much, as it kept Cruella as the focus, but also allows us to get into the dizzying and conflicted thoughts in her head. We see her childhood upbringing with two very different parents. We see her experience a tragic loss. We see her struggles with obtaining love and approval. We see the rise and fall of her friendship with Anita. We even see Cruella find love! But then of course comes the fall, and everything collapses into the scheming, obsessed villain that many love to hate.The story had a nice flow to it, which was great. I did not have to get taken out of the story by any interruptions of the Odd Sisters popping in as active characters. ***WARNING: PLOT SPOILERS MAY FOLLOW*** There were a few things, however, which left me a bit puzzled, including what was Perdita's actual age by the time of the main events of 101 Dalmatians; why was Cruella asked to sign a prenuptial agreement when she was coming into her marriage with her own vast inheritance (and why was she not included in her husband's will despite that); why is it never fully addressed that Roger and Anita essentially stole the 84 puppies that Cruella had legally procured; and why was she named Cruella in the first place? I also agree with some other reviews that have mentioned that the Cruella that we see through most of the book does not transform into the well-known villain from the 1961 animated film very smoothly.Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel. If Ms. Valentino continues with this new approach, I may enjoy her future books as well.