Category: Book Reviews

Review: Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Grace3 Comments

Title: Ogre Enchanted

Author: Gail Carson Levine

Rating: 3/5 stars

Summary

When the fairy Lucinda turns Evora, a young healer, into an ogre after she rejects her apprentice’s proposal of marriage, she has 62 days to accept another proposal or forever be an ogre. Evie leaves her home to meet other ogres and learn their method of persuasion so that she can force somebody to propose to her. As days pass, she finds her way to the king’s castle, where she helps stop a plague and makes friends and enemies and gets thrust into the middle of political tension.

Review

This book had several aspects I did enjoy. It was a very clever reverse Beauty and the Beast retelling, and fans of Ella Enchanted will be delighted to return to its world in this prequel. It addresses themes of good versus bad, and the writing is excellent, detailed and imaginative, and the characters were unique.

However, I didn’t really like this book for several reasons. The pacing seemed off. I didn’t feel an urgency as Evie’s deadline approached, and I felt like several portions of the book were overly wordy and used as filler, not contributing as much to the plot as they could.  

The characters, while unique, were not as relatable and grabbing as other characters Levine has written. I think there were quite simply too many characters in the book. With a group of ogres, the fairy Lucinda, Evie’s family and friends, many people at the castle, several different traders, and other characters just filling up space, the author didn’t have space in her story to develop the characters and make us care about them.

There were groups of characters that weren’t even that vital to the story. I would have preferred if Gail Carson Levine had condensed her character list and focused on just a few characters, and made those characters sparkle with charm and personality.  

 Ogre Enchanted book covered 62 days during which Evie traveled from place to place extensively, and the scenes didn’t feel anchored in time and place. Several times I was confused as to where the story was and when, and with Evie bouncing from place to place, I didn’t get a feel most of the places.

Gail Carson Levine certainly has a wonderful imagination and writing talent, but this book was not her best. This book was still interesting, and not a complete waste of time, but I enjoyed Ella Enchanted, Fairest, and even The Two Princesses of Bamarre much more.

Let’s Chat!

Have you read Ogre Enchanted or other of Gail Carson Levine’s books? What do you think about fairy tale retellings?

Review: The Night Diaries by Veera Hiranandani

Grace3 Comments

Title: The Night Diaries

Author: Veera Hiranandani

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Summary

In The Night Diaries, Nisha receives a diary on her 12th birthday and turns to writing to make sense of her world during the Partition of India in 1947. She writes about her love of cooking, her family, and her confusion and fear as gaining independence from Britain has split her country into two parts and her family is forced to move to a new home.  While Muslims and Hindus used to live side by side peacefully, her country is split and there is one part for Muslims and another for Hindus.

Review

Veera Hiranandani shows us the turbulent historical period of the Partition of India from the perspective of a young girl, and well balances details of this event and Nisha’s personal thoughts, ideas, and struggles. Her pacing and storytelling is wonderful, and although she keeps the story real, she also keeps it hopeful. Nisha’s story is told with enough detail that readers with little or no knowledge about the Partition of India can understand it, yet the story is still interesting and coherent.

I appreciated how Veera Hiranandani shows us how Nisha recognized the changes in her world, and her wondering what it might be like if things were different, if her mother were alive, or if she could still see people and not try to figure out if they were Muslim or Hindu and if they could stay or had to go.

 The Night Diaries is epistolary, written as a series of letters by Nisha. Although I don’t always like stories written in letters, I think this format was a good choice for this story. It allows the author to share details and Nisha’s thoughts and feelings that help us understand her and her time better without feeling like the story is being interrupted.

If You Like…

If you enjoyed Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson, Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson, or The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Bradley, you will like The Night Diaries. While targeted toward children, The Night Diaries should interest anyone who likes learning about historical events, likes to get to know a character, and appreciates outstanding storytelling.

Let’s Chat!

Have you read The Night Diaries? Do you like historical fiction?

Review: You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins

Grace4 Comments

Title: You Bring the Distant Near

Author: Mitali Perkins

Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers

Summary

This book follows three generations of Indian-American women and their struggles with culture, friendship, family, love, race, and identity. It opens in 1965 when Ranee Das and her two daughters, Sonia and Tara, are moving to the United States where Mr. Das has found work. It follows the lives of Sonia and Tara as they adjust to a new culture and school, pursue their dreams, fall in love, and grieve over their father’s death. About halfway through, the book begins following the lives of Anna, Tara’s daughter, and Chantal, Sonia’s daughter.

Review

You Bring the Distant Near is certainly a character-driven book, but it is my no means uninteresting. Mitali Perkins does a wonderful job of crafting an interesting and inspiring story, of making us care about her characters and feel like we know them. She shows us her characters’ hopes, dreams, failures, and flaws; their greatest joys and their greatest struggles.

Tara has always wanted to act, but her mother expects her to marry or become an engineer or doctor, like a good Bengali girl. Anna, Tara’s daughter, just started attending her cousin’s school in America and struggles with feeling overshadowed by her cousin Chantal. Chantal comes alongside her cousin and makes her feel welcome in the school, even though she doesn’t share in Anna’s personal struggles.

Mitali Perkins gracefully and honestly addresses issues of race, prejudice, and relationships in You Bring the Distant Near. She acknowledges these important part of her characters’ stories and struggles, and represents her characters admirably.

You Bring the Distant Near is one of my favorite books, for the characters, the settings, the struggles, and the writing. It tells a story that many can enjoy, and also identify with. It has received awards and acknowledgements such as the ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults, Boston Globe Best Book of the Year, and South Asia Book Award. I would recommend this book to fans of Piecing Me Together, The Hate U Give, Salt to the Sea, and American Street, as well as  anyone who enjoys beautiful story full of character


Let’s chat!

Have you read You Bring the Distant Near? Do you prefer character-driven or plot-driven stories?

Review: A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan

Grace5 Comments
picture from the Blink YA site

Title: A Touch of Gold

Author: Annie Sullivan

Publisher: Blink YA Books

My Rating: 4/5 stars

“Gold is wealth. Wealth is power. Power is a curse. Midas learned his lesson at a price, but what will Kora’s journey cost?” –official summary

Summary

Ten years after her father King Midas gave up the gift that almost killed her, Princess Kora’s skin still carries a golden tint, rumors follow her almost as closely as her skin, and her powers are becoming difficult to hide. She spends her days hidden in the palace, an object of fear and pity.

A handsome young duke arrives and teaches Kora that not everyone fears her and her curse, but their relationship is interrupted when Kora must use her ability to sense gold to track down a thief who stole from the kingdom’s treasury.  Not everyone is what they seem, and gold and the power it brings is even more dangerous than she could have ever anticipated. Her journey is filled with pirates, thieves, danger, and new ideas.

Review

A Touch of Gold by Annie Sullivan was an adventurous, beautiful, and unique story. I’ve never read a King Midas retelling before and was excited to find one. A Touch of Gold is a good story in many ways. Annie Sullivan’s pacing is masterful, and the plot was interesting and not too predictable. She has a gift for beautiful writing that stands out among the serious, dark tones that populate YA fiction.

I liked the main character, Kora. She was interesting, clever, and energetic. I liked that she wanted to prove herself, because I think that is a basic fairy-tale element and played into the overall story. However, I wasn’t a big fan of the rather clichéd romance. There was a sort-of love triangle, and Kora seemed too naïve in matters of judging others’ characters. I would have like to see more compelling relationships.

 I also would have liked to see more time devoted to Kora’s world. Annie Sullivan seems to have a gift for making her story come to life, and I would have liked to see this applied to her world. From what I could tell, the characters lived in a slightly medieval world, where magic and mythical creatures abounded, but we didn’t really get to see much more than that.

Overall, A Touch of Gold was a fun, beautiful story and one I’m glad I read. I think the author has a lot of talent, and will definitely be keeping an eye out for her books in the future.

-Grace

Let’s chat!

Have you read A Touch of Gold? Do you like retellings?