Fairy Tale

"Ella Enchanted," by Gail Carson Levine:

Here's one I can wholeheartedly recommend. It's a retelling of the Cinderella story with a delightful twist and it begins with a terrific opening line:

That fool of a fairy Lucinda did not intend to lay a curse upon me. She meant to bestow a gift.

The "gift" is obedience. Whatever Ella is commanded to do she must do, whether it is to hold a mixing bowl, hop on one foot, or throw herself off a cliff. With this premise, Levine is able to develop a spirited heroine with a lot of pluck, humor, and cleverness. We quickly discover that, "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me." And so it is easy to be enchanted by Ella and root for her in her quest to find a way of breaking her spell and getting together with Prince Charmont.

All the elements of the Cinderella story are here: the fairy godmother, the wicked stepmother and hateful stepsisters, the Prince, the glass slippers, the pumpkin carriage. But Levine goes far afield from merely retelling the story, using it instead as the mythic context to telling a delightful story about freedom, rebellion, love, and determination. And with the cast of ogres, fairies, giants, and centaurs, she creates a vivid landscape for Ella's adventure. The writing is terrific, the details vivid, and the plot engaging. This one is a winner.

[So why quibble? ...Because I cannot resist adding: No, I have not yet seen the movie, but I understand that it differs greatly from the book; Yes, I thought there were some beasts borrowed from Tolkien's menagerie; No, I did not care for the epistolary sequence towards the end--in fact, I felt it slowed the pace--but I understand that this was one of Levine's favorite sections to write; and Yes, I have heard of "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister," by Gregory Maguire whose success began with "Wicked." ]