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![Book Review: Bewitching by Alex FlinnRating: 2 out of 5 starsPlot (from Goodreads): Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy. That one turned out all right. Others didn’t. I go to a new school now—one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I’m not still here because I’m stupid; I just don’t age. You see, I’m immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years—except for when to take my powers and butt out. I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house and ended up being hanged. After I came back from the dead (immortal, remember?), I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. And that little mermaid I found in the Titanic lifeboat? I don’t even want to think about it. Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn’t get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl—and it isn’t an enchanted pumpkin. Although you never know what will happen when I start … bewitching.
Bewitching is your typical Alex Flinn book (well… I’ve only ever read Beastly so that might not be an accurate assumption). It gathers a lot of inspiration from children’s fairy tales with a modern, tween twist.
I’m going to be honest. I was really looking forward to this because I really liked Kendra Hilferty’s character in Beastly and I wanted to read more about her life and her personality. I was somewhat appeased but honestly, I was not satisfied. The lack of Kendra disappointed me since after all, this is supposedly the first book to the Kendra Chronicles. She was mentioned around five, six times and all she gets are flashbacks and momentary lapses. This book basically has four twisted versions of the cutesy little fairytales we’ve grown to love like Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, Princess and the Pea, and The Little Mermaid. None of them are exactly accurate (this, I am accountable to - I’ve read enough versions [including Brothers Grimm] to know as much) but they’re passable modern accounts, just to cut her some slack. The plot of the book is WAY too fast paced. It’s like bang-bang-bang-boom-bang the end. I appreciate some subtlety. It’s based on Cinderella so of course (SPOILER!) the dad dies but the way it was presented was so abrupt that I didn’t feel anything when he was such a vital part of the story. The characters (save Kendra) weren’t well characterized. Lisette and Emma were one dimensional (not Mary Sues since there was some depth to them [… maybe I’m being too generous to Lisette, who is bordering on Mary Sue, but I’ll let that go]) and honestly, I didn’t care about them. Maybe I cared a little about Emma but honestly, I felt no sympathy for their sob story. I would have loved some more Kyle/Kendra interaction (because I SHIP IT!!!!!!!) but you can’t always get what you want. Also, Flinn loves mermaids dying. Seriously. I did not like how she just put in random guys. Warner coming back was weird enough. His character is so random. Honestly, the reason why he moved back was so vague. Who was he staying with? We never really find out anything except his parents are getting a divorce. Don’t even get me started on Travis. I mean, what the heck - he just popped up! WHO ARE YOU!? Total Mary Sue, in my opinion. Totally hot, rich guy who is sensitive and loves the same books you do and offers to take you to Italy and your mom loves him and kisses you within an hour of meeting you. MARY. FREAKIN’. SUE.
It wasn’t well thought out but the plot’s relatively okay. Courtney, Tayloe (WHAT KIND OF NAME IS TAYLOE? SERIOUSLY.), and Madori were just extras in the story, in my opinion. It would have been the same story if they weren’t there, honestly. I hated how Tayloe’s bulimia (I’m only assuming here since it was never really mentioned precisely) was just popped in like “Oh! This is information that everyone should know! And now for the weather…”. Seriously. If you’re going to put in something as serious as an eating disorder and your target readership is the youth from ages 12-18 (based on the writing), you don’t just pass that up as something that’s normal and acceptable! It’s NOT! That really made me angry because of the message it’s sending out to people. Okay, Kendra gave a note to her mom but what else happened? I hated that. It’s so insensitive.
The writing style is elementary, at best. It’s the usual Flinn writing. It’s not impressive but there’s an underlying tone of intelligence in there somewhere. I still like Kendra but the way she’s presented is really annoying me, like it’s supposed to be HER chronicles but she’s barely in it.
It’s an amiable read at best. I was disappointed but it’s okay.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzsyn1jdtJ1qfzar6o1_400.jpg)
Book Review: Bewitching by Alex Flinn
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Plot (from Goodreads):
Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy. That one turned out all right. Others didn’t.
I go to a new school now—one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I’m not still here because I’m stupid; I just don’t age.
You see, I’m immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years—except for when to take my powers and butt out.
I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house and ended up being hanged. After I came back from the dead (immortal, remember?), I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. And that little mermaid I found in the Titanic lifeboat? I don’t even want to think about it.
Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn’t get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl—and it isn’t an enchanted pumpkin. Although you never know what will happen when I start … bewitching.
Bewitching is your typical Alex Flinn book (well… I’ve only ever read Beastly so that might not be an accurate assumption). It gathers a lot of inspiration from children’s fairy tales with a modern, tween twist.
I’m going to be honest. I was really looking forward to this because I really liked Kendra Hilferty’s character in Beastly and I wanted to read more about her life and her personality. I was somewhat appeased but honestly, I was not satisfied. The lack of Kendra disappointed me since after all, this is supposedly the first book to the Kendra Chronicles. She was mentioned around five, six times and all she gets are flashbacks and momentary lapses. This book basically has four twisted versions of the cutesy little fairytales we’ve grown to love like Cinderella, Hansel & Gretel, Princess and the Pea, and The Little Mermaid. None of them are exactly accurate (this, I am accountable to - I’ve read enough versions [including Brothers Grimm] to know as much) but they’re passable modern accounts, just to cut her some slack. The plot of the book is WAY too fast paced. It’s like bang-bang-bang-boom-bang the end. I appreciate some subtlety. It’s based on Cinderella so of course (SPOILER!) the dad dies but the way it was presented was so abrupt that I didn’t feel anything when he was such a vital part of the story. The characters (save Kendra) weren’t well characterized. Lisette and Emma were one dimensional (not Mary Sues since there was some depth to them [… maybe I’m being too generous to Lisette, who is bordering on Mary Sue, but I’ll let that go]) and honestly, I didn’t care about them. Maybe I cared a little about Emma but honestly, I felt no sympathy for their sob story. I would have loved some more Kyle/Kendra interaction (because I SHIP IT!!!!!!!) but you can’t always get what you want. Also, Flinn loves mermaids dying. Seriously. I did not like how she just put in random guys. Warner coming back was weird enough. His character is so random. Honestly, the reason why he moved back was so vague. Who was he staying with? We never really find out anything except his parents are getting a divorce. Don’t even get me started on Travis. I mean, what the heck - he just popped up! WHO ARE YOU!? Total Mary Sue, in my opinion. Totally hot, rich guy who is sensitive and loves the same books you do and offers to take you to Italy and your mom loves him and kisses you within an hour of meeting you. MARY. FREAKIN’. SUE.
It wasn’t well thought out but the plot’s relatively okay. Courtney, Tayloe (WHAT KIND OF NAME IS TAYLOE? SERIOUSLY.), and Madori were just extras in the story, in my opinion. It would have been the same story if they weren’t there, honestly. I hated how Tayloe’s bulimia (I’m only assuming here since it was never really mentioned precisely) was just popped in like “Oh! This is information that everyone should know! And now for the weather…”. Seriously. If you’re going to put in something as serious as an eating disorder and your target readership is the youth from ages 12-18 (based on the writing), you don’t just pass that up as something that’s normal and acceptable! It’s NOT! That really made me angry because of the message it’s sending out to people. Okay, Kendra gave a note to her mom but what else happened? I hated that. It’s so insensitive.
The writing style is elementary, at best. It’s the usual Flinn writing. It’s not impressive but there’s an underlying tone of intelligence in there somewhere. I still like Kendra but the way she’s presented is really annoying me, like it’s supposed to be HER chronicles but she’s barely in it.
It’s an amiable read at best. I was disappointed but it’s okay.
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