Fantastic Fairytales - Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Published: February 2012

Publisher: HarperTeen

Pages: 336

Copy Provided by: Borrowed

Summary: Goodreads

Summary:
Bewitching can be a beast. . . .

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.

Review:

First of all, I loved the narrative voice in this novel.  Alex Flinn has to be my favourite for fairytale retelling.  She is the queen for twisting up a fairytale and mashing it together with something else.    I was about 3/4 of the way through the book when it seemed to be wrapping up and then things really took a turn I wasn't expecting.  I LOVE it when that happens.  Bewitching was highly entertaining and I of course I'd recommend it to anyone who loves a good fairytale...even if it starts out a little messed up....

Throughout the story, there were interludes where Kendra would cut out to talk about other aspects of her "witch life" during different time eras.  It felt like a mini-commercial.  I have read some reviews where reviewers did not like this.  I would have been ok with these "glimpses" in or out of the book.  They were not necessary but it was interesting. BTW, for those of you who haven't realized it, Kendra was the witch from Beastly....

On a random note, have you ever stopped to think about the things you learn from reading?  Did you know that triskaidekaphobia means the fear of the number thirteen?  Who would have known.  Thanks Kendra, for that bit of random useless information that I will no doubt pass on in the future...like on our blog....

Favorite quotes

"Where am I taking you anyway?" I asked her.  "Do I have to go to an enchanted train platform to get there?"

...Sometimes when you give people their comeuppance, they actually learn something.

High school is like a hamster wheel that never stops 

(I feel like that about paying a mortgage - Christinabean)

Looking for a fun fairytale Cinderella mashup?  Check out Bewitching.  I'm looking forward to seeing how she mixes up her next fairytale and how Kendra will lay a part in it!