Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by thosebookishdays
Bewitching by Alex Flinn
4.0
4.5
Bewitching is a retelling of Cinderella (mixed with other fairytales too) with a twist, what if the step-sister wasn’t evil but Cinderella was? It was a very interesting concept that I believe Flinn carried out well and it brings good morals to the story. While this is supposed to be Kendra’s story it does seem to follow Emma’s story more and I could understand how that would make some readers mad since this book is labeled as Kendra’s story. I personally did not care and I liked the little snippets we got of Kendra’s story and all of Emma’s. Kendra’s stories build up Emma’s as they give background to why Kendra is nervous to get involved with what’s going on. The historical aspect from Kendra’s stories, like the plague from the Hansel and Gretel story, the sinking of the Titanic from The Little Mermaid story and the French prince and the many princesses from The Princess and the Pea story, were all very interesting and the details seemed historically accurate (granted I’m not a historian). These stories were a little bit darker than Flinn’s usual ones and not all of them have a happy ending. I appreciated this because it stayed truer to the original tales (if you didn’t know some of the fairytales don’t have the Disney endings that we’re used to) I liked most of the characters and as the story continued and we saw more of the story, a lot of them underwent some form of development. All of the characters even the minor ones were interesting and I give props to Flinn for that. The romance was handled very well and I thought it was realistic, it showed the up and downs of love and how sometimes what you think is true love, isn’t always true love. This is an example of the morals taught within this book there were several others brought up too that promoted a positive body image and acceptance. I was pulled into Bewitching from the very beginning I finished it in one day while on vacation, which is very impressive for me especially because I tend to get distracted while on vacation. I still am a fan of Flinn’s writing it has a very conversational feel and while not very difficult to read it works for this type of book creating a quick read that was enjoyable. I recommend this book to teens who like books with romance, fantasy, and retellings.
Bewitching is a retelling of Cinderella (mixed with other fairytales too) with a twist, what if the step-sister wasn’t evil but Cinderella was? It was a very interesting concept that I believe Flinn carried out well and it brings good morals to the story. While this is supposed to be Kendra’s story it does seem to follow Emma’s story more and I could understand how that would make some readers mad since this book is labeled as Kendra’s story. I personally did not care and I liked the little snippets we got of Kendra’s story and all of Emma’s. Kendra’s stories build up Emma’s as they give background to why Kendra is nervous to get involved with what’s going on. The historical aspect from Kendra’s stories, like the plague from the Hansel and Gretel story, the sinking of the Titanic from The Little Mermaid story and the French prince and the many princesses from The Princess and the Pea story, were all very interesting and the details seemed historically accurate (granted I’m not a historian). These stories were a little bit darker than Flinn’s usual ones and not all of them have a happy ending. I appreciated this because it stayed truer to the original tales (if you didn’t know some of the fairytales don’t have the Disney endings that we’re used to) I liked most of the characters and as the story continued and we saw more of the story, a lot of them underwent some form of development. All of the characters even the minor ones were interesting and I give props to Flinn for that. The romance was handled very well and I thought it was realistic, it showed the up and downs of love and how sometimes what you think is true love, isn’t always true love. This is an example of the morals taught within this book there were several others brought up too that promoted a positive body image and acceptance. I was pulled into Bewitching from the very beginning I finished it in one day while on vacation, which is very impressive for me especially because I tend to get distracted while on vacation. I still am a fan of Flinn’s writing it has a very conversational feel and while not very difficult to read it works for this type of book creating a quick read that was enjoyable. I recommend this book to teens who like books with romance, fantasy, and retellings.