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A review by chyina
Enchant: Beauty and the Beast Retold by Demelza Carlton
4.0
I have read a lot of fairy tale re-tellings in my day but none quite like this one!
A cruel king who forces a young girl to curse a mirror and then does the unthinkable. A young girl, now a powerful enchantress, bitter and set in her ways. A cursed prince, loved by all around him though thinking himself undeserving of love.
When Zuleika is barely sixteen years old, she comes to the king's court and is forced to create a hefty curse for an enemy for fear of her family's safety. But the king has a loophole, her family will be safe, but she is not included in that number. Later, when Zuleika is on the hunt for her father's lost goods, she comes across an island. A prince cursed to look like his most hideous thoughts, invisible servants, walls higher than imaginable, with no newcomers coming in and out, she decides to help them. But who could have created such an awful curse? She vows to find the witch who did it.
Carlton made all of her characters a bit dense to the obvious in a way that really got on my nerves but I was able to continue reading simply because I loved Prince Vardan and his servants so much. They are more jovial and hopeful than either of the main characters and seem to have the sense their master lacks. Prince Vardan, thanks to his curse, has an aversion to magic and fears that Zuleika, who seemed to just appear from nowhere, is his brother's spy while Zuleika, at first, believes him to be a thief and loyal to his brother, whom she cursed as well. And here are the servants, living their lives as best they know how even though for the last five years, they have not been able to see themselves or each other; even though they are constantly battling pirates. They remain hopeful and provide the humor that breaks up the otherwise dreary moods that Vardan and Zuleika show to each other.
A cruel king who forces a young girl to curse a mirror and then does the unthinkable. A young girl, now a powerful enchantress, bitter and set in her ways. A cursed prince, loved by all around him though thinking himself undeserving of love.
When Zuleika is barely sixteen years old, she comes to the king's court and is forced to create a hefty curse for an enemy for fear of her family's safety. But the king has a loophole, her family will be safe, but she is not included in that number. Later, when Zuleika is on the hunt for her father's lost goods, she comes across an island. A prince cursed to look like his most hideous thoughts, invisible servants, walls higher than imaginable, with no newcomers coming in and out, she decides to help them. But who could have created such an awful curse? She vows to find the witch who did it.
Carlton made all of her characters a bit dense to the obvious in a way that really got on my nerves but I was able to continue reading simply because I loved Prince Vardan and his servants so much. They are more jovial and hopeful than either of the main characters and seem to have the sense their master lacks. Prince Vardan, thanks to his curse, has an aversion to magic and fears that Zuleika, who seemed to just appear from nowhere, is his brother's spy while Zuleika, at first, believes him to be a thief and loyal to his brother, whom she cursed as well. And here are the servants, living their lives as best they know how even though for the last five years, they have not been able to see themselves or each other; even though they are constantly battling pirates. They remain hopeful and provide the humor that breaks up the otherwise dreary moods that Vardan and Zuleika show to each other.