heathermcintire13's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
jinjaritia's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Injury/injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Grief, Death of parent, Vomit, and Toxic relationship
jesshc's review against another edition
3.0
All right, I read this book during the winter and wrote this review, then I saw this moving quote from Levine herself about how hard it is to write a book so I didn't post it. But I just reread Ella Enchanted, and, as usual was blown away by how PERFECT the ending is. That and the final, VERBAL confrontation between Harry and Voldemort, and Lizzy and Darcy finally telling each other how they feel are my top three most satisfying literary moments. I am in AWE of Gail Carson Levine. She wrote the book that caused me to fall in love with reading. It's really not fair to compare this, or any other book to the book that has been my transitional object for the past 22 years. I wouldn't feel the need to if this book didn't completely contradict the cannon that I love so much and obviously know FAR too well. So I'm posting my original thoughts, and if you aren't interested in an in-depth analysis of how this differs from Ella Enchanted, maybe stop reading:
Apparently COVID has led me to reading books written by my favorite childhood author and then becoming far too indignant about the canon. It makes absolutely no sense to me that Sir Peter would respond to Lucinda showing up at his wedding to his second wife (Mum Olga) in Ella Enchanted if she had already given him a "gift" when he proposed to his first wife, as she does in this novel. How would he not have run screaming from the room when he saw Lucinda in EE? And the curse is SO SIMILAR. Beyond that, in EE I find Ella's parents' marriage to be compellingly realistic and deeply sad. That Eleanor was trapped into it by magic cheapens the narrative that she made the very human mistake of falling in love with someone who wasn't who she thought he was. Eleanor's character-defining playfulness doesn't feel the same across novels AND there is no way Mandy and/or Eleanor would not have told Ella about the first curse if it had happened.
I also didn't find that the ogres' powers of persuasion were consistent with how they worked in Ella Enchanted. That Ella is able to use the ogres' powers against them is one of the best parts of the book, and this once again cheapens a powerfully human moment in which Ella uses her wits and her skills of language and imitation to save her own life.
Which brings me to my next observation. Ella Enchanted is a deeply human, moving story of grief and finding inner strength, not just for love but to protect a country. The depth of the characters and their relationships (the friendship between Ella and Arieda! The relationship between Ella and Mandy! How many books pass the Bechdel test this well??). The magic is very sparing and only used to emphasize the themes and metaphors being put forth. Ogre Enchanted is a fun fantasy caper, but it was hard to see characters we know drawn with less depth and magic far more central. Sir Peter is neither a good father nor a good person in EE, but he is far from the cartoonish mustache-twirling villain he is in this novel. I suppose there is a message here about inner beauty and friendship, but it's quite heavy-handed. The curse is broken because the characters realize they love each other and decide to get married, which again, is a fine fairytale ending if we weren't in a universe where our last protagonist broke her own heart and the heart of the person she loved to protect him and her country, then proceeded to save both through sheer willpower. I won't go into it, but Lucinda seemed very inconsistent as well.
I also found it very disappointing that Evie got married in the end, especially to Wormy. If she had to fall in love, as she was adamantly against in the beginning, I wish her highly evident crush on Lady Eleanor had been taken further--if her feelings were reciprocated, it might have been an interesting way to explain why Lady Eleanor married a man like Sir Peter (if approached with the depth of Ella, this would not feel like a retcon to me in the way that a second Lucinda curse did).
Ms. Levine, I know it is hard to write a book, and I am so grateful that you have persevered and given us what is in my opinion, the best book for this age group ever written. As we say on Passover, dyenu! But this book really bummed me out.
Apparently COVID has led me to reading books written by my favorite childhood author and then becoming far too indignant about the canon. It makes absolutely no sense to me that Sir Peter would respond to Lucinda showing up at his wedding to his second wife (Mum Olga) in Ella Enchanted if she had already given him a "gift" when he proposed to his first wife, as she does in this novel. How would he not have run screaming from the room when he saw Lucinda in EE? And the curse is SO SIMILAR. Beyond that, in EE I find Ella's parents' marriage to be compellingly realistic and deeply sad. That Eleanor was trapped into it by magic cheapens the narrative that she made the very human mistake of falling in love with someone who wasn't who she thought he was. Eleanor's character-defining playfulness doesn't feel the same across novels AND there is no way Mandy and/or Eleanor would not have told Ella about the first curse if it had happened.
I also didn't find that the ogres' powers of persuasion were consistent with how they worked in Ella Enchanted. That Ella is able to use the ogres' powers against them is one of the best parts of the book, and this once again cheapens a powerfully human moment in which Ella uses her wits and her skills of language and imitation to save her own life.
Which brings me to my next observation. Ella Enchanted is a deeply human, moving story of grief and finding inner strength, not just for love but to protect a country. The depth of the characters and their relationships (the friendship between Ella and Arieda! The relationship between Ella and Mandy! How many books pass the Bechdel test this well??). The magic is very sparing and only used to emphasize the themes and metaphors being put forth. Ogre Enchanted is a fun fantasy caper, but it was hard to see characters we know drawn with less depth and magic far more central. Sir Peter is neither a good father nor a good person in EE, but he is far from the cartoonish mustache-twirling villain he is in this novel. I suppose there is a message here about inner beauty and friendship, but it's quite heavy-handed. The curse is broken because the characters realize they love each other and decide to get married, which again, is a fine fairytale ending if we weren't in a universe where our last protagonist broke her own heart and the heart of the person she loved to protect him and her country, then proceeded to save both through sheer willpower. I won't go into it, but Lucinda seemed very inconsistent as well.
I also found it very disappointing that Evie got married in the end, especially to Wormy. If she had to fall in love, as she was adamantly against in the beginning, I wish her highly evident crush on Lady Eleanor had been taken further--if her feelings were reciprocated, it might have been an interesting way to explain why Lady Eleanor married a man like Sir Peter (if approached with the depth of Ella, this would not feel like a retcon to me in the way that a second Lucinda curse did).
Ms. Levine, I know it is hard to write a book, and I am so grateful that you have persevered and given us what is in my opinion, the best book for this age group ever written. As we say on Passover, dyenu! But this book really bummed me out.
thereshegoesagain's review against another edition
5.0
Very cute book for if you’re a fan of Ella Enchanted
goldguardie's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I'm sad to say this, but I didn't not like this very much. This is coming from someone who *adored* Ella Enchanted and who considers that to be one of her favorite childhood books. This one just wasn't it. I did enjoy getting to meet Ella and Char's parents as adults but that was about it. Also, Lucinda is and always has been, the absolute worst.
liralen's review against another edition
3.0
Three and a half stars, possibly to be rounded up to four at some point. Ogre Enchanted is something of a prequel for Ella Enchanted, with a small handful of overlapping characters. Our heroine is Evie, a healer...whom the fairy Lucinda turns into an Ogre after Evie rejects a marriage proposal. Evie has two months to receive, and accept, another marriage proposal, or she'll be an ogre forever (shades of Shrek?).
It's high energy, with a voice (unsurprisingly) similar to the one in Ella Enchanted, so it makes for a lot of fun. Evie is young, but she's focussed, and her actions come with real consequences.
I'm going with three stars rather than four because of the meat sticks and because of the eventual love interest (the latter of which I won't spoil). Oh, and because of the plague outcome. The meat sticks (jerky, basically, as far as I can tell) felt too convenient for me—Evie seems to find easy supplies of them wherever she goes, ensuring that she and her ogre crew (would I date myself if I said 'posse'?) can avoid violence. Too convenient that Evie seemingly get as much meat as she wants without the people she steals from feeling the pinch; too convenient that the ogres care where the meat comes from (or how they can find it themselves) as long as she collects it for them. The plague just feels a little unfinished—like, we know how many people in the palace died, but what about the townsfolk? Sounds like there's a huge number of deaths that are just skated over, and I expect there'd be farther-reaching consequences than are mentioned. And then the eventual love interest...sure, okay, except I end up knowing virtually nothing about them. Is that the point? Maybe not.
Anyway. None of this is to suggest that I didn't get a huge kick out of the book—am thrilled, really, to return to the world of Ella Enchanted. But really, I want to talk about Lucinda.
Oh, Lucinda. The evil fairy who thinks she's good. What's so interesting to me here is the role she plays and the real-world comparisons one can draw. Lucinda's role in this book is to punish a girl for not blindly saying 'yes' to any boy or man who might want to marry her. It doesn't matter if Evie is in love; it wouldn't matter if she found her suitor to be utterly repugnant, or if her suitor was abusive. She doesn't get to choose. Evie works it out, in her way...but Lucinda still wins the day. Don't let's forget the woman who is forced to marry a scoundrel because of Lucinda's pressure...
Surely I am not the only one to think this is quite a topical...topic...and that a middle-school student somewhere should rant about Lucinda and women's rights in a book report...?
It's high energy, with a voice (unsurprisingly) similar to the one in Ella Enchanted, so it makes for a lot of fun. Evie is young, but she's focussed, and her actions come with real consequences.
I'm going with three stars rather than four because of the meat sticks and because of the eventual love interest (the latter of which I won't spoil). Oh, and because of the plague outcome. The meat sticks (jerky, basically, as far as I can tell) felt too convenient for me—Evie seems to find easy supplies of them wherever she goes, ensuring that she and her ogre crew (would I date myself if I said 'posse'?) can avoid violence. Too convenient that Evie seemingly get as much meat as she wants without the people she steals from feeling the pinch; too convenient that the ogres care where the meat comes from (or how they can find it themselves) as long as she collects it for them. The plague just feels a little unfinished—like, we know how many people in the palace died, but what about the townsfolk? Sounds like there's a huge number of deaths that are just skated over, and I expect there'd be farther-reaching consequences than are mentioned. And then the eventual love interest...sure, okay, except I end up knowing virtually nothing about them. Is that the point? Maybe not.
Anyway. None of this is to suggest that I didn't get a huge kick out of the book—am thrilled, really, to return to the world of Ella Enchanted. But really, I want to talk about Lucinda.
Oh, Lucinda. The evil fairy who thinks she's good. What's so interesting to me here is the role she plays and the real-world comparisons one can draw. Lucinda's role in this book is to punish a girl for not blindly saying 'yes' to any boy or man who might want to marry her. It doesn't matter if Evie is in love; it wouldn't matter if she found her suitor to be utterly repugnant, or if her suitor was abusive. She doesn't get to choose. Evie works it out, in her way...but Lucinda still wins the day. Don't let's forget the woman who is forced to marry a scoundrel because of Lucinda's pressure...
Surely I am not the only one to think this is quite a topical...topic...and that a middle-school student somewhere should rant about Lucinda and women's rights in a book report...?
thepoetcatari's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
aotora's review against another edition
2.0
I have very very mixed feelings about this book.
I love the author and I love Ella enchanted as it is one of my favourite books and I can read it over and over and over and over and never really get tired of it.
This is a prequel to that book and whilst that one is based on Cinderella, this one is based on Beauty and the beast. We get to know Ella's parents and we get to learn more about ogres and the world of Frell.
The main characters in this are okay I guess.
Evie is a healer and she is 15 years old - 15 years old okay? So when her best friend Wormy proposes to her and she rejects him Lucinda shows up and is all like: "well you broke his heart now you deserve to be punished." - so because at 15 she doesn't feel like she found true love and wants to settle with the first person that proposes to her she gets turned into an ogre. She has to find one true love and someone that would propose to her and whose proposal she would accept before she remains ogre for good. And because of that she goes to other ogres to learn how to pursuade people so she can basically force the first random handsome man she meets to propose to her. And the first man that she meets is Peter- Ella's father- who is even worse in this book then he was in Ella enchanted. He is self centered, only looks out for himself, doesn't care about Ella's mother and he is extremely selfish - and later he proposes to Eleanor just because of her status and wealth, and guess who shows up? Lucinda and she makes them not ever break any promises- so they have to marry even though Eleanor is clearly unhappy with him because she realizes that he is a self centered idiot that's only with her fot the money. But at least the book has a happy ending - Wormy and Evie get to be together and marry and have a wonderful happily ever after.
The beginning dragged on for quite a while - it took a long time to pick up but once the story did pick up it seemed to finish rather fast and abruptly.
Evie meets a band of ogres and stays with them, then she saves an elf and a giant from them learning that she is actually still a human and can fight against her urges to eat people and other living creatures- though she is perfectly fine with eating some animals. It's also heavily implied that ogres eat their food whilst it's still alive which is ... disturbing. They can also sense other's emotions. Humans also love displaying ogre heads on spikes because why not. So she meets Peter and instantly falls in love. She thinks that he loves her too - until we learn that nope, he is just a douche and the love she felt was his love for himself. She ends up saving a giant and they kill the entire band but later Peter swoops in and cuts their heads off presenting them to the king so he gets the credit and becomes a knight and later a prince.
Evie goes to the castle, she heals some people and people love her, than they suddenly hate her and are suspicious of her because of the rumors Peter started (I mean they do start believing those pretty darn fast even though she just saved half of the town from a deadly disease but okay, realistic I guess), then she goes to a ball to show that she is not treatening, then the king decides that people should fight her since she can teach them how to defeat an ogre, they fight for a while, she proposes to another man she saved and he instantly accepts so she can turn back to human just long enough that she can reject him and be turned back again because he clearly loves another woman, she then finds Wormy that Lucinda turned into a squirrel and proposes to him, he accepts and they both lived happily ever after-
The last part of the book seems to be all over the place. There are so many things happening at once and it gets so confusing. I also hate how quickly it wrapped up - there was a sense of urgency because she only had a few days left and the question of will she remain an ogre forever or become a human again was there - but instead of building the suspense and keeping the reader on edge the author chose to rush through it.
I also hated that everybody just ignored what Lucinda did and just ignored how horrible of a person she was - at least in Ella enchanted people loathed her and knew that her gifts were bad, here, only Eleanor, Mandy, Evie and Wormy show that they are displeased with what she is doing - the rest of the people just shrug it off - and she doesn't get any comeuppance, at least in Ella enchanted she got punishes in the end.
It's an okay story, but I don't think that it quite lives up to the sequel. It might be just my nostalgia goggles blinding me though.
I love the author and I love Ella enchanted as it is one of my favourite books and I can read it over and over and over and over and never really get tired of it.
This is a prequel to that book and whilst that one is based on Cinderella, this one is based on Beauty and the beast. We get to know Ella's parents and we get to learn more about ogres and the world of Frell.
The main characters in this are okay I guess.
Evie is a healer and she is 15 years old - 15 years old okay? So when her best friend Wormy proposes to her and she rejects him Lucinda shows up and is all like: "well you broke his heart now you deserve to be punished." - so because at 15 she doesn't feel like she found true love and wants to settle with the first person that proposes to her she gets turned into an ogre. She has to find one true love and someone that would propose to her and whose proposal she would accept before she remains ogre for good. And because of that she goes to other ogres to learn how to pursuade people so she can basically force the first random handsome man she meets to propose to her. And the first man that she meets is Peter- Ella's father- who is even worse in this book then he was in Ella enchanted. He is self centered, only looks out for himself, doesn't care about Ella's mother and he is extremely selfish - and later he proposes to Eleanor just because of her status and wealth, and guess who shows up? Lucinda and she makes them not ever break any promises- so they have to marry even though Eleanor is clearly unhappy with him because she realizes that he is a self centered idiot that's only with her fot the money. But at least the book has a happy ending - Wormy and Evie get to be together and marry and have a wonderful happily ever after.
The beginning dragged on for quite a while - it took a long time to pick up but once the story did pick up it seemed to finish rather fast and abruptly.
Evie meets a band of ogres and stays with them, then she saves an elf and a giant from them learning that she is actually still a human and can fight against her urges to eat people and other living creatures- though she is perfectly fine with eating some animals. It's also heavily implied that ogres eat their food whilst it's still alive which is ... disturbing. They can also sense other's emotions. Humans also love displaying ogre heads on spikes because why not. So she meets Peter and instantly falls in love. She thinks that he loves her too - until we learn that nope, he is just a douche and the love she felt was his love for himself. She ends up saving a giant and they kill the entire band but later Peter swoops in and cuts their heads off presenting them to the king so he gets the credit and becomes a knight and later a prince.
Evie goes to the castle, she heals some people and people love her, than they suddenly hate her and are suspicious of her because of the rumors Peter started (I mean they do start believing those pretty darn fast even though she just saved half of the town from a deadly disease but okay, realistic I guess), then she goes to a ball to show that she is not treatening, then the king decides that people should fight her since she can teach them how to defeat an ogre, they fight for a while, she proposes to another man she saved and he instantly accepts so she can turn back to human just long enough that she can reject him and be turned back again because he clearly loves another woman, she then finds Wormy that Lucinda turned into a squirrel and proposes to him, he accepts and they both lived happily ever after-
The last part of the book seems to be all over the place. There are so many things happening at once and it gets so confusing. I also hate how quickly it wrapped up - there was a sense of urgency because she only had a few days left and the question of will she remain an ogre forever or become a human again was there - but instead of building the suspense and keeping the reader on edge the author chose to rush through it.
I also hated that everybody just ignored what Lucinda did and just ignored how horrible of a person she was - at least in Ella enchanted people loathed her and knew that her gifts were bad, here, only Eleanor, Mandy, Evie and Wormy show that they are displeased with what she is doing - the rest of the people just shrug it off - and she doesn't get any comeuppance, at least in Ella enchanted she got punishes in the end.
It's an okay story, but I don't think that it quite lives up to the sequel. It might be just my nostalgia goggles blinding me though.
lahars_little_library's review against another edition
3.0
3 ⭐ for the first half
2⭐ for the second
Evie's thoughts and narration got really repetitive. I had high hopes for this and was a bit let down.
2⭐ for the second
Evie's thoughts and narration got really repetitive. I had high hopes for this and was a bit let down.