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A review by javalenciaph
Letters to Zell by Camille Griep
5.0
Check out the full review on Bookaholics Not-So-Anonymous.
Note: This ARC was provided by 47North in exchange for an honest review.
Letters to Zell by Camille Gripe is an interesting re-interpretation of sorts of select fairy tales, with a special focus on four of the more popular ones: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Rapunzel. The four princess are best friends but when Zell migrates to another Realm with her family, leaving only a note for the other three, a correspondence among the four begins, one that has them sharing their deepest thoughts and feelings. More often than not, writing provides an avenue for us to say things that we aren't able to say face-to-face or verbally; at least that's been my personal experience. Within the letters exchanged, you can tell that these four princesses may be best friends but not everything is shared among the four, with some secrets being kept from one or being exclusively kept between two out of the four.
Fairy tales give children (and maybe a number of adults as well) something to dream about, believing that we all get our happily-ever-afters. The thing is, haven't you ever wondered what happens to the princesses and princes or other lead characters in those stories after the book has ended? Because the fact is there is life beyond "happily ever after" and it isn't always as perfect as you were made to believe. Fairy tales tend to be overly idealistic and quite fantastical, and real life, well, isn't like that. Given a choice, would you want to have predetermined story knowing what your "ending" will be, like those we find in fairy tale books, or would you want to experience what real life has to offer instead, not knowing what will come next? The four princesses in this book were clearly not prepared for life after their happily-ever-afters.
Telling the story through letters was a nice touch, though my one gripe concerning that is the fact that the letters didn't actually feel like letters because of all the conversations included in them. I mean, I write letters regularly (yes, I'm old-fashioned that way) and while I do have a direct quote or two from time to time, directly quoting conversations I have with people and jotting it all down on paper or typing it all up in an email just seems unrealistic. I did, however, like that one of the Realms was the Outside, i.e. the real world beyond the fairy tales. Letters to Zell shows us that we always have a choice--to either blindly follow the script handed to us or to write our own stories and live life according to our needs and wants--and that dreams remain unattainable only until we wake up and do something about them. This gets 4.5 stars, rounded off to five stars. ♥
Note: This ARC was provided by 47North in exchange for an honest review.
Letters to Zell by Camille Gripe is an interesting re-interpretation of sorts of select fairy tales, with a special focus on four of the more popular ones: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Rapunzel. The four princess are best friends but when Zell migrates to another Realm with her family, leaving only a note for the other three, a correspondence among the four begins, one that has them sharing their deepest thoughts and feelings. More often than not, writing provides an avenue for us to say things that we aren't able to say face-to-face or verbally; at least that's been my personal experience. Within the letters exchanged, you can tell that these four princesses may be best friends but not everything is shared among the four, with some secrets being kept from one or being exclusively kept between two out of the four.
Fairy tales give children (and maybe a number of adults as well) something to dream about, believing that we all get our happily-ever-afters. The thing is, haven't you ever wondered what happens to the princesses and princes or other lead characters in those stories after the book has ended? Because the fact is there is life beyond "happily ever after" and it isn't always as perfect as you were made to believe. Fairy tales tend to be overly idealistic and quite fantastical, and real life, well, isn't like that. Given a choice, would you want to have predetermined story knowing what your "ending" will be, like those we find in fairy tale books, or would you want to experience what real life has to offer instead, not knowing what will come next? The four princesses in this book were clearly not prepared for life after their happily-ever-afters.
Telling the story through letters was a nice touch, though my one gripe concerning that is the fact that the letters didn't actually feel like letters because of all the conversations included in them. I mean, I write letters regularly (yes, I'm old-fashioned that way) and while I do have a direct quote or two from time to time, directly quoting conversations I have with people and jotting it all down on paper or typing it all up in an email just seems unrealistic. I did, however, like that one of the Realms was the Outside, i.e. the real world beyond the fairy tales. Letters to Zell shows us that we always have a choice--to either blindly follow the script handed to us or to write our own stories and live life according to our needs and wants--and that dreams remain unattainable only until we wake up and do something about them. This gets 4.5 stars, rounded off to five stars. ♥