A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine
Copy Courtesy of NetGalley and Harper Collins
Already Published
Summary
Elodie goes to Two Castles to become an apprentice. She hopes to become a mansioner (actor essentially), but no one will take her. Just as all hope dies, she is saved by the Dragon Meenore who offers her an assistantship and sends her off to solve a mystery using her wits.
Commentary
I think this falls more into middle grade fiction than YA. The main character may be 14-ish, but the way the story is phrased and actions taken by characters speaks of more innocence. There's a big emphasis on Logic, and the author kind of beats you over the head with it. I think I would have preferred it to not be so blatant.
Meenore is somewhat arrogant although that is usually expected of a dragon so that wasn't too bad, but it did make him hard to sympathize with, in the way that smart people very focused on their smartness are hard to sympathize with. Elodie is a somewhat standard character although like-able enough.
It was mostly a cute little story although I think the characters could have been written better. I don't really give it a strong recommendation, but it's not a bad read.
Star Rating: 3.0/5.0
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5 comments: Jump to Comment Form
I enjoy this author, and though I haven't read this book yet (its on my netgalley tbr :) I have noticed that some of the others I've read by her tend to feel a bit younger than she means for them to. Anyway, thanks for the great review and heads up :)
-Kate the Book Buff
The Book Buff: Book Reviews for Regular People
I loved Ella Enchanted, which was for middle grade. I may read this one too. Thanks for the review.
I've enjoyed other titles by this author more, but I read this too and thought it was an innocent, cute read. I would agree that it's more of a JF book.
My ereader died half way into this book, so I didn't get to finish it. I agree that it doesn't fit into the YA category. It's way too cute for that. I thought it was funny that the dragaon had skills at both "inductive and deductive reasoning." None of my middle school kids would know what that means.
Thanks for the review.
Ella Enchanted was pretty good from what I remember, but it's been years since I've read it heh~~
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