Read Ogre Enchanted
Oct. 18th, 2018 01:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyElla Enchanted is one of my favorite books from when I was a kid, and I've always liked Fairest (set in the same universe) as well, which probably explains why I'm so disappointed by this one.
This book is set before Ella Enchanted (as a side-story, we get to see the sad tale of how Ella's mother was duped into marriage) with the same old villainously meddlesome fairy antagonist. Our main character's friend suddenly proposes to her, and when she said "God, no, we're only sixteen!" Lucinda gets pissy and turns her into an ogre until somebody proposes and she accepts.
And then she goes off and lives with ogres for a while, and when she's done with that she goes and heals people and fights their completely reasonable prejudice against her (ogres are strict carnivores and they enjoy the flesh of sapients) and in the end her friend proposes again and she accepts, with the condition of a reasonably long engagement. Which is exactly the solution he proposed at the beginning of the book. The plot wasn't that engaging, and all her personal growth revolved around realizing she loved him romantically too, which is just what that busybody Lucinda wanted in the first place. (Lucinda, of course, gets no growth in this book at all. That happens in Ella Enchanted, so for her to reform now would utterly confuse the timeline.)
On the one hand, the author is clear that Lucinda is thoroughly in the wrong and people have the right to refuse whatever proposals they want, for whatever reason they want - and "getting married at sixteen is stupid" is a perfectly reasonable sentiment... but that message is somewhat undermined when our protagonist spends half the book dithering that by running off, she's ruined her chance of breaking the curse and also maybe her friend doesn't love her anymore and this is a problem (and not just because of the curse).
Definitely did not live up to my anticipation.
This book is set before Ella Enchanted (as a side-story, we get to see the sad tale of how Ella's mother was duped into marriage) with the same old villainously meddlesome fairy antagonist. Our main character's friend suddenly proposes to her, and when she said "God, no, we're only sixteen!" Lucinda gets pissy and turns her into an ogre until somebody proposes and she accepts.
And then she goes off and lives with ogres for a while, and when she's done with that she goes and heals people and fights their completely reasonable prejudice against her (ogres are strict carnivores and they enjoy the flesh of sapients) and in the end her friend proposes again and she accepts, with the condition of a reasonably long engagement. Which is exactly the solution he proposed at the beginning of the book. The plot wasn't that engaging, and all her personal growth revolved around realizing she loved him romantically too, which is just what that busybody Lucinda wanted in the first place. (Lucinda, of course, gets no growth in this book at all. That happens in Ella Enchanted, so for her to reform now would utterly confuse the timeline.)
On the one hand, the author is clear that Lucinda is thoroughly in the wrong and people have the right to refuse whatever proposals they want, for whatever reason they want - and "getting married at sixteen is stupid" is a perfectly reasonable sentiment... but that message is somewhat undermined when our protagonist spends half the book dithering that by running off, she's ruined her chance of breaking the curse and also maybe her friend doesn't love her anymore and this is a problem (and not just because of the curse).
Definitely did not live up to my anticipation.
