Review: Ella Enchanted – The Book

The Gist: On the day that Ella was born, her kind-hearted but certifiable fairy godmother, Lucinda, bestowed on the child the gift of obedience. Whatever command anybody gave her, she had to follow.

Ella’s mother and their maid, Mandy, raise the little girl and protect her secret, until Ella’s mother falls ill and dies of an infection. Ella’s father, a merchant she barely knows, returns for the funeral, and finds himself appalled at how Ella has turned out. Her father sends her off to finishing school with Hattie (the Cruel) and Olive (the Dense), the daughters of Madame Olga. Hattie quickly discovers Ella’s secret, and takes full advantage, making Ella her lady in waiting.

Hattie makes Ella’s life so miserable, she runs away from the finishing school and…

(Hitting the fast forward button.)

Finds Lucinda, who refuses to lift the curse.

Ends up back at home, with Olga as her evil stepmother, and the girls as her evil stepsisters.

Ella becomes a servant, cleaning out the chimneys. Get it? She’s Cinder-Ella.

The handsome prince.

Pumpkin coach, mice turned to horses.

The ball.

The glass slipper.

Need I go on?

(Releasing the fast forward. Resuming normal speed.)

Ella and prince live happily ever after.

The Good: It is always a dangerous thing to take a story everybody knows, and then retell it, because you can either end up with Lord of the Rings, or you can end up with Troy. I think Gail Carson Levine has the right idea on how to revisit a classic story well. She found an angle, one little twist that put the story in a new light, while remaining faithful to the story itself. Instead of writing a “Cinderella story,” Levine wrote Cinderella, with one small but significant change, the addition of the curse.

Not only that, but the author took great care to weave the story in such a way that the various elements of the story make sense. There’s a reason why the stepmother and stepsisters are so cruel to Cinderella. There’s a reason why the glass slipper can only fit her foot. Everything fits in place by the end of the book, without if feeling forced.

The Bad: I have to be a bit careful here. As with all readers, there are literary techniques I like and dislike, and I have to remind myself that this book is written for 10 year old girls, and not 30 year old men (Hear that? I think my name just got dropped into a special FBI file).

Of course I would have liked the story more if it were written at a more sophisticated level: more in depth description, more scenes and less exposition, etc. For example, the book ends with an epilogue in which Ella just tells the readers what happens to everybody in the end. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a kiss of death in adult literature. I just made myself get over it. Since I took the intended audience into account while I read the story, criticisms like that didn’t bother me as much as they normally would have.

The Ugly: Tell me the truth, you skip down to this part first, don’t ya? Sorry, nothing ugly in this kiddy tale.