Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Bewitching by Alex Flinn
Release Date – February 14, 2012
Publisher Website –  HarperCollins
Publisher Social Media - Twitter/Facebook/SavvyReader
Pages - 336 pages
My Rating- 7/10
**Obtained from the library**

Here is the Goodreads synopsis

Bewitching can be a beast. . . . 

Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy. That one turned out all right. Others didn’t. 

I go to a new school now—one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I’m not still here because I’m stupid; I just don’t age. 

You see, I’m immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years—except for when to take my powers and butt out. 

I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house and ended up being hanged. After I came back from the dead (immortal, remember?), I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. And that little mermaid I found in the Titanic lifeboat? I don’t even want to think about it. 

Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn’t get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl—and it isn’t an enchanted pumpkin. 

Although you never know what will happen when I start . . . bewitching.

I really enjoyed Kendra in Beastly and picked up Bewitching hoping to find out more about the mysterious witch. While we do find out how Kendra first realized she was a witch (there is a fun twist on Hansel and Gretel involved) she is not the main character. This novel really belongs to Emma. In a way, the synopsis is a little misleading.

The narration does switch view points. Parts are told from the point of view of Kendra, Emma, Prince Louis of France, and Doria.  The switch up of the point of views work in this story. It could have been confusing and jarring but they are woven together wonderfully with Kendra’s narration being the bridge.

I find Alex Flinn’s strong point is the re-imaging of fairytales. The Prince Louis story was the weakest in my opinion. There wasn’t enough history for you to learn anything, and the link to the fairytale felt a little off. I enjoyed the pure fairytales much more. The Little Mermaid re-telling (Doria’s story) was my favourite. It meshed the Titanic with The Little Mermaid tale wonderfully.

I loved that not all the fairytales in this story had a happy ending. A vast majority of the original tales did not. They have been adapted and changed  and often made to include a happily ever after outcome.  It felt more true to the original tales this way.

Emma’s tale is a fun and interesting twist on the classic Cinderella. Told from the point of view of Cinderella’s step-sister. I like that the story made you think about the other side. It showed that not everyone is all good or all bad. We all have grey areas. The notion of believing in yourself, standing up for yourself and that you can make your own happiness are great themes that are explored in Emma story. Emma truly grows and comes to love herself for herself which is so important, especially for teenagers.

I enjoyed the fairytale aspect and the rather fun twists on the tales, but would have loved to have learned more about Kendra, the bewitching witch.