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Ogre Enchanted

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Ogre Enchanted
By Gail Carson Levine
Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2018. 340 p.

I have been a fan of the book Ella Enchanted for two decades. It is a brilliant book that reworks the fairy tale Cinderella. (For all of you who havenā€™t read that bookā€”you really should. But the basic premise is that Ella is ā€œblessedā€ with obedience from a fairy. So she has to do everything that people tell her to do.) Anyway, Ogre Enchanted is the story of Evora, a healer, who has been turned into an ogre by the same fairy that made Ellaā€™s life miserable for not saying yes to a marriage proposal (she thought she was too young at 15 to get married and didnā€™t even want to think about marriage until at least 17). So Evie has to live as an ogreā€”a being who all the humans want to get rid of or killā€”and figure out how to find true love and another marriage proposal so that she can turn back into a human.

I liked this book. I donā€™t think it is as strong as Ella Enchanted (though that was so amazing, it would be rather hard to top). But I did like seeing how another strong female character had to out-think the fairy Lucinda. This is a fun addition to a great world where sometimes fairies are a little too big for their fairy-britches and strong women have to figure out life despite the crazy hand Lucinda gives them. And even though this book could stand on itā€™s ownā€”I still think that readers might be better off starting with Ellaā€™s story. After all, that is a classic that won a Newbery honor.

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