Unenchanted: A Book Review
I recently finished Unenchanted by Chanda Hahn.
I am a big fan of fairy tales and love to see them reimagined. Hahn attempts to bring not only fairy tales, but the myth of the Grimm curse to the 21st century. The Grimm curse has been mentioned in movies and the show Grimm where a Grimm descendant is responsible for either keeping stories in line or fairy tale creatures in their place.
The narrative is centered around a young girl named Mina, who is unaware of her ancestry., is a clumsy girl. It's her clutziness that nearly kills a boy in school she has a crush on, but she ends up saving him, which triggers the curse of the Story.
Throughout the book, Mina finds ouut about her her heritage as well as how to set the stories thrown at her on the correct path. Characters in the first story even show up for the final battle in the end.
Hahn doesn't depict the fairy tale creatures as they are in their original stories. For example, the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood was depicted as a sinister man who was part of a gang (apack, ifyou will). I thought that it was interesting choice. The Story makes it impossible for Mina to ignore what story is next. All of the jackets in Mina's closet turn bright red as she tries to refuse to play Little Red Riding Hood, but caves when the only dress (which comes with a matching red, caped hood) that will fit her mysteriously appears in a thrift shop right before her school dance.
Hahn drops so many present pop culture references that it makes it difficult to believe whether this book will have staying power in the years to come. I may be wrong, but I don't see the Glee references landing ten to fifteen years from now.
I did appreciate Hahn's voice. It was very true to form for a high school girl. Mina reminded me a lot of myself.
All in all, the book was entertaining on my lunch breaks. Will I read the rest of the series? Probably not. Unless I'm bored...which is very likely.
I give this book a 2.5 out of five.
