A Review of 'Ella Enchanted' by Gail Carson Levine

“How can a fairy’s blessing be such a curse?

At her birth, Ella of Frell was the unfortunate recipient of a foolish fairy’s gift—the “gift” if obedience. Ella must obey any order given to her, whether it’s hopping on one foot for a day and a half, or chopping off her own head! But strong-willed Ella does not tamely accept her fate. Against a bold backdrop of princes, ogres, giants, wicked stepsisters, and fairy godmothers, Ella goes on a quest to break the curse—once and for all.”

We continue with a series of old reads (well, my old reads. These might be new to you).

I have read ‘Ella Enchanted’ numerous times. In fact, this is how I decided that I wanted to read more of Gail Carson Levine’s books. What I liked most about this book were the creatures in it. If I’m not reading something by Gregory Maguire or Gail Carson Levine, I’m most likely not going to run into ogres or giants or anything of that caliber. As juvenile as it may seem, it feels nice to escape to these guys. Sometimes real life is a little too much to deal with, so books like ‘Ella Enchanted’ acts like a portal into another world/dimension where we can go to for however long it takes to read the book.

Another good thing about fairy tales is the author can be as outlandish as they want (actually, they can do that any way…). Some of the characters are so drastically different from another character that it’s almost astonishing that they fit under the same book cover. Hattie and Olive were just… ew… they were pompous and gross… basically, the person whom you probably wouldn’t want to be friends with in real life. Prince Char was the greatest person you could ever want to meet. Ella was lovely in all ways. Dame Olga was oppressive, terrible, and greedy.

Another thing that was cool was adding in the languages of the other creatures. If I remember correctly, Ella knows how to speak ogre, so some of that is included. Some of it is hard to pronounce, but it’s not like you have to use it every day, right? It’s just fun and it adds another element of awesomeness/realism to the book.

Definitely read this! It’s amazing! It should totally be considered a classic in the future, if it isn’t already.

Thanks for reading!

—Jude