Review: Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Bewitching

By: Alex Flinn

Pub. Date: February 14, 2012

Publisher: Harper Teen

Pages: 336

Source: Bought

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.

Bewitching tells the story of Kendra, the witch from Beastly who curses Kyle. Even though I haven't read Beastly, I saw the movie and I was interested in Kendra's character. I was very excited to find out that we were going to get a whole story about her and her past. Bewitching did not disappoint and I was pleasantly surprised on how much I actually enjoyed the story.

Bewitching is really two stories in one. We have the history of Kendra as the first story. We find out where she came from, who her family was and how she came to learn she was a witch. We also learn about some of the other people that she has "bewitched" through the centuries. In every instance she was just trying to help, but usually it made things worse for everyone involved. I loved these stories and the history aspects of them, including the Plague and the Titanic. Alex Flinn took classic fairy tales and added her own spin to them, including Hansel and Gretel, The Princess and the Pea and The Little Mermaid. My favorite story was about Louis, Dauphin of France.

The second story is about Emma, who Kendra goes to school with in the present day. Emma's story was very sad and broke my heart many times. In a classic Cinderella spin, Emma lives with her mother, her stepfather and stepsister. Her stepsister, Lisette is a horrible person who has everyone wrapped around her finger. No one knows how truly evil she is, except for Emma. After Lisette steals Emma's boyfriend, Emma asks Kendra for help, and Kendra reluctantly agrees.

I really loved the characters of Kendra and Emma. Kendra seems so eccentric in Beastly, and she is, but she is also vulnerable and lonely and my heart went out for her. She is a good witch just trying to help the people who deserve to be helped. Emma was also a wonderfully written character. Her voice jumped out of the pages, and I felt every single thing that Emma felt.

The ending was such a nice surprise with the introduction of Travis. When he came into the story, I loved where it took Emma and the reader, and I was completely rooting for the two of them.

Overall, I really enjoyed Bewitching and would highly recommend it to anyone. Even if you haven't read Beastly, which I have not, you will understand everything, and for those of you who have read Beastly or seen the movie, we get a little update on Kyle as well, which was a nice touch!