A fusion of fairytales

Cloaked by Alex Flinn is a fusion of many fairy tales.  I always enjoy various takes on fairy tales, and this book was enjoyable.  In 2007, Flinn wrote Beastly, her first fairy tale modernized.  This last year Beastly was made into a movie.  I haven't seen the movie, but many of the students at my school enjoyed it.  Maybe I'll be able to get it from the library when it comes out on DVD.  Enough about Beastly, I want to talk about Flinn's new book, Cloaked.

Cloaked is another modernized fairy tale book; however, it is not just one fairy tale modernized.  It is a fusion of many fairy tales, and I actually found the fusion to be smooth, somewhat predictable (but that is expected), and surprisingly good.  The book is written from a boy's point of view, but I would say that boys would not enjoy this book.  Though, I would say most girls from 6th grade to HS would quite enjoy this book.  It is known that a boy usually prefers a book from a boy's perspective; however, a girl will read a book from a girl or boy's perspective.  I would also say that this is not a YA book that most adults would find all that great.  I know there are several adults that love the YA genre, but I don't think this book would fit for that group of readers.  From all of the statements I'm making, you might be wondering why I said it was good.  It is a good book, but it is a good book for a certain audience.  If you know someone that fits that audience then you should get them this book.

I did say this book is a fusion of several fairy tales.  However, it has the foundation of a modernized frog prince story.  There were other fairy tales represented, and there were even some fairy tales that are not as popular or well known.  I don't want to tell you the other fairy tales that are represented in this story b/c I found that to be part of the fun while reading.  It was fun to determine what parts of the story were from what fairy tales.

All in all, I enjoyed this book.  I didn't think it was the best written book, but for a MS (middle school) or HS (high school) girl the writing would not bother them.  A young girl would actually love the parts of the storyline that I found to be cheesy and a little typical.