I need to take some time and revisit the children’s books I missed between the years I was “too old for kids books” and “not a children’s librarian yet.” I grabbed some CD audiobooks for a road trip (I’m trying to lean into the retro vibe of my “new” car), and among them was Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine, which was published (and won a Newbery Honor) in 1997. I would have been just starting high school, so I missed both this book and the movie.
Ella was blessed by a fairy upon her birth, but the blessing turned out to be a curse: the fairy blessed her with “obedience.” Now Ella is magically bound to do whatever anyone directly tells her to do. Her mother and Mandy, the family cook, were the only two present at the birth and therefore the only ones in on the curse, and up until her 15th birthday, Ella mostly gets by. She figures out ways around the curse – using her own brand of malicious compliance and literalism to get around commands, or pushing back as much as her curse will allow. (She is physically sick if she tries to disobey.) Her spunk catches the eye of the local prince, a young man name Char a couple years her senior who befriends Ella when her mother dies. Now left with her negligent father, a merchant who sees Ella as a mere avenue toward a wealthy marriage, she begs Mandy for information on the fairy who cursed her, and learns that the Mandy is not only a fairy herself, but her fairy godmother. Mandy has a strict code of only using “small magic” – big magic can go very wrong very fast, just look at the “blessing” bestowed upon Ella – so she cannot break Ella’s curse. Ella’s mother forbid her to tell anyone about her curse, believing it would keep her safe. But that secrecy only makes it more of an obstacle as Ella becomes intent on breaking the thing. When her father sends her off to finishing school with some new family friends, a snobby woman and her two impossible daughters, Ella runs away, determined to seek out the curse-maker herself and end her forced subservience for good.
I’m always surprised when a Cinderella story captures me, because I don’t understand how this same story can be successfully rebooted over and over again, even as fascinated as I am by its popularity. But this is a perfect Cinderella twist from top to bottom, and an incredible book for young people. The concept of the curse forcing our Cinderella to be the perfect good little maiden we know her as is a genius notion. It not only answers the (rather modern) question “why would anyone be so loyal to a stepfamily who is so cruel?” but provides extremely high stakes for our heroine. Sure, it’s frustrating for her to be made to do menial work – but much scarier if she ends up in front of a man-eating ogre or hell, a plain old human man with crueler intentions in mind than just laziness. Her curse even gets in the way of her eventual love for our Prince Charming character – how can she allow herself to be with such a powerful young man, when someone nefarious could use her curse against him and the royal family? The discussion for young readers is rich as hell, and the story is even richer, standing up to an adult reading. It’s very romantic (Char has got to be one of the best written respectful and nuanced boyfriends of children’s literature), and very funny, with very original world-building.
I have been told the movie is VERY different, but enjoyable if you treat it as its own thing. Right now I am too close to the book and too much in love with it to follow up with the movie, but I’m sure I’ll give it a whirl down the road. In the meantime, Gail Carson Levine’s fairy tales may be my new obsession. She definitely ticks the box that Shannon Hale did for me as a tween.
