Ogre Enchanted

by Gail Carson Levine

January LaVoy (Narrator)

Set in the world of the Newbery Honor-winning Ella Enchanted, this tale by beloved author Gail Carson Levine stars a clever heroine who is determined to defy expectations-and outwit a fairy's curse.

Evie is happiest when she is healing people, diagnosing symptoms and prescribing medications, with the help of her devoted friend (and test subject) Wormy. So when Wormy unexpectedly proposes to her, she kindly turns him down; she has far too much to do to be marrying anyone. And besides, she simply isn't in love with him.

But a certain meddling fairy named Lucinda has been listening in, and she doesn't approve of Evie's rejection. Suddenly, Evie finds herself transformed from a girl into a hideous, hungry ogre!

Stuck in this new and confusing form, Evie now has only sixty-two days to accept another proposal-or else be stuck as an ogre forever.

• ISBN10: 0062561235
• ISBN13: 9780062561237
• Publish Date: 16 October 2018
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover (Library Binding)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Baroness Book Trove]

Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine is the prequel to Ella Enchanted and a great standalone novel. I have to say that I loved this book as much as I did Ella Enchanted when I was little.

Can Evie find true love, or will she be stuck as an ogre for the rest of her life?

Evie

Evie was just an average fifteen-year-old healer who has seen what comes from marrying the first guy that you think you love. Instead, she would rather be alone with her best friend, Wormy, coming by to visit her and to help him with his ailments. However, Lucinda came by and turned her into an ogre for saying no to Wormy. 

The story follows Evie as she is trying to come to terms with being an ogre and trying to get someone to love her. She goes through a lot of things and trying to get two people to ask her to marry them. None of them do. 

I like Evie because she only knew what she has seen in her town and didn't know if she could be around humans for long. Evie is a good character, and I like how she went through everything before realizing that maybe she does love someone more than just as a childhood friend.

Lucinda

Lucinda is the fairy that turned Evie into an ogre because she wouldn't say yes to a marriage proposal. She is well known for handing out terrible gifts. Everyone knew this, but everyone also hoped that Lucinda wouldn't stop by with presents for them.

Lucinda popped into Evie's apothecary, sensing a proposal. Lucinda wants to be there to congratulate the happy couple and to give them a gift. Well instead her gift turned into making Evie an ogre. Eventually, she also gave a gift to another engaged couple. That turned out to be very horrible, indeed, but that is a tale for another story.

I like Lucinda since she is trying to spread cheer and is trying to do the right thing. The one thing that I dislike is that Lucinda doesn't think about what her gifts do to the person that received it. 

Five Stars

Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine sets a good backstory for the lovely novel of Ella Enchanted as it gives us the tale of how her parents got together while also having it be about totally different people. Evie doesn't think that love is for her because she cares so much about her patients. Five stars seem right for this lovely book, along with recommending it to anyone that loves to read fairytale retellings and middle-grade stories.



First Book in the Series

Thank you for dropping by! I hope you enjoyed this review of Ogre Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.

Until the next time,



Happy Reading!

This review was originally posted on Baroness' Book Trove

[alisoninbookland]

*Received in exchange for honest review from Wunderkind PR

Fairy tale retellings are my favorite. Ogre Enchanted takes those elements that I love and makes them into something new.

What I loved:

-The inversion of the Beauty and the Beast story.
-Our beast is a young girl who was turned into an ogre.
-Lucinda was reminiscent of all the other evil fairies (Hello, Maleficent).
-I really enjoyed ‘seeing’ inside the ogre’s mind.
-You really got to see Evie struggle to keep a hold on the human side of herself.
-Evie discovering what ogre skills she possess was fun to read.
-Even the background on the ogres was fascinating.
-They have an entire language!
-The little sprinklings of their culture was really cool.
-I love that Evie manage to still be herself despite her condition.
-She really is a healer through and through.
-She refused to eat thinking creatures and made an effort to pay for things when she stole them.


What I didn’t love:

-How easily Evie falls into love.
-I know she’s needing to break the curse but calm down girl.
-That’s not love.
-TINGLING
-I never want to hear about tingling again.
-Seriously though. The tingling was never throughly explained.
-It’s not love. So what was it?
-The story meanders a bit and starts to drag towards the end.


I feel like I read Ella Enchanted as kid but I’m not really sure. I can’t really speak to how this stands up as a prequel.

In the end, Ogre Enchanted as a fun fairy tale even if you haven’t read Ella Enchanted.

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[tweetybugshouse]

This one was not one of my favorite middle grades that i read, i tend to gravitate towards the ones that have more plot to them.  This one has a very simple story line and it does not seem that a lot happens, we have a girl who proposed to, turned into a ogre until she gets someone to fall in love,  she very hungry and trys to find out about being an ogre, and she falling love a lot.  

 No details are spared, from Evie’s constant hunger, eating habits and particular odours, to the eating habits of the other ogres, as well as details surrounding illnesses, death, and beheadings. Which for a middle grade i thought went a bit far in the descriptive area for what and how an ogre acts and feels. 

I would of love to see the orgre/dragon lore expolored more then it was and the word meat stick used a whole lot less.  I really loved ella enchanted and thought this one would really fall right into my wheel house of good reads but it just did not go that route.  So this one ended up at three for me as it was somewhat humorous in the way Evie was as an ogre and did have a few lessons about staying true to who and what you are.  A three just as it was just a ho hum read for me.