Zel by Donna Jo Napoli YA Book Review- 3 Stars!

Today's Tea Choice: Iced chicory coffee( perfect coffee replacement!)

Trigger Warnings: Prisoner abuse, starvation, mental health crisis

Genre: Fairytale Retelling

Pages: 240

Summary(goodreads.com):

High in the mountains, Zel lives with her mother, who insists they have all they need -- for they have each other. Zel's life is peaceful and protected -- until a chance encounter changes everything. When she meets a beautiful young prince at the market one day, she is profoundly moved by new emotions. But Zel's mother sees the future unfolding -- and she will do the unspeakable to prevent Zel from leaving her...

My Review:

Donna Jo Napoli is one of my favorite authors, so I’m always interested in checking out her work. In fact, one of my favorite books by her titled Sirena is featured on my mermaid blog! I’ve read that book a few times, and it always moves me with its lyrical prose and heartbreaking Little Mermaid vibes.

However, while Zel has some excellent moments, it wasn't as enchanting as Sirena.

What I loved:

POV: There are three different POVS in this book, each separated with a scene or chapter break. For Rapunzel and Konrad (love interest) their POVs were written in third person. However, Zel’s mother's perspective is written in first person. This made me question, is this book about Mother(she doesn’t have a name in the book) or Zel? While these choices were interesting and added some variety, I would’ve liked to see more focus on Zel’s perspective.

Setting/Historical Context: This is one of the book’s strengths; the setting descriptions were beautiful! Whether Zel and Mother traveled through their woodland home or to the market, each description had vivid imagery and sensory details. The tower where Zel is locked up in is also well described and quite depressing, further adding to the realism.

Characters:  There are three primary characters in this book: Mother, Zel, and Konrad. While some other side characters are featured, these are the three Napoli focused on.

Mother: We learn a lot about Mother, including her mental anguish, inability to have children, and how she "adopted" Zel. We also learn of her obsession, and there were a lot of symbolic moments that represent false motherhood, such as a goose who sits on rocks instead of eggs. Mother also has power over plants and can make things grow at will, but it exhausts her. Overall, this character was fascinating to read about, but I also would’ve liked to see her physical description, which was very limited.

Zel: Our main character! Rapunzel- shortened to Zel- starts off as this beautiful and innocent sweetheart who also loves animals. She attracts multiple people at the market, who offer her free gifts and food, which aggravates Mother. I also connected with her empathetic nature regarding nature and animals, especially when she helps Konrad’s horse settle down. When she first heads to the market with Mother and meets Konrad, this is where things start to change. She longs to discover life away from their small farm and wants to explore. Once Mother sees her interest in the outside world, this is where she manipulates Zel into believing someone is trying to kill her, therefore tricking her into living in an abandoned tower. As the novel progresses, we see Zel slowly descend into madness, which was fascinating. In the classic, we’re told of Rapunzel being a fair and happy maiden who seems perfectly content living in isolation, but her conditions in the tower aren’t discussed. However, in Napoli’s version, we learn she has a waste bucket, straw on the floor as a bed, and barely anything to keep her mentally stimulated. I really enjoyed seeing this progression of Zel from an innocent young girl to one who experiences true pain and betrayal.

Count Konrad: Aside from his obsession with finding Zel for years, we learn only a little bit about Konrad. He’s a modern thinker compared to his parents and knows he is supposed to take over his father’s duties one day, yet most of the time, we just see him trying to find his lost maiden. His parents try to set up marriage betrothals, yet all are dissolved over Konrad's quest. Similar to Mother, he is not described much aside from his clothes. I would’ve liked to see more to this character since he was so pivotal to the turning point.

Plot: This novel had several points to keep my interest, especially when we learn about Zel and her sweet nature along with how she perceives the outside world versus Mother's perspective. When we see how being trapped for years affects Zel, this was interesting and portrays a realistic take on the classic tale.

The tower scenes were explored and described really well, especially the interactions between Mother and Zel. We see Zel’s patience and sanity are tested and Mother senses this, but her obsession will not yield. As a reader, I was a bit confused as to why she grew Zel’s hair so long. As I previously mentioned, Mother is able to grow plants at will and she even does this to enter the tower a few times, so I felt there was a disconnect between the legend and purpose of the hair versus her ability to enchant plants.

There were some slow moments in the plot as well since most of time passes with Konrad continuously searching and Zel just sitting and waiting for her mother. I think some of those scenes could’ve been explored in more detail to prevent the plot pacing from slowing down.

There was one part in the book where I thought everything was going to be wrapped up, but extra events were added that didn’t progress the plot but instead prolonged events unnecessarily. The events were also roughly summarized toward the end instead of described in full detail, leaving me wanting more for the conclusion.

Authors Can Learn:

-          How to revitalize a classic for a fresher and grittier perspective

-          The importance of adding character description

-          How to structure plot events carefully

Readers Will Love This For:

A new take on a classic legend, but some expectations may be diminished by a slow plot.

I give this book 3 stars.

Kyla