“Rapunzel Untangled,” by Cindy C. Bennett,” Cedar Fort, Feb. 12, 2013, Hardcover, $16.99 (young adult)
Rapunzel has lived her entire life secluded from the outside world. Her home is a few rooms inside an enormous mansion. Her only contact — her mother.
The isolation has been hard for Rapunzel, but she understands the need. She has a disease that makes her susceptible to any germs she comes in contact with. Understanding doesn’t negate the feeling of being trapped, though, and Rapunzel often finds herself dreaming of the outside world.
Rapunzel isn’t completely cut off. She does have access to the Internet for school. And when she stumbles across Facebook, she finds herself sucked in. Soon, she has a friend, Fane, who’s the same age as her and lives near by. Suddenly, Rapunzel is seeing things — especially her own life — though different eyes.
Cindy C. Bennett’s “Rapunzel Untangled” is a contemporary retelling of the beloved fairy tale. Overall, it works fairly well. It was fun to experience modern phrases, foods and technology through someone never exposed to them. Rapunzel is a likeable character as is her handsome “prince.”
Where things didn’t work so well, were the elements of magic. In the original fairy tale Rapunzel’s mother is a witch. The same is true here, but it’s not fully incorporated. Other than a brief allusion to magic at the beginning and a few small nods through the bulk, most of the magic is left until the end. Unfortunately, it feels kind of tacked on, like it belongs to a different book. It’s strange and a bit off-kilter.
Perhaps some tighter editing or stronger editorial direction could have smoothed things out, but I found myself wishing the author had gone a different way entirely. What starts out reading like contemporary YA ends in a magical/paranormal mish mash. It’s too bad. I enjoyed most of the book, but the ending has left me on the fence. Would I recommend “Rapunzel Untangled”? Maybe. But only as a library checkout.
