Zel by Donna Jo Napoli Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Zel
Book Review: Hauntingly beautiful, beautifully haunting.
Summary: 5 Stars
Oh my God. What are you people, popes? "Totally inappropriate things happen", yeah that's it. While things do transpire between the two after Konrad stumbles upon the tower after two years of endless searching, sex is not inappropriate for being included in the story. Take into consideration the fact that Konrad has been tormented with thoughts about Zel, this beautiful girl who enchanted him with her selflessness. Also look at Zel, who has been locked away in a tower for two years with only her mother to talk to for one hour every day. I mean, come on, would you want to be stuck talking to your mother when she's the reason your in a f****** tower in the first place? Zel longs, has always longed, to talk with people and see people. So if you were shut away from the world like Zel, wouldn't you be willing to sleep with the man of your dreams when he climbs suddenly through the window of your prison? It's satisfying to read that they get to share something so precious and meaningful.The foreplay is presented as a series of similes anyway, and the actual putting of the you-know-what in the other you-know-what is indistinct. It's not written like a forward, sweaty, hot and heavy romance novel. It's beautifully described, haunting even. Completely appropriate.
So don't tie your panties in a knot, okay?
Book Review: I have never read a better book!
Summary: 5 Stars
Once i started to read this book i could not put it down. I'ts the best book i have ever read. The way she spun the ordinary story of Rapunzel into a classic of her own was amazing. If you don't have it then get it. I am sure you will feel the same way i do about this wonderful book.Book Review: I will always be grateful that I read this book
Summary: 5 Stars
I wavered on the prospect of buying this book for at least a month before finally purchasing it, simply because I wasn't sure if I would be getting a "kid's book" that would interest me or a more mature novel. Because Donna Jo Napoli's books are mostly listed as "young adult," and because some of her other titles, such as "Soccer Shock" and "Shark Shock" looked like "kids' books," I kept putting this recommendation aside.I wanted to read fairy tales, but not Disney-style, written for children with children's themes. I was (and am) interested in the adult side to these tales, but every time I would search Amazon.com for fairy tales, this was one of the first recommendations. Eventually, I succumbed, and I am unbelievably grateful.
"Zel" is one of the finest novels I have read, period. Napoli's fierce command over language, tone, content, setting and narrative prose shines so brightly in this book that I re-read it every day for three weeks just to absorb it all.
Zel, of course, is the story of Rapunzel, but as with most of Napoli's work, the details have been rearranged. Zel's love of life is corraled by her mother, who loves her daughter so much that she can't bear the thought of losing her to anyone or anything. And besides, Mother is a witch.
The character of Mother is a careful, powerful description of a woman in torment, as well as the crushing ability of love. Her internal struggles take root in the very fundamental question of evil: why do bad things happen? In Mother's case, the "bad thing" is her inability to have children. The desire is so intense that her barreness drives her away from God (at one point, she asks how He could make her want one so badly and yet not let her have one). She is unconcerned with selling her soul for the powers that allow her to acquire a child.
Mother has a need to both justify her actions and suffer for them. The increasing amount of control she imposes over her daughter - to the point that Zel is locked in a tower - drives both Mother and Zel to madness, but while Zel's madness is born from loneliness and isolation, Mother's is driven from guilt and fear. Mother works to bring her daughter wonderful gifts -- which Napoli describes in a way I've yet to see another author master, through patient mentions of foods, receipes, and other basic goods -- yet knows as she delivers them that Zel doesn't want them.
Konrad is the impetus for placing Zel in the tower. Zel's chance meeting with the 15 year-old count arouses all the fear Mother has of her child growing up and leaving her - as well as loving anyone besides her. But Mother can't control Konrad, who seeks Zel out everyday.
The alternating views -- between Mother, Zel and Konrad -- keep the book balanced with everyone's viewpoint. Mother is kept from being a black-hat villain because she can tell her story and therefore allow the reader to understand. Of course, you have to cheer for the young lovers, but despite the ending, I could sympathize with Mother's position.
Napoli doesn't shy away from adult situations -- including sex -- but she handles them tastefully and powerfully. "Zel" has themes that I don't think younger children or even younger teenagers can entirely grasp. It certainly isn't a novel to keep kids away from, in my opinion, but it is strong in nature.
The final paragraph is perhaps the most powerful of the entire novel, and it's probably why I keep rereading. Those are always the best kinds of books, I think; the ones that _make_ you read them again. I would recommend Zel to everyone except the very young. This book has caused me to gobble up nearly every book by Donna Jo Napoli, and for that, I will always be grateful to Amazon.com, who continued to recommend it no matter how many times I ignored it.
Book Review: I'm a kid, I loved it
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was the best book that I have ever read.Even though I'm still in my young teens, I've read a lot of books, and I have never read a book like this before. All you people out say, "oh, its to descriptive" but you know what? Most kids the ages that this book was made for know what she's talking about!Book Review: Incredible...Amazing...Astounding...pick your adjective!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Zel is a book loosely based on the story of Rapunzel. It's set in the Swiss Alps, about a mother so desperate for a child that she sells her soul to Satan for a child. Now, Zel (named after her favorite type of lettuce) is thirteen. She meets a prince (or duke...haven't read the book in a couple months) named Konrad. They are both quite attracted to each other. The mother, noticing her daughter's developments, is terrified of losing her. After Zel meets Konrad again, the mother goes a little -ahem- crazy, and locks Zel away in a tower, desperate to keep her daughter forever. The story was written from three points of view-Zel, Konrad, and the Mother, and it is incredible in the way that it delves headfirst into the psychological aspects. Zel eventually goes insane after being in that small stone circle for so long. Zel introduces puberty, and Zel's longing for a male companion. Her hair begins to weigh her down so much that she begins to walk around naked. Zel also mentions menstrual cycles, etc. Parents don't go burning these books in public groups now...I'm thirteen, and I could take it just fine. Besides, Donna Jo Napoli words things wonderfully and incredibly lyrical. When I reached the part where Konrad and Zel have sex, I went back and reread the chapter twice before realizing they had. The ambigous format saves Zel from becoming exceedingly crude. READ THIS!
NOW!!!!