Zel by Donna Jo Napoli Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Zel
Book Review: Not Good
Summary: 1 Stars
i bought this book hoping that it would be interesting and well, Good. instead i got a book that was, what i considered to be, Dull and extremely annoying. for some reason, after i read this book i was mad and it overall had a negative effect on me. this book was horrible and if i were you i would not read it. it was overall weird.Book Review: Not Very Promising
Summary: 2 Stars
Zel started out as a good book that I couldn't put down. The story is about an almost 13 year old girl who meets a handsome count named Konrad. Zel's mother is afriad that Zel will chose to live without her and imprsions Zel in a tower, the reasons for this are a little unclear. As the story goes you learn that Zel's mother sold her soul to the devil in order get her daughter. It was hard to understand the Zel parts of the book when Zel was in the tower and some parts of the book were TOTALLY inappropriate. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.Book Review: Not enough meat.
Summary: 3 Stars
This book was easy enough to read and an absolutely great idea. I even thoroughly enjoyed the author's take on the matter. Where it left me wanting was in its own sparseness. If you're going to do it, why not do it all the way? Give us more. But, Mrs. Readwell, you may ask, isn't the book's simplicity due to it being written for a young audience. Peut-être. It is, of course, always vastly better to overestimate one's audience than to under. [Mrs. Readwell's Recommendation: Marginally entertaining but ultimately unfulfilling.]Book Review: One of the Worst Books I've Ever Read
Summary: 1 Stars
I think Donna Jo Napoli is an awful writer. I think the thing that I despise the most is that she uses so many simple sentences. This might be alright is she was comepletely consistent with it, but since she occasionally throws in a compound sentence you realize that her pupose is not to write the whole thing in simple sentences, but that that is all the ability she has to write.
Overall, the plot is quite good, but the poor quatlity of writing reuins it for me and I simply cannot believe anyone could actually like this book. I implore anyone considering reading and/or buying this book to give up their consideration and turn their book reading/buying consideration to much better prospects. There is a myriad of fantastic books out there and Zel certainly is not one of them.
Book Review: Perhaps my favorite book ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book. Zel is Donna Jo Napoli's best book, in my opinion. It is a retelling of the fairy tale Rapunzel, but it is much better. Rapunzel had always been one of my less favorite fairy tales, until I read this book. Donna Jo Napoli creates a vivid story about a mother's love and how far she will go to keep her daughter near her. This book is full of sacrifice, romance, and sadness. Napoli was genius when she wrote showing Zel's mother's point of view, which makes your heart ache for her, while normally "the evil witch" who locks Rapunzel in the tower is to be hated. Napoli also did a WONDERFUL job at depicting the gradual decline of Zel's state of mind while in the tower. Some bits are even a bit gruesome. Buy this book (it is not expensive), and you will be very happy you did because you will read it many times (I have!). After reading this book, I was very pleased because it let me have a good cry, and it left me a good feeling.