Enchantment

This book is an interesting spin on a well-known fairy tale. I really enjoyed this one because the "princess" isn't a damsel in distress and the "charming" isn't always charming. They are written as multi-dimensional characters with character flaws and imperfections. They don't instantly fall in love. They bicker and disagree, but then learn how to work together to free her family from the curse that put her in the middle of the forest. I like the reality of having to learn how to work with someone else and the growth that comes from that learning.

Orson Scott Card is best known for his masterful science fiction books like Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead, but Enchantment is my favorite of his. Enchantment is a modern-day take on Sleeping Beauty that is both breathtakingly exciting and wildly romantic. The interpretation of the fairy tale is so clever and the writing is so good, I find myself coming back to this book again and again. Nobody can write deeply good and complex characters quite like Orson Scott Card. He is a master. 

This is a beautifully rich retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I love the heaviness of the language that mirrors the Russian folklore our main character, Ivan, is studying. Memories take him home to the Carpathian Forest where he finds a beautiful woman sleeping on a pedestal and guarded by a bear. We cross a thousand years of time to experience Katarina’s world, then flee to the modern (1990’s) world so she can see Ivan’s lifestyle as they hide from the witch who wants them dead. It’s a brilliant way to build a relationship between these two characters who are so… show more.