Customer Reviews

Spirited (Once Upon a Time)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It is a pity that Nancy Holder's Spirited is set in 1756, a good thirty years before Jane Austen wrote, "Beware of fainting-fits...Though at the time they may be refreshing and agreeable yet believe me they will in the end, if too often repeated and at improper seasons, prove destructive to your Constitution." Isabella Stevens, Holder's less than intrepid heroine, could benefit by such excellent advice. She spends the majority of the novel either screaming or fainting and awaiting rescue from her tall, dark, handsome, and brooding captor.

Oh dear.

Spirited attempts to be a romantic, historically set, fairy tale retelling. What it is is a tamed bodice ripper with an incongruously tasteful cover. As such, it is unlikely to appeal to anyone who picks it up expecting an insightful exploration of Beauty and the Beast or even a decent historical fantasy.

The few parallels that exist between Spirited and the fairy tale it retells are tenuous and oddly distorted. Isabella does offer to remain captive to Wusamequin's tribe in exchange for her father's freedom. However, she actually ends up staying because of a botched escape attempt in which she nearly impales herself upon a branch in the forest. If anything, Spirited uses the basic framework and fantasy of the fairy tale as an excuse for a bad romance with remarkably little awareness of its own absurdity. The fantasy elements are incorporated badly, making suspension of disbelief difficult, particularly in the ending scene, which unfolds with all the cheap flashiness of a B grade horror flick.

Spirited works no better as historical fiction, though Nancy Holder has clearly done some research into Native American names and traditions, and Isabella's initial prejudice towards the Native Americans as savages is understandable. However, the fairy tale parallel which makes Wusamequin (the quintessential noble savage) the beast is a disheartening echo of colonial ideology. Holder's portrayal, while sympathetic, is not sensitive. It is both a surprise and a relief that she does restrain from completely vilifying either settlers or Native Americans.

Any redeeming value of the novel stems from the fact that Spirited can be genuinely, laugh-out-loud, funny. Holder's overwrought prose and tendency toward melodrama make many of Isabella and Wusamequin's adventures unintentionally hilarious. Isabella and her appropriately tormented lover take themselves so seriously that they almost deserve each other. Still, it's difficult to recommend Spirited when there are so many books that succeed in what it fails, like Robin McKinley's two retellings of Beauty and the Beast and Jackie French Koller's YA colonial romance, The Primrose Way. The Once Upon a Time series is stylishly designed and occasionally charming, but Nancy Holder's Spirited is not amongst its better entries.

Ailanna

Spirited is not the best beauty and the beast retelling I have read by a long shot. I far prefer both of Robin Mckinley's books, and Napoli's beast to a lesser extent. In Spirited, the threads to the fairy tale are recognisable, but few, the fantasy is at a minimum (though I still enjoyed it), and the plot (like most in the once upon a time series) is too rushed. Still, it was far better than the last in the series, Scarlet Moon by Debbie Viguie, which was so inacurate I cringe to think about it. Although I don't know much about early colonial and native american life, I saw nothing blantantly wrong with the information in Spirited.

The book does not hesitate to get into the action. It starts with Isabella riding in the woods with her father (a doctor) and some soldier escorts, on their way to bring medicine to another town. A young shaman named Wusamequin learnes of their presence through the help of a spirit guid. English soldiers killed his wife and son, so he does not hesitate to get his village to attack.

While the indians attack, Isabella stays to fight. She is a truely brave and loyal girl, who proves herself again and again through the book. Although she acts childish on occasion (she is 16) she usually acts with maturity and practicality, taking in her new station with little complaint. She is attacked, but Wusamequin saves her, although he can not tell why.

After the dust of the battle settles, Isabella and her father are taken prisoner. Once at the village they are about to be killed, but Wusamequin again intervenes, claiming they should be randsomed. Isabella offers to stay while her father takes the medicine to the sick. This is one of the few parallels to beauty and the beast. And in this case uneccesary because they make an escape attempt, which the father succeeds in. Unfortunetly, Isabella gets cut while running. Wusamequin finds her, then nurses her back to health.

After that, most of the story is about Wusamequin and Isabella's developing relationship. Near the end the plot once again reverts to beauty and the beast (this time with more success). The end seemed a little forced, with prematurely ended plot threads. Both of which could have been fixed with a longer book

All in all, this was a pretty good read, good for a quick read during the weekend.

I was REALLY looking forward to this book. I enjoyed several others from this series, as well as other books by Nancy Holder, and I love colonial American settings. Boy, was I disappointed. First off, the book claims to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but I could find only the barest hints of that story. Secondly, I found the love story completely unbelievable. I never felt that these two characters loved each other or could be happy together. And the ending came out of nowhere and was just totally bizarre and made very little sense. All in all, I can't find anything to recommend in this book.

Overall I thought this book was exceptionally well written. I very much enjoyed the few words that Natives used to help understand the ways of the First Nations people. I think for sure that this book would have been better if it was longer so it would be possible to sympathize and understand the characters' romance.

The only thing I disagreed with in this book was the 'joining of spirits' it's too farfetched. That was not what the Native people did, they did however, have medicine men to help free the spirits. I felt that this book did have quite accurate cultural information, however the ending didn't feel like an end at all. It was like she forgot to write a chapter or something or she didn't want to go into greater detail on what really happened to the main Character Mahwah/Isabella and her lover.

I would definitely recommend this book to all young adult readers who like romance books that aren't too cheesy. I like the little bit of culture gave us readers!

Despite the fact that this book has about 272 pages the storyline is very thin, with little to no depth. For Holder to claim her novel is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast is ridiculous! To take just a small, but important fragment of the original story, include it in one's own writing and completely twist it until it makes little sense and the original idea is ruined, is just pitiful. Though I won't refrain from saying that Holder had a good idea going. I just don't like the French and Indian War theme, which she has so ignorantly set her story at. Despite the fact that this book is not a complete success as both the author and I wish it was, the writing is still very good and gripping. Holder has the concept grasped, though she has a problem with execution and expansion of her ideas. For Beauty and the Beast fans like myself, I would recommend Robin Mckinley's novel "Beauty", it is an excellent retelling of such a classic love story. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast

CONTAINS SPOILERS:

Right. Well, Holder knows how to set a scene. I bought the book on the strength of the first few pages, when the main character, Isabella, rides with her father through the autumn woods of New England. She's enchanted, and so was I. And when her little escort is attacked, it brings to mind scenes from the 'Last of the Mohicans' movie, which, given the dedication, seems deliberate. And that's alright; good movie, that was.

The trouble I had with the story came with the developing relationship between Isabella and Wusamequin, her captor. The story is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, so I was expecting romance, and it's there. Problem is, it seems contrived, even considering the outlines of the original story. The main thing that Isabella and Wusamequin have in common is their mutual ability to heal people using spirit medicine. And that's a big thing, but they're up against some fairly big factors: the mutual enmity of their people, culture shock, personal violence, and war. Holder tries to get around this using the 'soulmates drawn mysteriously together' thing, along with what looks like a large helping of Stockholm syndrome, but it feels entirely too fast. There's a lot of "I like him/her and I don't know why;" truth told, I don't know why either. Both characters are likable, in their own ways; both are honorable, and fairly believable (if very heroic) on their own. It's the romance that feels forced. And in a story that is fundamentally romantic, that's wrong, somehow. A little extra time for them to get to know each other would not have gone amiss.

Read this book on a rainy day. Read it again a year later. It's not the best book you'll ever read. But you know, it's not the worst either.

During the height of the French-Indian War, Isabella and her father, who is a doctor with the British army, are making their way to a new fort through the New York wilderness. In the meantime, Wusamequin, a native-American brave who is looking to revenge the death of his wife and child has a vision of soldiers crossing through the lands of his people. In a fit of rage Wusamequin leads a party of warriors against the English.

Impressed with the way Isabella fights back, he spares her life and takes her into his home as his slave, though soon both of them begin to realize that they are becoming much more than servant and master.

I liked the idea behind the story of Spirited, I love stories where Native American tribes take in settlers and the settlers learn that all they have been taught about "Indians" is wrong. It's a classic theme I know, but I can't help really liking those kinds of stories anyway. The hitch with Spirited however, is that Nancy Holder decided to insert lots of different kinds of magic and folklore into the plot.

For example, Isabella has little fairy beings come to her while she is a prisoner in camp and they help her learn the language and keep her safe from those in the tribe who would do her harm. Now, some little touches of magic in a story are fine with me. I mean, it did take Spirited from the "historical fiction" category into fantasy, but Holder took it to the next level.

Once vortexes started to open and Isabella and Wusamequin started fighting off evil spirits in the dream realm Spirited jumped from "interesting" and into the ridiculous. I get that this was supposed to be a YA book, but really? It's like I was reading two different books. Spirited started off as a great historical fiction with a little native magic throw in and became a sci/fi fantasy that happened to be set in the 1800s. It reminded me of that episode of "The Big Bang Theory" where Sheldon is walking around a Renaissance fair dressed as Spock. The two just did not go together.

To top it off, in the epilogue Holder says that Spirited was a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. I must be a bigger idiot that I thought, because I totally didn't get that at all. In fact, I was baffled when I read that last part. If I flip through Spirited page by page, yeah OK, I can kind of see the similarities, but a retelling? That's stretching it. A lot.

I guess my conclusion is I didn't get Spirited. The plot left me confused and kind of upset at the end, I found the characters to be very one-dimensional even for a YA book, and I put down Spirited feeling very unsatisfied. I have a couple more of these "retelling" books in my pile, but after this one I might shove them towards the bottom.

A very generous 2 stars.

Spirited was generally a well-written story following the life of Isabella Stevens ("Mahwah") and her accounts of living in the Americas during the French and Indian War. Shortly after the intro, Isabella is captured by Native Americans and taken to their holdings with her father. While she struggles to save her father and herself, she is drawn to the Tribe's Shaman, Wusamequin, whom she owes her life. All the while we learn about Wusamequin and his life, or what was, at least.

Although meant to be loosely based on the tale of "Beauty and the Beast", I found this story more original than any retelling. It, too, is mainly about survival and the conflict of "forbidden" love. But Wusamequin is in no way beastly. He is seemingly handsome, intelligent, and caring, despite his efforts not to be. For this, his character was my favorite.

I didn't give the book full points because I feel Mahwah's instinct and common sense was horribly mistaken for courage, when really she would have been helpless without Wusamequin. But it wasn't enough for me not to enjoy the story.

This is an easy read with culture and dealings that I've never read before, and I think it can be enjoyable to practically anyone interested in the Once Upon a Time... series.

Spirited is the story of Isabella Stevens, a young Englishwoman living in America during the time of the French and Indian war. She and her father are taken captive by a local Native American tribe, and she ends up being the slave of the tribe's medicine man.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. It was a quick read, and the timeline of events flowed nicely. However, I didn't realize it was supposed to be a retelling of Beauty & The Beast until I read the author's note at the end. I thought it felt more of like a reverse Pocahontas, with the English settler being a woman, and the Native American being the man. Here and there were some details that were unclear, at times it seemed like Isabella understood why something happened, but I as the reader was never clued in. There was also an immediate acceptance of the magic that the medicine man performed (including little people akin to Brownies or Sprites), that I didn't find believable. As a lady of some fortune, growing up educated as it seemed Isabella had, I don't believe that she would immediately believe in the magical things she was witnessing without some issue. I also thought the ending was rather unbelieveable, and a little unclear. I did really love Isabella and Wusamequin, and thought they were strong, realistic characters.

I was rather excited to stumble upon this book thinking it was a teen romance set during the French and Indian War in America. I did not realize it was a re-telling of Beauty and the Beast; I probably wouldn't have picked it up if I had. What a disappointment. The narrative was not very descriptive and when the fairies appeared and magic began to run rampant, I quickly lost faith that I would find reading satisfaction. And I didn't. <sigh>