Tag Archives: retelling

Book Review – Interference

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Interference book coverInterference by Kay Honeyman

Kate Hamilton likes to “interfere” and it mostly gets her in trouble. When her Congressman father decides to run in a special election in his hometown in West Texas, Kate finds herself out of her usual Washington D.C. element and thrust into a world where football is king. As things get off to a rocky start, Kate keeps running into an irritating boy, Hunter, every time she screws up. Can she finally use her good intentions and machinations to help make this new place home? Kay Honeyman takes a somewhat bland YA retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma and saves it through her characters. Kate, like Emma, tends to annoy me as a reader as she continually messes with the lives of the good people around her but Kate seems to have better motivations for her interference. And of course, it is Hunter that draws all the attention just as Mr. Knightly is the perfect gentleman. I enjoyed this retelling by the end but it lacked imagination in spinning the West Texas, football, political campaign, and high school dramatics all together in a cohesive story.

Book Review – Second Star

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Second StarSecond Star by Alyssa B. Sheinmel

“Second Star” is a modern, retelling of Peter Pan. But instead of pixies, pirates and Neverland, this story has surfing, a drug called fairy dust and flying on waves. Wendy Darling goes in search of her surf bum brothers, John and Michael, who disappeared nine months ago. While everyone else believes they drowned in a surfing accident, Wendy is certain they are still out there looking for the next big wave. On her search, Wendy meets Pete, Belle and the boys, who live in an abandoned coastal house and spend their days surfing. Pete offers to teach her how to surf and she immediately becomes enamored with the feeling of “flying.” There are some twists. I definitely did not see the twists coming which is a compliment to Ms. Sheinmel’s story construction. I’m still not quite sure about the ending. It felt a little abrupt and vague. However,  I think this was an artful modernization of a classic story. I’d recommend this to fans of the Peter Pan story and fans of YA lit.