Holla if you love fairy tale retellings! Alex Flinn seems to be somewhat known throughout YA for this. Friend, I am not as well read as I think I am, because I had never read one of Flinn’s retellings, only her contemporary work, until Cloaked. I’m thinking I’ll need to rectify that and read the reast of her books soon. Cloaked was such a cute and delightful read.
Cloaked
17 year old Johnny is an average guy. He’s got a good heart and works hard for his family business, a shoe repair shop located in a posh hotel in South Beach, Florida. When Princess Victoriana, a famed party girl from a fictional country comes to town, Johnny’s ordinary life becomes infused with adventure as Victoriana begs Johnny to find and save her brother, Phillipe who is turned into a frog. Along the way, Johnny uses magical objects, meets a myriad of talking animals including a flock of swans and a fox, AND discovers feelings for his best friend big. Did I mention that the plot of Cloaked is chock full of big reveals?
The 341 pages of Alex Flinn’s Cloaked fly by SO quickly due to a combination of factors. There are SUPER short chapters, which totally makes Cloaked fall under the just one more chapter syndrome, meaning oh that chapter is short, I’ll just read it before setting the book down, until you discover those really short chapters just mean that you finished the book way soon than anticipated. Flinn’s writing is also jam-packed with action. The characters are engaging and I rooted for Johnny, hoping he’d pick the right girl (MEG) AND save the frog. ALSO bonus: the pages are peppered with famous quotes containing shoes because Johnny is really into shoes. It’s such a cool characteristic to have, I think.
Cloaked combines several old fairytales that we’ve heard before: The Frog Prince and The Elves And The Shoemaker. Also, a few that I’ve never heard before. I won’t mention those here, because the fun is in discovering them for yourself.
I would definitely recommend Cloaked by Alex Flinn if you are looking to get into reading fairy tale retellings or what something great to read during Misty and Ashley’s Fairy Tale Fortnight. However, just a warning – the accents of Victoriana and a few other characters get annoying really quickly.
Disclosure: I borrowed Cloaked from my local library.
This is a CYBILS book.
Other reviews of Cloaked by Alex Flinn:
Book Journey
Book Rat
All About {N}
Charlotte’s Library
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I added this one to my goodreads a while back..I definitely plan to read it one of these days. I think it would be higher on my list if so many of my friends hadn’t said the movie beastly was horrible. I know that has nothing to do with this book, or even the book Beastly. I shouldn’t let things like that influence me but it does.
Your review makes it sound great though, so I might have to move it up on the pile.
yeah i read beauty and i didn’t like it all that much – then they brought out the movie and although alex p is SRSLY THE HOTTEST BLOND, it still had vanessa hudgens and i’m like no just NO. and it completely made the book even worse. So I should try this, if just to get beastly out of my hair.
I’ve read Beastly, and liked it. She does a good job with retellings with a twist! I’ve got this one on my list.
I really liked that Johnny was into shoes, too. Partly just because it was a nod to one of my fave childhood fairy tales, The Elves and the Shoemaker, and partly because it’s just nice to have a male character who’s not afraid to be into something that men aren’t “supposed” to be into.
This is my favorite of Flinn’s three fairy tale retellings. I thought it was super fun and I loved all the nods to the other fairy tales throughout the story.
It would have helped a lot if I had read the end notes first, so I tell my students to do that when they check this out. I feel like I missed a lot of references.