Towering - Alex Flinn

Towering by Alex Flinn
Series: Kendra Chronicles #3
Publisher: Harper Teen
Publication Date: May 14, 2013
Source/Format: Borrowed from Jamie || ARC

(Note: This may be a series, but it isn't necessary to read the books in order. You'll be fine to read this one without having read the others first.)

Rachel is trapped in a tower, held hostage by a woman she’s always called Mama. Her golden hair is growing rapidly, and to pass the time, she watches the snow fall and sings songs from her childhood, hoping someone, anyone, will hear her. 

Wyatt needs time to reflect or, better yet, forget about what happened to his best friend, Tyler. That’s why he’s been shipped off to the Adirondacks in the dead of winter to live with the oldest lady in town. Either that, or no one he knows ever wants to see him again.

Dani disappeared seventeen years ago without a trace, but she left behind a journal that’s never been read, not even by her overbearing mother…until now. (from Goodreads)

The story of Rapunzel is one of my favorites from my childhood, but I'm well aware of the challenge it presents for authors who want to put a modern-day spin on it. There are far too many fantastical elements (the rapunzel lettuce, the hair that grows to amazing lengths and the tower hidden away in the woods) to try to incorporate. In Towering, I can applaud Alex Flinn for her successful effort to retell the story of Rapunzel, as she manages to weave together both contemporary and magical elements into a story that's addictive and still manages to make sense of it all.

Rachel is the Rapunzel character of this story, obviously. She's smart, as she's given access to books (!) by her mother, but she's also very naive and innocent since she's never recalled being able to venture out into the world. As with most fairytale princesses, she's beautiful and she's talented, with a singing voice that's beautiful and haunting. What I liked best about her was her beautiful reaction to the real world once she gets to step out into it - she's genuine in her joy and her amazement. It kind of reminded me of a little kid discovering that they can walk.

Wyatt, on the other hand, is obviously the love interest. He's the one who finds Rachel, and he becomes a part of her life almost instantly. What I like most about him is that he's got a past, and what a dramatic past that is. It adds a bit of color to his character, and I think it's interesting to see how the past has affected him in many ways. I also appreciated his willingness to find a way to protect and be with Rapunzel no matter what, as well as his kindness to the old lady he stays with.

I wasn't a big fan of the insta-love, even though I know that's usually part and parcel of any fairytale. That was the one element of this book that just made me want to grit my teeth and yell. But I suffered through it because the story was just too compelling for me to put down.

It's fairly obvious that I only had lukewarm feelings towards these characters, so it is without a doubt the story that made me fall in love with this book. I love how Flinn was able to take the elements of the original fairytale and incorporate them in this story in a way that felt believable. Her idea for how to weave it all together was so clever, and I found myself in awe of how it all concluded.

The one thing I'd recommend to people who want to check out Towering is that they need to be able to suspend their belief while they read it. Even though it's written in a modern-day setting and with modern touches, it's very much still a fairytale, so there's a sense of the fantastic and unbelievable in it. If you're able to do that, it's highly likely that you'll be able to enjoy it as much as I did. Towering is one of the superior Rapunzel retellings I've read, and I can gladly recommend it to fellow fairytale fans and people looking for a good fairytale retelling.