Ogre Enchanted (2018)
by Gail Carson Levine
Ogre Enchanted tells the story of Evie, a young healer who refuses an unexpected marriage proposal from her best friend. A meddlesome fairy present at the time of the proposal doesn’t like such disappointments and casts a spell on Evie that turns her into an ogre. Now Evie has 62 days to secure (and accept) another proposal before she stays an ogre forever. Through her interactions with giants, ogres, dragons, and humans, Evie fights for her survival and battles between her healer instincts to help and her ogre instincts to harm, as she looks for a true love who can see past her hairy and smelly exterior.
20 years after Ella Enchanted, Ms. Levine has given readers a spirited, page-turning companion book. Ogre Enchanted‘s story takes place a couple years before the original book, and its epilogue leaves off just months before Ella’s birth. Fans of Ella will enjoy the references and connections between the two books, although, as these were obviously not written as a set, some forgiveness in details must be present. (I read one reviewer who was quite upset that Ella Enchanted had left out details that couldn’t have been written before its prequel was penned.) Ogre Enchanted is definitely for an older audience than Ella Enchanted, with some rather violent bits. Ms. Levine says her story was inspired by the Portuguese tale of “The False Prince and the True,” although many reviews also compare this book to “Beauty and the Beast.”
After my second read of this book, I really enjoyed doing a re-read of Ella Enchanted and found fun details and connections. Perhaps they weren’t all intended ones (such as the healer in Char’s group of knights possibly being Evie’s son…?), but I had fun searching, nonetheless.