I have never read any of Alex Flinn's books, though I have been meaning to get around to them. Towering seemed like a good start in that respect. I love the movie Tangled and Rapunzel was one of my favorite stories as a child.
Towering is another book with alternating narrators. Rachel is the girl in the tower. She is completely alone, except for Mama, the old woman who brings her food and takes care of her. Inexplicably, she knows that someone is out there who will rescue her and help her find what she is meant to do. Wyatt is the other narrator. After a tragic event involving his best friend, Wyatt goes to stay with Mrs. Greenwood. Her daughter, Wyatt's mother's best friend, disappeared years ago. It's very cute how Wyatt and Mrs. G bond, and it's nice that the old woman isn't alone anymore.
There are a lot of strange things going on. Wyatt finds the daughter, Danielle's, journal. He reads about an overprotective mother and a romance with a mysterious stranger, a romance that resulted in a baby. He starts to hear singing in the woods. Nobody else seems to hear it. The music leads him to Rachel in her tower.
Together, they get all schmoopy and lovey dovey, plus they have to figure out what Rachel is meant to do and heal and stuff. That's an abbreviated version, and I actually didn't mind it as much as my slightly jaded description implies. Honestly, this book gets incredibly cracker jacks. One should be cautious about trusting my star ratings, because I gave it an extra star because of the weirdness. We're talking a magical herb drug ring, on top of the magic hair inherent to the Rapunzel story. I've been wanting a book that goes over the top, and I got it. I also really liked it, both as the weirdo it was and as a pretty good fairy tale retelling.
I received my copy of Towering from Edelweiss, courtesy of HarperTeen. It will be available May 14, 2013.
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