I just finished Avalon High by Meg Cabot. It is a teen book, that for some reason, I had never read. Weird, right? But now I have read it and I own it. And it was awesome! As I am not terribly good at writing succinct recaps, I am just going to quote what the back of the book says:
"Avalon High seems like a typical high school, attended by typical students: There’s Lance, the jock. Jennifer, the cheerleader. And Will, senior class president, quarterback, and all-around good guy.
But not everybody at Avalon High is who they appear to be…not even, as new student Ellie is about to discover, herself. What part does she play in the drama that is unfolding? What if the bizarre chain of events and coincidences she has pieced together means—as with the court of King Arthur—tragedy is fast approaching Avalon High?
Worst of all, what if there’s nothing she can do about it?"
It is kind of interesting that the back of the book teases about the whole King Arthur thing, but that doesn't even really come into play until toward the end. I feel like this book, much like Insatiable, was a really great first book of a series. There was a lot of build up, but the ultimate showdown ended quickly, which makes me think that the sequel will be well worth the read. Even though the sequel is a graphic novel, which I don't read. But now I have to because I need to find out what happens with all the characters.
Now for the reasons that I really really loved Avalon High:
1) It contained all the things a good book should: hot boys (and hot girls, if that is your preference), kissing, violence, mystery, and all sorts of drama!
2) I thought the modern day King Arthur thing really worked as a plot device. I'm not that well versed in Arthurian anything, except for Monty Python and the Holy Grail and the Sword in the Stone, so I really enjoyed how much they discussed the historical stuff.
3) The Lady of Shalott by Tennyson. I really enjoyed reading the poem (it was used during chapter breaks) and it led me to research a bit about the Lady of Shalott, the real person. I like learning!
4) Ellie, the main character, was pretty hilarious and totally badass. She was definitely a fighter, which I totally dig in a hero!
I'm trying to figure out where in ranks in my love of Meg Cabot books. It definitely wasn't my favorite, even of the teen books, but it was up there. I thought the plot moved along well, even when there wasn't a lot of super drama-y stuff until the end. I really liked Ellie a lot and super loved Will, the guy she liked, but I also thought the secondary characters were fun, even without getting much page time (I wanted more Lance...). I'm definitely going to have to find the sequel now and read it. Who knows, maybe this will be what gets me into graphic novels...
I must agree!
ReplyDelete