Avalon High by Meg Cabot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
… Huh. I don’t even remember where or how I got this book. It was probably through one of the book-trading/swapping sites I have been a part of over the years. But I know that I put it on my shelf and didn’t even pick it up for quite some time. I am not a huge fan of YA books but every now and then I toss them in to break up my usual authors and subject matter.
I was pleasantly surprised by Avalon High. Not that it was “Oh my goodness, that was fantastic writing!” because it wasn’t. But it was not that sub-par crap that people write nowadays and get best sellers out of them because teenage girls are obsessed with vampires. You know who I am talking about. Anyway, what impressed me was the theme. Reincarnation? Not a new idea. King Arthur? Old legend. It is not often that I actually learn new things from a fictional book; I didn’t know several key points of the Arthurian legends and found them out in this book. Granted, I was never a huge fangirl over King Arthur and such–I much prefer my Greek and Norse mythology–but everyone knows the basic story.
I was learning. I was reading. And I tried to put myself into the shoes of the target audience. Would they recognize the history lessons and be immediately turned off? No. And that is what surprised me. My hat off to Meg Cabot for managing to make history entertaining while not being historical fiction! I actually want to find and read the manga now to see what happens next.
Apr 24, 2011 • 11:39 am