Review: Wonderful Fairy Tale Like Read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2011
RECEIVED FROM: Library Thing Member Giveaways for Review Purposes***NOTE MY REVIEWS OFTEN CONTAIN SPOILERS***Daphne is a young mother living in the enchanted city of Trevell.  The city is cared for by the union of a phoenix and a silver ash tree, every hundred years the phoenix renews it's spirit into the great tree and  the phoenix, the tree and the city are reborn anew, fixed and shiny again.  In the interim, near the end as the phoenix fades before rebirth the city slowly dwindles away, dirty and falling apart with small harvests and sick people.  Unfortunately for the people of Trevell, the silver ash is dying and  when it is time for the phoenix's rebirth she refuses to be reborn into the tree because she doesn't want to die too.  Instead she merges her spirit into Daphne's body much to the anger of all the city's resident.  Now Daphne must figure out how to save the tree and the city before they kill her because the believe she stole the spirit of the phoenix from them.This story is a delightful short read which combines a variety of ancient myths from multiple cultures into one fairy tale like story.  The musical lilt of the authors voice slowly draws you and immerses you in the lives of Daphne and the people of Trevell.  The book does read like a fairy tale and is in many parts told to the reader rather than shown.  A closer point of view would have allowed for both a faster pace to this novel that I think could have greatly benefited the work.  And while I also believe it would have allowed for a better connection to the characters within the story with a closer voice than the one provided, the distance narrator-like voice actually does still work for this novel.  That's not something I'd usually say with a modern novel, but Llewelyn manages to pull it off brilliantly.The opening actually reminds me of the beginning of the movie Ella Enchanted, (I haven't had the opportunity to read the book yet) though it doesn't seem quite as silly as that movie is presented at it's opening.  Reading it  I was surprisingly able to still connect to the main character of Daphne, though the distance of narration made it difficult to connect to any character beyond Daphne.  You could sort of feel their plights through their actions and words, but they seemed too far away to really relate.  However with the manner in which this story is told, it doesn't matter in the same way that it normally would within a novel when you can't really relate to a character.  Due to the fact that it's based on this blending of myth, it reads much like a myth where it's less important to connect to the characters within the story and more important to grasp the morals or lessons portrayed through the story.While the novel is on the short side, Llewelyn manages to neatly pack everything needed within the text leaving the reader with a sense of fulfillment upon finishing the story that's actually becoming uncommon among other recently published literary works.  While his summary at the end promises future works from Daphne's world, the writer doesn't feel the need to leave the many frustrating lose ends common in recent works from other writers.This is a well written fairy tale and the only fault I can find with it is that I think it might have been more exciting in a more real-time close narrative.  However even without that, it's an excellent read that once you begin you'll have trouble putting down.  I highly recommend this book to younger readers, though I think many adults will still find enjoyment in the tale of Daphne and her city as well.