Book Jacket:
I’m not your average hero. I actually wasn’t your average anything. Just a poor guy working an after-school job at a South Beach shoe repair shop to help his mom make ends meet. But a little magic changed it all.
It all started with a curse. And a frognapping. And one hot-looking princess, who asked me to lead a rescue mission.
There wasn’t a fairy godmother or any of that. And even though I fell in love along the way, what happened to me is unlike any fairy tale I’ve ever heard. Before I knew it, I was spying with a flock of enchanted swans, talking (yes, talking!) to a fox named Todd, and nearly trampled by giants in the Everglades.
Don’t believe me? I didn’t believe it either. But you’ll see. Because I knew it all was true, the second I got cloaked.
You can read an excerpt here.
Review:
Cloaked is a Percy Jackson style romp, a mash-up of Southern Florida and several classic fairy tales. Readers looking for a repeat of Beastly‘s dreamy, breathless romance will find Cloaked to be a different animal, less a romance and more an adventure story, though there is still a cute couple to root for, and Cloaked employs the same style of clever internal commentary we found in Beastly.
Cloaked brings the fun with its modern play on classic fairy tales – the traditional cobbler becomes the boy who works in a shoe repair store, Johnny; the princess becomes the media beset party girl, and the frog prince her lost brother. The adventure starts out swinging, with Johnny flattered/bribed into taking on the quest to track down the missing frog prince, and he’s given a few magical items (including a cloak) to help him along the way. He taps into the South Florida network of magically transformed creatures – the Used-To-Bes, as they call themselves – for intel on the missing amphibian, and with their tips (and the help of his best friend, Meg) he tracks the enchanted frog across South Florida, though of course he pays for this intelligence by helping the Used-To-Bes with the lifting of their various enchantments.
When the book focused on Johnny’s quest to find the frog, it was rollicking good fun. I loved the idea of the magical animals spy network, and watching Johnny discover the magical underpinnings of modern Florida was massively entertaining (especially for me, as I lived in Miami for several years – Flinn’s descriptions of Miami Beach and Key West are hilariously spot on). Unfortunately, the narrative quickly gets bogged down in tangential fairy tales – for any fan of Grimm, it’s always fun seeing old favorites reimagined, but the side missions overpower the main narrative a bit too much, such that the story seemed scattered and unfocused. Honestly at times it felt like the story just stalled out as it took far too long for Johnny to finish up with his side mission and get back on with his quest. There were also one or two moments of extremely annoyingly convenient stupidity on Johnny’s part – and I’m not talking about the fun the book had with teenage boy obliviousness when it comes to girls, that I found thoroughly enjoyable – but there were a couple of painfully obvious traps that it was really irritating to watch Johnny fall into.
Still, Johnny is a likable, sweet lead and Meg is peppy fun. Watching them snipe at and play off each other is effortlessly cute and entertaining.
And so this story kept me going until the end – was it predictable, absolutely; was it cheesy, sure; but the adventure was good fun and the romantic resolution adorable. Flinn’s patented gentle snark makes for a fun narrative, and her modern takes on classic fairy tales are Grimm candy – I just wish the narrative had been tighter. Still, overall this book adds up to respectable, if uneven, light fun.
Byrt Grade: B
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it...
Books from Bleh to Basically Amazing says:
I adored the mash up of fairy tales included within Cloaked. We see elements of The Six Swans, The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Valiant Tailor, The Golden Bird, and of course, The Frog Prince. Almost all of these tales come from my favorites of the Brother’s Grimm. Being so familiar with fairy tales in general, and these fairy tales in particular did mean that I was able to predict a lot of what was about to happen, but there was enough that surprised even me that I was not left feeling like this was another predictable retelling.
The whole thing just felt kind of rushed, almost like the book was a series of small adventures with no real big climactic scene at the end. And, the part that I REALLY wanted to hear about, which was Megan’s back story, was almost completely overlooked. It was so disappointing.
But, as usual, Alex Flinn had some very witty dialogue and laugh-out-loud situations that I loved.
This book is a really cute, light read. Totally predictable. Cheesy. Cute. Fun. And NOTHING like what I was expecting after hearing stuff about Beastly. If you’re in a reading slump, I’d recommend picking up Cloaked. It doesn’t require a whole lot of brainpower, but it had me smiling.
I Love all of Alex Flinns books that i have read so far, they’re like disney stories in real life.
i love alex flinn and her writing.