Book: Avalon High
Author: Meg Cabot
Pages: 304
Publisher: HarperTrophy
Reviewed by: Kat (Age 20)
Amazon.com Price: $11.55
Purchase: Here
|
With parents as professors spending time on writing sabbaticals following medieval legends, Ellie Harrison soon notices that a 21st century version of a medieval Arthurian legend of good-versus-evil battle is taking shape in the midst of her seemingly harmless new school Avalon High; the school of the Excaliburs.
There’s the kind, gorgeous quarterback A. Will Wagner (whose first name happens to be Arthur), his cute cheerleader girlfriend Jennifer (with the name Jennifer denoting from Queen Guinevere’s), his best friend the guard* for the football team Lance (denoting from Sir Lancelot, King Arthur’s loyal knight), and not to mention his troublemaker stepbrother Marco (representing King Arthur’s half-brother Mordred). Plus, when Marco exposes Lance’s and Jennifer’s illicit love affair behind Will’s back to Will, Ellie can’t help but it being similar to Mordred exposing the adultery of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere in the Arthurian legend.
But when Ellie realises that the adultery of Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere brought about King Arthur’s downfall, and not to mention that Mordred will kill King Arthur in the Arthurian legend, she realises that she has to stop the horrific chain of events that will engulf them all, with the help of her own 21st century Merlin.
The idea of having a modern day medieval tale was rather fresh and unique. With Meg Cabot’s fresh ideas and creative style of writing, every single page of this book would definitely leave you craving for more.
Review By Amanda
Moving to a new school just in time to start your junior year of high school can be tough for a lot of teens. Elaine (Ellie) reasons that it's just for one year while her professor parents take their sabbatical to write their books. She spends the last few weeks of summer at their newly rented house floating aimlessly on a raft in the pool; the one thing that excited her about the move was that pool. She knows the whole routine though, and once school starts, she quickly makes a few friends. Things get a little strange though when she meets the most popular boy in school and feels an unexpected connection to him. Ellie becomes caught up in a story much older than her, one that stretches back to the glory days of Camelot, whether she wants to believe it or not.
I love that Meg Cabot uses Tennyson's Lady of Shalot to start off each chapter. The book parallels the legend of King Arthur and Camelot, but in most stories, Lady Elaine is overshadowed by the love triangle of Arthur, his queen, and his best friend. It's nice to see her story get some recognition. Of course, I also have a deep affection for the poem because of the part it plays in the Anne of Green Gables novels anyway, so maybe I'm a little biased.
I also enjoyed just how the parallels are drawn between the historical figures of Camelot and a group of high school students. It makes perfect sense that high school royalty is made up of football players and cheerleaders. It's interesting to see just how Cabot decides to link the history, the legends, and her own version of the story. Of course, it does take an awfully long time to get from the typical teen angst to the real story. Knowing what the novel was about going in, it felt like I was just waiting to get to the meat of the story. There was a whole lot of getting to know the characters without really getting to know them.
Once the writing reaches the interesting part of the story, the rest of it comes pretty quickly. The action occurs at what seems like a roller coaster's pace. This works in the novel's favor though. It makes you want to keep reading, enjoying where the pages take you. And the book races to a satisfying, and not altogether expected (unless you are extremely well versed in the stories of King Arthur) conclusion. The book isn't the best read, but it is an interesting one.