Gail Carson Levine: Her Writings Are Sometimes Good and Other Times They Are Not

A while ago I read Ella Enchanted, a novel by Gail Carson Levine. You may know it better as the Disney movie that is based on it. After I saw the film, I found out that the movie was actually based upon a book. I read the book, and I like it much, much better that the movie.

Well, after I read Ella Enchanted I also read the The Princess Tales series by the same author. I also liked these books, so I generally assumed that all the other books that Gail Carson Levine has written were good and acceptable. I was wrong.

Recently I began reading The Wish, another book by Ms. Levine. Fairly quickly into the book--probably by the end of the first chapter-- I realized that the book was not wholesome or appropriate. I was very disappointed. The Wish was just not the kind of literature I wanted have in my brain. The book was very, very crude and I quickly stopped reading it. A little while later I was in a bookstore, and I found two other books by the Gail Carson Levine. They were both fairy tales, so I thought that they might be okay to read. The Wish was set in a modern day school, so I figured that the fairy tales would be fine to read. I decided against buying one of them, called Fairest, because it too had crude content and sexual references.

At the time the other one, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, seemed fine to me so I got it. Lets just say that that was a mistake. I got home and began reading it. I didn't even get halfway through the book before I put it away on my bookshelf and stopped ready it. The book includes a "good sorcerer". Okay, that in itself is a problem. I don't believe there can ever be "good sorcerers". Witchcraft is an evil thing and I do everything I can to stay away from it.

Over all, I am a disappointed in Ms. Levine. While I would recommend Ella Enchanted, some Of her other books I would just stay away from.