The Sevenfold Spell

Going into The Sevenfold Spell I had certain expectations, since it was a retelling of a fairy tale. As a reader who has fallen in love with these types of stories, I am always excited to see how the author takes the characters and puts them in new situations. My high expectations for this story may have been why I was a little taken aback when I first began reading. Part of me knew that this book was more about other characters, and less about the main characters, but I was still a little disappointed.

What I liked about Tia Nevitt's retelling was that it dealt with those characters that usually get ignored. Rarely ever in fairy tales do you learn about what happens to the “little people” as the story progresses. Of course the townspeople would have their livelihood affected by a ban on spinning wheels! It was interesting to see how they coped and worked together to make it by. I was also intrigued by how the original characters were slowly brought into the story, one a time, and sometimes in a way I completely wasn't expecting.

On the flip side, what I disliked about this story were the flat characters. Talia was a sweet girl, and I didn't even fault her for the decisions that she had to make to stay alive. Instead I was a bit upset that we never got to see farther into what she was thinking, or how her mother was affected. If you check the page count, this book is very short. It's a mere 97 pages where other books are much longer. I think that if the author had spent a few more pages on character development, I would have loved the book that much more.

Overall I can say that I did enjoy reading The Sevenfold Spell! It was a quick and interesting read for me. Give it a try if you're into fairy tales and their retellings!