Synopsis (from Goodreads.com):
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 the curse. And the 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 Keys.
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.
Review:
I’ve enjoyed Alex Flinn’s work after reading Beastly so I have read a few of her other fairy-tale based books and enjoyed them. I like how she takes well known stories and makes them applicable to the modern world so this book seemed like a no-brainer.
What I like about Cloaked was that it wasn’t just one fairy tale book used in this story (so don’t think it is about Little Red Riding Hood because it isn’t!). In her author note, Alex talks about using lesser known fairy tales in this novel as her main purpose for writing this book and she succeeds in this mission. While I wasn’t familiar with all of the tales used, it added a bit of freshness to the story as I didn’t know where it was going and I was able to learn about other fairy tales that haven’t been made into Disney movies.
However, I just didn’t like this book as much as I hoped. I think I was a little too old to be reading it so it took me a while to get into it. It definitely picked up once you got into it but nothing really wowed me about this book. It was a long time ago when I read this and the fact that this review is so short she be a good indication of how much I enjoyed and remembered the story.
Conclusion:
Definitely better for a middle school crowd who enjoy action, minimal romance and like modern adaptions of fairy tales.
Rating: 3/5
Shorthand Stats:
Genre: Young adult, Adventure, Magic, Fairy Tales
Recommended for: 12+
Similar Books: Kill me Softly by Sarah Cross and A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn