It took me awhile to get into this book, but I finished it two days ago and I'm still thinking about it, wishing there were more (Ms. Levine, I request a sequel, please!). As she did in [b:Ella Enchanted|24337|Ella Enchanted|Gail Carson Levine|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1308737674s/24337.jpg|2485462], GCL gives us a fairy tale with complicated, lovable characters and a lot of intrigue. Here are things I loved about it:

1. The dragon Masteress Meenore's lack of gender. It probably wasn't GCL's intention, but I thought creating a character that's neither male nor female was a very progressive move. Not only does it leave room to explore what's "masculine" and "feminine" but it adds a twist that I don't think I've ever seen before. (Also, don't expect it be resolved neatly.)

2. The audiobook narrator, Sarah Coomes. What a genius! She did about 12 distinct voices and had to fit her style to GCL's weird descriptions of how people talked and what their accents were like. I especially loved the voices she did for Princess Renn, Count Jonty Um and Masteress Meenore.

3. Combining fantasy and detective genres. I'd been craving a good mystery, and this certainly hit the spot. Elodie wants to be a mansioner (an actress) but ends up the assistant of a dragon who is basically a detective/street vendor. Together they take up the job of finding out who is plotting against an ogre who also happens to be a count. It sounds crazy, but it totally works.

I heartily recommend the audiobook version of this. I smell an Odyssey Award... ( )

A Tale of Two Castles is a refreshing break from the overblown faerie romances and poorly worldbuilt dystopias I’ve encountered lately. I found it intelligent and engaging, with a slowly growing mystery that builds to a satisfying climax. Though aimed at MG readers, it was written with depth and skill, one of those rare books that felt, in a good way, to have been longer and more intricate than it really was. The author, Gail Carson Levine, specializes in MG/YA cozy fantasies; indeed she’s the author of the popular Ella Enchanted, a revisionist take on the Cinderella fairy tale.

The story is about Elodie, a 14-year-old peasant girl departing from her island home to become an apprentice on another island. Her parents hope her to become a weaver, but she has her heart set on becoming an actor, due to the influence of her family’s tenant. Being of humble origins Elodie carries only a few coins, and her arrival at her new home is complicated by the theft of those coins, and the fact that fashionable citizens wear caps, a problem because she now can’t afford one. Other notable residents include a king prone to making cruel practical jokes, his dippy daughter, a friendly ogre and his dog, and a dragon, all of whom Elodie becomes acquainted with as she tries to realize her thespian dreams.

Unlike a lot of the current potboiler YA books, the Medievalism felt accurate (save for the dragon, ogre, and magic, of course.) Clothes and luxuries are in short supply, and expensive; the majority of the market stalls are resellers. Yet, it’s cozy and familiar. Peasants eat small bundles of grains boiled with bits of meat and herbs – the author tells us how delicious they taste. There are rushes on the floor of castle halls and servants sleep there when the feasting is done, bundled in blankets. This is not a threatening world, but it’s not one of endless gowns and balls either.

The dragon was not a threat but a normal, law-abiding citizen known for making hot toasted bread sticks covered with cheese. Mysteriously, the reptile will not indicate its gender and is referred throughout the story as IT. Just like that, in caps. The book was published in 2011 so it’s possibly the first instance of a nonbinary character in children’s fantasy, occurring way before the current gender revisionism. Strangely, I got used to the IT after a while, even with the caps. The word indicated the creature’s uniqueness and the fact it was nonbinary more than either they or it would have. They would have been confusing, and it too nonspecific and disrespectful of the creature’s personhood. I know there are plenty of people out there who would rip me for not comfortable with using they as a nonbinary singular pronoun, but frankly, what works for a legal document or a puff-piece in a news article doesn’t work for fiction, where it’s just too damn confusing.

Elodie, who has second thoughts being apprenticed to the acting troupe, falls into the dragon’s employ where she acts as both housecleaner and spy, for a mystery is afoot at the ogre’s castle. The ogre, despite merely being a well-mannered, giant-size human, is not beloved by the people of the city, and it turns out… surprise! He’s to marry the dippy daughter of the king. But his beloved dog has been kidnapped and without the dog, he has no means to keep the cats of the city at bay, who have the power to force him to transform into a mouse. This rather clunky plot point was the only tweeness in the book, but I could forgive it for what happens after. A cat invades the ogre’s banquet, he becomes a mouse, and the castle is turned upside down as his servants try to find him. Elodie comes under suspicion and is locked in a tower under threat of being poisoned, with her dragon patron nowhere in sight.

I did wind up liking this book much more than I thought I would; for what it was, it was damn well perfect. ( )

I liked the main character. I liked the Princess Renn though I'm not sure I was supposed to. I gather I was supposed to like the dragon and the ogre, but the former was too much of a Sherlock Holmes-style jerk (ITS softer side buried too deep) and the latter too utterly hapless in his social cluelessness. I had little interest in the mystery plot either and at one point as a result considered abandoning the book halfway through as a result. My interest rekindled as it went on but I was never very deeply invested. ( )

Kind of a slow pace, but nicely created fairytale world -- or at least a world with worrying fairytale echoes. The audio book version is excellent, with weird accents (honey, honey) and a suitably dramatic Elodie, mansioning her way through adventures. Really enjoyed the gender-free dragon, but IT is not a great word for that. Masteress is much better. ( )

This was lovely, not at all Levine's typical genre, but so much fun. A young girl is sent off to become an apprentice and dreams of being a mansioner (an actor); instead she becomes an assistant to a dragon who doesn't just sell smoked meats and cheeses but also induces and deduces all sorts of mysteries. There is also a good ogre, engaged to be married to a princess in order to win the hearts of his people, who loves dogs and fears cats. Together, they induce, deduce, mansion, and most of all, steal the hearts of readers with a fantastical adventurous mystery. And Levine proves, yet again, that anything she writes will be magical. ( )