Review: Towering

Towering
Alex Flinn
Harper Teen
5.14.2013


Alex Flinn is a master storyteller. Twisting classics like no one else, there is a new Repunzel in town with the release of Towering and with a series of twists and turns readers will be taken into a whole new classic adventure with a modern twist.

Blurb from the Publisher:

Rachel is trapped in a tower, held hostage by a woman she’s always called Mama. Her golden hair is growing rapidly, and to pass the time, she watches the snow fall and sings songs from her childhood, hoping someone, anyone, will hear her. 
Wyatt needs time to reflect or, better yet, forget about what happened to his best friend, Tyler. That’s why he’s been shipped off to the Adirondacks in the dead of winter to live with the oldest lady in town. Either that, or no one he knows ever wants to see him again.
Dani disappeared seventeen years ago without a trace, but she left behind a journal that’s never been read, not even by her overbearing mother…until now. 

Our Thoughts On:

In a cave below a fire racked building, workers whispered of a Prophecy . . . wait, wait! We are not there yet.

One cold December, Emily Hill sent her son Wyatt to live with an old friend named Anne Greenwood. The locals had stories of old Mad Greenwood, a woman wracked with grief after her daughter’s disappearance when she was seventeen. Wyatt may soon find himself deep in an old story that has been haunting his family and this community for the past eighteen years.

Rachel is the girl in the tower. Rapunzel takes a whole new twist in Towering, full of secrets and shadows this book will catch and captivate readers in a tale of love and betrayal. Young love is not always what it seems when Rachel begins to dream of a boy, then she begins to have premonitions about him, soon turning into hearing him in her tower. But really, Rachel is in a tower, she is not hiding any boys in there anytime soon so what is Rachel experiencing? With pale skin and flowing golden hair as a child, Rachel didn’t understand why she was secluded at home, but after a run in with another child and her mother cutting her hair, Rachel was whisked off to her tower; sheltered from all, secluded. Was the tower her prison, or was it possibly her protection?

Wyatt is a hero. Once he begins to see the ghost of Danielle Greenwood, Wyatt discovers there is truly something sinister going on around these parts. With daring exploits and a quest for uncovering the truth of the disappearance of Danielle Greenwood and how this is connected to Rachel is the foundation of the story.
            Swept into a romance and mystery readers will fall for Towering, a new twisted modern fairytale. Towering pushes past the helpless maiden and brings forth a sheltered girl who has passion and drive. With a romantic twist and a cold case, Towering will captivate with this dynamic pair of characters who are selfless and motivated.

Alex Flinn has efficiently rewritten the class Rapunzel into a while new heroine with an earnest dream to find more in her world. With an inventive plot and a sinister evil twist of an underground drug ring and missing local persons’ cases, this book will assimilate many types of readers into a daring fantast that wraps up in our present time. Previous readers of Flinn’s adaptations will enjoy this new plot thickening with the loathsome bad guys, but also be caught up in the ferocious passions of Wyatt and Rachel. Get ready for adventure in Alex Flinn’s latest, Towering.