Jamieson Wolf
Number-one bestselling author
Henry and Violet by Michelle Zink – A Book Review
Violet is worried about her father.
Since coming to Storybrooke after they left Camelot, he has been lost within himself. Sir Morgan had been an inventor and now, in Storybrooke, he has lost his way. When Violet sees her father’s old notebook from hundreds of years ago on a web site selling antiques and curiosities, Violet is determined to get it for her father, hoping that it will ignite his spirit once more.
Henry and Violet have the plan worked out. They are going on a trip to New York with the rest of their school. The antique store where the notebook is located is in New York. It feels like fate to Violet and to her, that notebook equals her father’s happiness.
When Henry and Violet arrive in New York, almost nothing goes according to plan. They aren’t able to sneak away from the group right away as they had planned, then they get lost on the subway. Violet begins to wonder if she just lets Henry tell her what to do and decide her path because he was the one to save her when she came to Storybrooke. Friends first and now in love, Henry wants the best for her, right?
As things begin to fall apart and all their plans to find her father’s notebook start to unravel, things become rather stilted and difficult between Violet and Henry. She feels alive in New York whereas he just wants to hold on to her all the tighter and have things stay just as they are.
Violet is beginning to wonder what comes after a happily ever after. Henry and Violet will have to learn that the future is unknown and all they have to do is turn to a blank page…
I was thrilled to read this book. I everything Michelle Zink has written, and I love the show Once Upon a Time. Who doesn’t love a modern fairy tale? I did wonder if Zink would be constrained by writing for a Disney show. I needn’t have worried.
What Michelle Zink has done is give us a modern twist on the fairy tale. I love how nothing is as you think it is and the path from point A to point B isn’t linear. At the same time, it has characters you will know and love from Once Upon a Time. If you’ve seen the show, you’ll know that usually nothing goes as expected.
Zink stays true to this, but throws her own spin on the modern day fairy tale. Told in alternating chapters between Henry and Violet, we’re taken into their relationship as they begin to find their way through a world that is changing around them. Zink covers young love, college, the ties of family and a city-wide search together into something that is absolutely magical.
I was so emotionally involved in Henry and Violet. I was surprised. I figured that writing characters that weren’t her own would leave the book lacking in someway. However, one of Zink’s strengths has always been characters so real that you know them by the end of the book. It’s no different with Henry and Violet.
By the time, we reach the end of the tale, Henry and Violet’s journey, both internal and external, has been our own. I loved everything about this book. Michelle Zink has created something wholly different: she has written a novel that stays true to its source material and, at the same time, makes it better. Zink is a true weaver of tales and is capable of some magic of her own. I can’t wait to fall in love with Henry and Violet all over again.
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Jamieson Wolf has written a compelling story about navigating multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy. His story will touch your heart, make you cry, then laugh, and inspire you. A touching memoir with a bit of magic…and tarot! ~ Theresa Reed, author of The Tarot Coloring Book
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