Review: Towering by Alex Flinn

Title: Towering
Author: Alex Flinn
Series: Book Three in the Kendra Chronicles
Published By: HarperTeen (May 14, 2013)
Source: ARC Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: YA Fantasy/Fairy Tale Retelling
My Rating: 3 Stars!

Book Description:

At first, I merely saw his face, his hands on the window ledge. Then, his whole body as he swung himself through the window. Only I could not see what he swung on.
Until, one day, I told my dream self to look down. And it was then that I saw. He had climbed on a rope. I knew without asking that the rope had been one of my own tying.

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. 

*Amazon*Barnes and Noble*

My Thoughts and Review:

I need to say this right out of the gate that even though this book is listed as book three in the Kendra Chronicles, is very sadly, did not have Kendra in it. 

I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed by that. I have come to really like Kendra and all her funkiness so I think it would be an injustice to the series to not let other readers know up front that she plays no role in this fairy tale.

This alternates between Wyatt's point of view, Rachels' point of view and then the diary entries of Danielle, a girl that went missing 18 years earlier from where the story begins.

If I am being honest, this didn't start out at all like I imagined it would. This tale had a slightly darker feel to it than any others I have read by Flinn so far. It was full of mystery and secrets and things beyond the imagination. 

It wasn't just a tale about a young girl locked inside a tower and left there. It was about a young man running from his past. A man full of secrets of his own. It was also about another young girl with a past of her own full of more secrets and magic than even I saw coming. 

No retelling is going to be exactly like the classic because, of course, where would the originality be in that? However to say this was a retelling with a modern twist would be an understatement. This was a retelling with a lot of twists, modern or otherwise. 

And while I really liked this, it was so much different then what I was expecting that it threw me for awhile. This truly has a different feel from her other work.

I can't even go into much detail because it would give too much of the story away but I really did like Wyatt, so much more than Rachel and even though they did have the whole insta love thing going on, don't all good fairy tales? So, yeah, I could overlook it in this one.

I did see a lot of what came about happening but there was quite a bit I didn't at the same time. 

I think if you like Alex's other work and are expecting the twist and turns you will really enjoy this one as well.