Shelly's Book Blog

My friend Bekki recommended Avalon High, by Meg Cabot, and I'm glad she did. In this book the main characters are Avalon High School students Will, Lance, Jennifer, and Elaine, all of whom may be characters from the King Arthur legend reincarnated. Each chapter begins with a few lines from Tennyson's poem, "The Lady of Shalott," the idea being that Elaine, the book's narrator, is this lady reincarnated, doomed to look at the world only through a mirror and to weave what she sees into a tapestry. The story is actually very similar to the other Meg Cabot book I read, Jinx, because the main character falls in love with a young man who is unavailable to her, but I liked this story a lot better, probably because I find the Arthurian legend much more interesting than the witchcraft in Jinx. I liked that Cabot based her story on the legend but did not go overboard with it. Perhaps it's time now to re-read The Once and Future King!