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Avalon High #1
Avalon High
Avalon High, Ellie's new school, is pretty much what she'd expected. There's Lance, the hunky footballer. Jennifer, the cute cheerleader. Marco, the troublemaker. And then there's Will - the most gorgeous guy Ellie's ever met. She can hardly believe he likes her. But things start getting a little weird!
279 pages, Paperback
First published December 27, 2005
355 people are currently reading
13858 people want to read
About the author
Meg Cabot
282 books35.4k followersLibrarian note: AKA Jenny Carroll (1-800-Where-R-You series), AKA Patricia Cabot (historical romance novels).
Meg Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, during the Chinese astrological year of the Fire Horse, a notoriously unlucky sign. Fortunately she grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, where few people were aware of the stigma of being a fire horse -- at least until Meg became a teenager, when she flunked freshman Algebra twice, then decided to cut her own bangs. After six years as an undergrad at Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City (in the middle of a sanitation worker strike) to pursue a career as an illustrator, at which she failed miserably, forcing her to turn to her favorite hobby--writing novels--for emotional succor. She worked various jobs to pay the rent, including a decade-long stint as the assistant manager of a 700 bed freshmen dormitory at NYU, a position she still occasionally misses.
She is now the author of nearly fifty books for both adults and teens, selling fifteen million copies worldwide, many of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, most notably The Princess Diaries series, which is currently being published in over 38 countries, and was made into two hit movies by Disney. In addition, Meg wrote the Mediator and 1-800-Where-R-You? series (on which the television series, Missing, was based), two All-American Girl books, Teen Idol, Avalon High, How to Be Popular, Pants on Fire, Jinx, a series of novels written entirely in email format (Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl, and Every Boy's Got One), a mystery series (Size 12 Is Not Fat/ Size 14 Is Not Fat Either/Big Boned), and a chick-lit series called Queen of Babble.
Meg is now writing a new children's series called Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls. Her new paranormal series, Abandon, debuts in Summer of 2011.
Meg currently divides her time between Key West, Indiana, and New York City with a primary cat (one-eyed Henrietta), various back-up cats, and her husband, who doesn't know he married a fire horse. Please don't tell him.
Series:
* Airhead
* The Princess Diaries
* Mediator
Meg Cabot was born on February 1, 1967, during the Chinese astrological year of the Fire Horse, a notoriously unlucky sign. Fortunately she grew up in Bloomington, Indiana, where few people were aware of the stigma of being a fire horse -- at least until Meg became a teenager, when she flunked freshman Algebra twice, then decided to cut her own bangs. After six years as an undergrad at Indiana University, Meg moved to New York City (in the middle of a sanitation worker strike) to pursue a career as an illustrator, at which she failed miserably, forcing her to turn to her favorite hobby--writing novels--for emotional succor. She worked various jobs to pay the rent, including a decade-long stint as the assistant manager of a 700 bed freshmen dormitory at NYU, a position she still occasionally misses.
She is now the author of nearly fifty books for both adults and teens, selling fifteen million copies worldwide, many of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers, most notably The Princess Diaries series, which is currently being published in over 38 countries, and was made into two hit movies by Disney. In addition, Meg wrote the Mediator and 1-800-Where-R-You? series (on which the television series, Missing, was based), two All-American Girl books, Teen Idol, Avalon High, How to Be Popular, Pants on Fire, Jinx, a series of novels written entirely in email format (Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl, and Every Boy's Got One), a mystery series (Size 12 Is Not Fat/ Size 14 Is Not Fat Either/Big Boned), and a chick-lit series called Queen of Babble.
Meg is now writing a new children's series called Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls. Her new paranormal series, Abandon, debuts in Summer of 2011.
Meg currently divides her time between Key West, Indiana, and New York City with a primary cat (one-eyed Henrietta), various back-up cats, and her husband, who doesn't know he married a fire horse. Please don't tell him.
Series:
* Airhead
* The Princess Diaries
* Mediator
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 2,573 reviews
August 17, 2020
New girl in town, Elaine ‘Ellie’ Harrison is astonished. Senior Class President/ Star-Quarterback/ genuinely nice guy A. Will Wagner seems to like spending time with her...a tall, athletic, self-proclaimed nerd who whiles away her days floating about by herself in the family pool. This is more than a bit surprising because Will is handsome, popular and also happens to be dating the beautiful cheerleader, Jennifer Gold.
Little does Ellie know that when Will says something along the lines of "I feel we have met before in a different lifetime", it is more than just a cheesy pick-up line. The Legend of Camelot lives on and odd parallels occur between the famed medieval king's entourage and Ellie's current school crowd.
But where there's a supposedly reincarnated king, there is also a resurrected villain.
As the dark forces rise to crush King Arthur once more, Ellie finds her pragmatic self plunged into fantastical situations, devious plots and fatal showdowns.
AVALON HIGH is a fun blend of medieval magic and high school angst. Ellie is a take-charge heroine and that's always a plus for me. I have always been fascinated by the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and this is a cute YA gateway into his world.
Little does Ellie know that when Will says something along the lines of "I feel we have met before in a different lifetime", it is more than just a cheesy pick-up line. The Legend of Camelot lives on and odd parallels occur between the famed medieval king's entourage and Ellie's current school crowd.
But where there's a supposedly reincarnated king, there is also a resurrected villain.
As the dark forces rise to crush King Arthur once more, Ellie finds her pragmatic self plunged into fantastical situations, devious plots and fatal showdowns.
AVALON HIGH is a fun blend of medieval magic and high school angst. Ellie is a take-charge heroine and that's always a plus for me. I have always been fascinated by the stories of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table and this is a cute YA gateway into his world.
October 7, 2017
Mehhhhhh. I would have liked this WAY more if I had read it when I first discovered Meg Cabot. Oh well
July 13, 2011
I wasn't that impressed. I get frustrated with books that try extremely hard to prove they are hip and modern. While dealing with subject matter from Arthurian legend, I had hoped this would be an interesting retelling while holding the charm of the original stories. Not so much. That's pretty much all I can say about it.
February 15, 2009
I LOVED this book! It was awesome:D
January 29, 2016
Oh, that was so much fun! I loved the parallels in the story to King Arthur's tale!
This is definitely one of my favorite Meg Cabot books.
Elaine's character is similar to Meg's other female characters, but significantly more intelligent and extremely less annoying. I cannot tell you what a relief that was.
She wasn't like hanging around waiting for the answers to present themselves to her and/or being so blind to the obvious truth.
No. Elaine figured it out almost immediate once presented with the clues! Sure...maybe it took some convincing for her to believe this cool story that I will not spoil for you! But she still connected the dots quickly!
The romance was so cute! A. William Wagner was so adorable and gentlemanly :D The other characters were great too (except Marco). Even "the cheerleader" wasn't despicable, which was a nice change!
I love these kinds of books! The stories that are a modern take on old classic tales such as Beowulf, King Arthur, the Trojan War, and such with direct connections to said tale!
Great read!
This is definitely one of my favorite Meg Cabot books.
Elaine's character is similar to Meg's other female characters, but significantly more intelligent and extremely less annoying. I cannot tell you what a relief that was.
She wasn't like hanging around waiting for the answers to present themselves to her and/or being so blind to the obvious truth.
No. Elaine figured it out almost immediate once presented with the clues! Sure...maybe it took some convincing for her to believe this cool story that I will not spoil for you! But she still connected the dots quickly!
The romance was so cute! A. William Wagner was so adorable and gentlemanly :D The other characters were great too (except Marco). Even "the cheerleader" wasn't despicable, which was a nice change!
I love these kinds of books! The stories that are a modern take on old classic tales such as Beowulf, King Arthur, the Trojan War, and such with direct connections to said tale!
Great read!
February 6, 2017
3.75 stars
well of course I really liked this 'cause I'm King Arthur Trash™ ;)
mayyybbeee a little anticlimactic in the end, tho.
well of course I really liked this 'cause I'm King Arthur Trash™ ;)
mayyybbeee a little anticlimactic in the end, tho.
dnf
March 1, 2016I might have liked it 5 years ago, but at this point of my YA journey, I've completely outgrown Meg Cabot's books.
January 13, 2011
Thanks to Albie for picking this for me to read! Now I know it was just okay and I can get it out of my house! Alas, I think my enjoyment of this book was severely hampered by my recent viewing of the Disney made-for-TV movie based on the book. There were lots of changes in the movie (including the name of the MAIN CHARACTER) that were frustrating and a lot of the plot was different as well. After Insatiable and this, I'm kind of disheartened about Meg Cabot's books--I always enjoyed her adult books and most of the The Princess Diaries series. (as far as I read) A few Bookers really like her Mediator series so maybe I'll try those...
Lame review. Sorry.
TBR Pile Reduction Pick #1-- Albie
Lame review. Sorry.
TBR Pile Reduction Pick #1-- Albie
June 11, 2021
Avalon High has been collecting dust on my TBR since December 2016. Yikes! So it's safe to say that it was about damn time that I dove into this. Now I've had a like/dislike adventure when ever I dive into a book written by Meg Cabot. Which, yes, it definitely made me super hesitant to dive into this book but since it ended up working for so many of the challenges I'm in..
WELL, I figure why the hell not?!
So I'm pretty sure there's a Disney movie roaming throughout the world that is about this book. I'm only saying that because I'm pretty sure I've seen it. From what I remember, it followed the same King Arthur story but who actually ended up being Arthur was a bit different - I think? Again, not completely sure at the moment but if it's on the Disney+ App.. I might rewatch it just to refresh my memory.
The characters were pretty likable and the drama was a bit predictable. The one thing I didn't see coming was the whole stepmom being his real mom.. because my mind still doesn't know how to react to that information. I also feel like the villain in the movie and Ellie's parents were a bit better. Like it had a few more twists in it than the actual book.
Other than that, it was an okay book that I ended up liking. I had no idea that it was a series.. so I might dive into the next book if I ever find it. Keyword: might. I make no promises right now.
WELL, I figure why the hell not?!
So I'm pretty sure there's a Disney movie roaming throughout the world that is about this book. I'm only saying that because I'm pretty sure I've seen it. From what I remember, it followed the same King Arthur story but who actually ended up being Arthur was a bit different - I think? Again, not completely sure at the moment but if it's on the Disney+ App.. I might rewatch it just to refresh my memory.
The characters were pretty likable and the drama was a bit predictable. The one thing I didn't see coming was the whole stepmom being his real mom.. because my mind still doesn't know how to react to that information. I also feel like the villain in the movie and Ellie's parents were a bit better. Like it had a few more twists in it than the actual book.
Other than that, it was an okay book that I ended up liking. I had no idea that it was a series.. so I might dive into the next book if I ever find it. Keyword: might. I make no promises right now.
Read
February 25, 2008in a sentence: ellie (new girl at new school, thanks to her professor parents on sabbatical) meets will, the potential reincarnation of king arthur (and serious hottie). let the fun begin!
this was seriously one of the most fun, enjoyable, and sweet stories i have ever heard. i listened to it in the car, and i found myself laughing out loud, smiling, and sometimes even gasping while listening! ellie, the main character and narrator, was very relatable, and you felt as if you were her best friend through the whole ordeal. the teen lingo was spot on - all of the "whatevers" and "duhs" were perfectly placed, to make it that much more believable. the story moves quickly and deliberately through her first days at a new school with all of the token, and realistic, awkwardness of the experience. you could tell that Cabot knew where she was taking you with the plot, but was making sure you enjoyed the journey too.
the blend of the chick lit + hist fic novel was PERFECT. the story of king arthur is one that is well known enough to be hinted at, but is explored more deeply by Cabot throughout the tale. the romance is sweet and genuine, while the drama - though fantasy - is very tastefully done. i also found ellie's parents to be so refreshing - genuinely caring, loving, and interested in her...despite their aloofness at times. i feel like a lot of young adult novels out there have the token 'crappy' parents, and it was nice to have the alternative in this novel.
i can't say enough great things about this book. as soon as i was done, i was 1) sad it was over and 2) ready to pop disc one back in and start at the beginning!
favorite quote (listening to it makes it harder): i liked how each chapter was prefaced by a stanza or so from the Tennyson poem that ellie gets her name from. so clever that Cabot...
fix er up: while i did find the style of writing to be true to a teenage girl speak - i could see that being irritating while reading. that is really my only complaint, and that's nit-picking hardcore.
this was seriously one of the most fun, enjoyable, and sweet stories i have ever heard. i listened to it in the car, and i found myself laughing out loud, smiling, and sometimes even gasping while listening! ellie, the main character and narrator, was very relatable, and you felt as if you were her best friend through the whole ordeal. the teen lingo was spot on - all of the "whatevers" and "duhs" were perfectly placed, to make it that much more believable. the story moves quickly and deliberately through her first days at a new school with all of the token, and realistic, awkwardness of the experience. you could tell that Cabot knew where she was taking you with the plot, but was making sure you enjoyed the journey too.
the blend of the chick lit + hist fic novel was PERFECT. the story of king arthur is one that is well known enough to be hinted at, but is explored more deeply by Cabot throughout the tale. the romance is sweet and genuine, while the drama - though fantasy - is very tastefully done. i also found ellie's parents to be so refreshing - genuinely caring, loving, and interested in her...despite their aloofness at times. i feel like a lot of young adult novels out there have the token 'crappy' parents, and it was nice to have the alternative in this novel.
i can't say enough great things about this book. as soon as i was done, i was 1) sad it was over and 2) ready to pop disc one back in and start at the beginning!
favorite quote (listening to it makes it harder): i liked how each chapter was prefaced by a stanza or so from the Tennyson poem that ellie gets her name from. so clever that Cabot...
fix er up: while i did find the style of writing to be true to a teenage girl speak - i could see that being irritating while reading. that is really my only complaint, and that's nit-picking hardcore.
January 20, 2010
Wow, so many people think that this book was terrible. Come on, what did you think it was going to be, total in-depth dissection? I personally enjoyed it. It was laid-back whilst still being exciting.
The only two things I dislike about that novel are that, one, for a supposedly practical person, etc, Ellie thinks too much about seeing Will when she's only just met him. Then again, it's part of the plot, so I don't know what I'm going on about that for. I don't know. I guess Cabot should have drawn more attention to it being out of character. Like, she did, but I don't feel that was enough. And the second thing is, the deepest thing that Ellie thinks about is snake protection, while Will's all into saving the world from evil and being deep. How long is that relationship gonna last? Be reasonable.
The twist with Ellie's real 'persona' was pretty cool, even though I kind of had it half-figured out by the end. I liked the way everything all sort of fit in neatly without being all "Hey! Look at me! I'm convenient!" All except Marko's fate. As if he'd just give up after that! That's why it lost a star.
And I liked how I didn't agree with Ellie all the time. She was an actual character. Makes a refreshing change from Bella Swan, and I enjoyed the story all the more for that. Meg Cabot may write for the teen girl population, and her subject matter may range from the frivolous to the downright weird (Airhead, I'm looking at you), but she can definitely write characters with personalities and an actual plot.
Overall, a light take on King Arthur, and an enjoyable one.
The only two things I dislike about that novel are that, one, for a supposedly practical person, etc, Ellie thinks too much about seeing Will when she's only just met him. Then again, it's part of the plot, so I don't know what I'm going on about that for. I don't know. I guess Cabot should have drawn more attention to it being out of character. Like, she did, but I don't feel that was enough. And the second thing is, the deepest thing that Ellie thinks about is snake protection, while Will's all into saving the world from evil and being deep. How long is that relationship gonna last? Be reasonable.
The twist with Ellie's real 'persona' was pretty cool, even though I kind of had it half-figured out by the end. I liked the way everything all sort of fit in neatly without being all "Hey! Look at me! I'm convenient!" All except Marko's fate. As if he'd just give up after that! That's why it lost a star.
And I liked how I didn't agree with Ellie all the time. She was an actual character. Makes a refreshing change from Bella Swan, and I enjoyed the story all the more for that. Meg Cabot may write for the teen girl population, and her subject matter may range from the frivolous to the downright weird (Airhead, I'm looking at you), but she can definitely write characters with personalities and an actual plot.
Overall, a light take on King Arthur, and an enjoyable one.
Read
August 26, 2023The nostalgia was real with this one! I liked it just as much as I did as a teenager, but I've gotta say, Ellie is a typical teen girl written in the early 2000s. So focused on not being like other girls, not being the type of girl to date a certain type of boy and all of that garbage. Her shitty attitude with all of that is the only thing I never liked about this book. I'm a ho for the rest of it though 😂
May 19, 2014
[NOTE: Spoilers ahead]
When Elaine and her family move to a new town, her parents, who are both medieval researchers, are on their sabbaticals and are looking forward to researching the legend of King Arthur. Elaine is looking forward to meeting new people and perhaps even reinventing herself. But neither of Elaine's goals turn out exactly right. When Elaine meets handsome and popular Will, they both feel like they already know each other. People she hardly knows, such as Will's half-brother Marco and one of Elaine's teachers, start talking to her as if she were her namesake, the Lily Maid of Astolat who loved Sir Lancelot. And as odd things begin to happen at Avalon High and the age-old legend of King Arthur seems to start repeating itself among Elaine and her new friends, Elaine will need to help Will in what may become a struggle for his life—and for the world's future.
Sounds interesting and promising, right? Well, that's only because I gave you a glimpse in the first paragraph of what was going to happen. The actual pacing of this novel was so slow and clunky that, even though major clue-dropping begins even from the outset about the connections between Elaine's life and Arthurian legend, the actual plot does not seem to begin until the novel is more than halfway over. It probably hadn't helped that I'd looked up the plot summary on Wikipedia beforehand, to decide if I was going to read this or a different Cabot novel for my YA Lit. class, but I've looked at plot summaries before reading a few other books and I was still reasonably engaged throughout them. Not here with Avalon High, though. Its exposition grinds on painfully slowly. It wasn't really until the boat scene/"Elaine goes to Mr. Morton's apartment" scene that I found myself feeling any real interest for the novel, and I don't think it was until the scene with Marco at the school that I even really cared what happened next. The simple question that rules the first part of the book, "does the girl get her man?" was not sufficiently compelling to cause me to march happily through the first part of the book; instead, I slugged and waded through it, not too happily.
Overall, Cabot writes with a pretty convincing teenager's voice. That's not to say that this convincing voice was always interesting, of course—sometimes the action of the book was broken up by inane little catologues of insignificant actions on Elaine's part (e.g. "Then I'd go outside and float. Then I'd go inside and eat lunch [includes unimportant details about lunch]. Then I'd go back out to the pool again.") As aforementioned, the pacing of the novel was frustratingly slow.
Obviously, as a guy, I'm not this book's intended audience, and that accounts for most of the distaste I felt as I read it. Despite that, I think there are some things in the book that will bug discriminating female readers, as well. For instance, Will's eyes--how many times do they have to sparkle, or look deep or piercing or whatever? Can't Elaine ever look Will in the eyes without having to tack on two or three adjectives to describe how they look? I should have counted how many times Cabot describes Will's eyes, and how many times those descriptions include the adjectives and metaphors that quickly became overused and bothersome to me.
The book did a pretty good job of trying to incorporate a sort of mysticism/belief in reincarnation with a healthy dose of skepticism and ambiguity. We're never quite sure if Elaine and co. are reincarnations of King Arthur's contemporaries or not, though it's heavily implied that they are. That having been said, though, the whole "Forces of Darkness trying to stop Arthur" schtick felt very trite, underdeveloped, and uninspired. Obviously if Cabot wants to maintain the ambiguity in the novel, she can't develop the idea too much, as that will give credence to the reality of the "Arthur/Darkness" thing; however, as things stood, it was never quite clear to me what the Forces of Darkness were. I'd just hear Mr. Morton moan occasionally, "Oh, the Forces of Darkness!" as if that were enough to convey the intent and badness of whatever the Darkness is.
Now a note about the audiobook. I'll start with the caveat that I don't really like audiobooks that much in general: the voice actors on them read much more slowly than I do, and sometimes the voice acting is subpar. Nothing changed my opinion during my slow (and somewhat painful) listening to Avalon High. (I actually bought earphones so that my roommates wouldn't overhear me listening to a teen girls' romance book.) Debra Wiseman actually does a good job reading the dialogue for Elaine, though I felt that she read a little slower than was necessary. However, whenever Wiseman read dialogue spoken by any male characters, she somehow felt the need to imitate a low, husky-sounding "man voice" that made me cringe almost every time I heard it. With the exception of Wiseman's dialogue for Mr. Morton (whose fake British accent was kind of entertaining, and who didn't have the psuedo-bass chest voice Wiseman used for all other male characters), all of the men in the audiobook of Avalon High sounded pretty idiotic—like stereotypical (half-stoned?) surfer dudes. (As all of the men are from either Minnesota or the East Coast, their "accent" is quite out of place.) I imagine it will be hard for female readers/listeners of the novel to like Will as much as Elaine does, seeing as every time he speaks it sounds like he's half-grunting the words out. Marco's voice was entertaining, as Wiseman's low, slightly creepy and hissy-sounding dialogue for him still made him sound dumb but also screamed out "HE'S EVIL! HE'S EVIL!" but it was a little over the top. Wiseman shouldn't have tried so hard with the men's voices; her regular reading voice is quite good and would have done just fine. I think I could have used my imagination to supply the men's deeper voices, as I did to imagine the settings and everything else in the novel.
This novel is pretty reader-friendly. There's some language throughout (and actually enough of it that I found it to be slightly offensive), but most readers probably won't be bothered by it. I can't really say that I recommend the novel—I definitely suggest against listening to the audiobook (but that might reflect my antagonism toward audiobooks in general)—but I suppose that as the book is probably aimed at girls in junior high and high school, many of them will probably identify with the book and enjoy it. Perhaps some middle-grade or adult readers might as well. You could try it if you wanted to.
When Elaine and her family move to a new town, her parents, who are both medieval researchers, are on their sabbaticals and are looking forward to researching the legend of King Arthur. Elaine is looking forward to meeting new people and perhaps even reinventing herself. But neither of Elaine's goals turn out exactly right. When Elaine meets handsome and popular Will, they both feel like they already know each other. People she hardly knows, such as Will's half-brother Marco and one of Elaine's teachers, start talking to her as if she were her namesake, the Lily Maid of Astolat who loved Sir Lancelot. And as odd things begin to happen at Avalon High and the age-old legend of King Arthur seems to start repeating itself among Elaine and her new friends, Elaine will need to help Will in what may become a struggle for his life—and for the world's future.
Sounds interesting and promising, right? Well, that's only because I gave you a glimpse in the first paragraph of what was going to happen. The actual pacing of this novel was so slow and clunky that, even though major clue-dropping begins even from the outset about the connections between Elaine's life and Arthurian legend, the actual plot does not seem to begin until the novel is more than halfway over. It probably hadn't helped that I'd looked up the plot summary on Wikipedia beforehand, to decide if I was going to read this or a different Cabot novel for my YA Lit. class, but I've looked at plot summaries before reading a few other books and I was still reasonably engaged throughout them. Not here with Avalon High, though. Its exposition grinds on painfully slowly. It wasn't really until the boat scene/"Elaine goes to Mr. Morton's apartment" scene that I found myself feeling any real interest for the novel, and I don't think it was until the scene with Marco at the school that I even really cared what happened next. The simple question that rules the first part of the book, "does the girl get her man?" was not sufficiently compelling to cause me to march happily through the first part of the book; instead, I slugged and waded through it, not too happily.
Overall, Cabot writes with a pretty convincing teenager's voice. That's not to say that this convincing voice was always interesting, of course—sometimes the action of the book was broken up by inane little catologues of insignificant actions on Elaine's part (e.g. "Then I'd go outside and float. Then I'd go inside and eat lunch [includes unimportant details about lunch]. Then I'd go back out to the pool again.") As aforementioned, the pacing of the novel was frustratingly slow.
Obviously, as a guy, I'm not this book's intended audience, and that accounts for most of the distaste I felt as I read it. Despite that, I think there are some things in the book that will bug discriminating female readers, as well. For instance, Will's eyes--how many times do they have to sparkle, or look deep or piercing or whatever? Can't Elaine ever look Will in the eyes without having to tack on two or three adjectives to describe how they look? I should have counted how many times Cabot describes Will's eyes, and how many times those descriptions include the adjectives and metaphors that quickly became overused and bothersome to me.
The book did a pretty good job of trying to incorporate a sort of mysticism/belief in reincarnation with a healthy dose of skepticism and ambiguity. We're never quite sure if Elaine and co. are reincarnations of King Arthur's contemporaries or not, though it's heavily implied that they are. That having been said, though, the whole "Forces of Darkness trying to stop Arthur" schtick felt very trite, underdeveloped, and uninspired. Obviously if Cabot wants to maintain the ambiguity in the novel, she can't develop the idea too much, as that will give credence to the reality of the "Arthur/Darkness" thing; however, as things stood, it was never quite clear to me what the Forces of Darkness were. I'd just hear Mr. Morton moan occasionally, "Oh, the Forces of Darkness!" as if that were enough to convey the intent and badness of whatever the Darkness is.
Now a note about the audiobook. I'll start with the caveat that I don't really like audiobooks that much in general: the voice actors on them read much more slowly than I do, and sometimes the voice acting is subpar. Nothing changed my opinion during my slow (and somewhat painful) listening to Avalon High. (I actually bought earphones so that my roommates wouldn't overhear me listening to a teen girls' romance book.) Debra Wiseman actually does a good job reading the dialogue for Elaine, though I felt that she read a little slower than was necessary. However, whenever Wiseman read dialogue spoken by any male characters, she somehow felt the need to imitate a low, husky-sounding "man voice" that made me cringe almost every time I heard it. With the exception of Wiseman's dialogue for Mr. Morton (whose fake British accent was kind of entertaining, and who didn't have the psuedo-bass chest voice Wiseman used for all other male characters), all of the men in the audiobook of Avalon High sounded pretty idiotic—like stereotypical (half-stoned?) surfer dudes. (As all of the men are from either Minnesota or the East Coast, their "accent" is quite out of place.) I imagine it will be hard for female readers/listeners of the novel to like Will as much as Elaine does, seeing as every time he speaks it sounds like he's half-grunting the words out. Marco's voice was entertaining, as Wiseman's low, slightly creepy and hissy-sounding dialogue for him still made him sound dumb but also screamed out "HE'S EVIL! HE'S EVIL!" but it was a little over the top. Wiseman shouldn't have tried so hard with the men's voices; her regular reading voice is quite good and would have done just fine. I think I could have used my imagination to supply the men's deeper voices, as I did to imagine the settings and everything else in the novel.
This novel is pretty reader-friendly. There's some language throughout (and actually enough of it that I found it to be slightly offensive), but most readers probably won't be bothered by it. I can't really say that I recommend the novel—I definitely suggest against listening to the audiobook (but that might reflect my antagonism toward audiobooks in general)—but I suppose that as the book is probably aimed at girls in junior high and high school, many of them will probably identify with the book and enjoy it. Perhaps some middle-grade or adult readers might as well. You could try it if you wanted to.
April 4, 2020
"Secondo la leggenda di Camelot, la Dama del Lago non soltanto portò la spada ad Artù.
No, lei svolse anche un altro servizio per lui.
Quando tutto fu finito, lo riportò a casa.
Ad Avalon."
Questo è uno dei miei libri del cuore.
Non lo rileggevo da 10 anni, poi con l'arrivo di Disney Plus ho rivisto il film "Avalon High", e ho capito che era arrivato il momento.
Il potere delle riletture è immenso, perché ti ricordano quanto ami quella storia, quei personaggi.
Grazie ad Avalon High mi sono appassionata alla storia di Re Artù, i Cavalieri della Tavola Rotonda, Ginevra, Lancillotto.
Ellie e Will grande ship della vita.
Nonostante sia molto diverso dal film e per alcuni aspetti lo preferirò sempre, soprattutto per quanto riguarda la questione Dama di Shalott/Dama del Lago, adesso che sono più grande riesco a separare i due prodotti. Trovo che il film abbia rappresentato l'essenza del romanzo, modernizzandolo tramite gli elementi che ha aggiunto.
5 stelline perché sarà sempre uno dei miei libri preferiti.
No, lei svolse anche un altro servizio per lui.
Quando tutto fu finito, lo riportò a casa.
Ad Avalon."
Questo è uno dei miei libri del cuore.
Non lo rileggevo da 10 anni, poi con l'arrivo di Disney Plus ho rivisto il film "Avalon High", e ho capito che era arrivato il momento.
Il potere delle riletture è immenso, perché ti ricordano quanto ami quella storia, quei personaggi.
Grazie ad Avalon High mi sono appassionata alla storia di Re Artù, i Cavalieri della Tavola Rotonda, Ginevra, Lancillotto.
Ellie e Will grande ship della vita.
Nonostante sia molto diverso dal film e per alcuni aspetti lo preferirò sempre, soprattutto per quanto riguarda la questione Dama di Shalott/Dama del Lago, adesso che sono più grande riesco a separare i due prodotti. Trovo che il film abbia rappresentato l'essenza del romanzo, modernizzandolo tramite gli elementi che ha aggiunto.
5 stelline perché sarà sempre uno dei miei libri preferiti.
July 5, 2016
ok this one convinced me to continue with the meg cabot reread
September 24, 2019
Note: if you know nothing about this book and want to continue knowing nothing about this book until you read it, this review has SPOILERS. I don't know how to talk about it without them, but also don't want to hide the whole review because of them. You've been warned.
Review: This was an instance when I saw the movie long before reading the book. Back when Disney Channel put out the adaptation for this book, I liked it a lot up till the end when the big twist seemed (to me) to come out of nowhere and I was so mad about it I haven't watched it since. Well, it took me nine years to check out the book to see how it differed, but finally, here we are. I did enjoy it for the most part, but it was a mixed bag.
At first I wasn't sure if I even liked the main character, Ellie. She was a little too typical-teenager-whiny right at the very beginning, but soon she started to be different enough that she grew on me. While she was embarrassed by her parents' quirks (as many teens are) it was refreshing that she had a mostly healthy relationship with them nevertheless. I actually started being more annoyed with her parents wanting her to not spend so much time floating on their pool and do "normal" teenage things instead. Like, you'd really rather she spend her after-school time with kids who could bully her or peer-pressure her than read a book in the pool? Really??? This seems to pop up most often in contemporary YA fiction where the parents want their teen to stop doing their quirky thing and be more like other teens, and I just don't get it. Last I checked, most real life parents are a lot more worried about their teens picking up bad habits from their peers and losing themselves by trying too hard to fit in with a certain crowd, not worried that they aren't enough like their peers.
Anyway. I liked that the foreshadowing for who Ellie was supposed to be in the book was stronger (in my opinion) than for her movie equivalent. (I'm sorry movie makers, but if you have to show flashbacks to all the supposedly foreshadowing things in order to prove that you did foreshadow, you might not have done a good enough job.) Whereas the twist of who the main character of the movie version was a total shock for me, I was easily able to identify who she was going to be in the book, in spite of some of the characters getting it wrong.
As for other characters, I liked Will from the beginning. It was nice that he was a decent, upstanding kid with healthy aspirations for the future and not the brooding bad boy. It was also nice that Ellie didn't have to change her quirky, funny ways (in spite of her best friend's suggestions) for Will to like and fall in love with her. I even appreciated that though Will didn't have the best relationship with his dad, he *wanted* a good relationship with him, yet didn't whine about it or rebel all the time because of it. In fact, he even tried to fix it, and though it didn't work, I appreciate that he tried.
Some things I didn't like:
The fact that the twist involved reincarnation. I'm a Christian and don't believe in reincarnation and don't really like seeing it in stories aimed at kids or teens. On the plus side, the author played it in a way that if you wanted to believe that all the similarities to King Arthur's story and the supposedly magical occurrences were coincidence you could. I mean, it would be a pretty big coincidence, and there was some stuff that is hard to explain away without the presence of magic, but having Ellie still doubting by the end that she and the others were supposedly reincarnations of people from mythical history invites the reader to doubt it as well if they want to. Even still, it's not my favorite thing to have in a story.
I also didn't care that much about any of the characters besides Ellie and Will. Like, I both didn't like them and didn't care about them. Marco was a complete wackadoo with no redeemable qualities, Lance had some redeemable qualities, but I still had no real reason to care about him, Jennifer came off as a one-dimensional, cool cheerleader bubble head who I was annoyed with more often than not. (Not to mention the whole "We tried not to cheat on/betray you but just couldn't help it!" excuse is stupid and I hate it with the fury of a thousand suns.) Also, one of the teachers being a member of a secret sauce organization that shadows kids they think might be King Arthur reincarnated was just kind of... weird? (I also didn't get until it was pointed out that he was supposed to be the equivalent of Merlin.) I think Disney made a good choice putting a kid in that role in the movie instead. Then there were these girls Ellie hung out with at a school pep rally and they got dialog and Ellie was kind of friends with them, but I can't even remember their names because they just... didn't matter? I seriously only remember they were in the story at all because one of them made a mildly crass comment that I had to note for my content section.
Speaking of content, that was something about the Disney movie that I liked better than the book. The book has that edge to teenage behavior that, while it could have been much worse, still irritates me. Some teens do act like that, but I don't feel that every story featuring teens has to have the edgy content in order to be "realistic". The nice thing about fiction is sometimes you can show things how they could be instead of how they are. Also, since there's so much talk about representation in fiction these days, what's wrong with representing the teens that *choose* not to behave in edgy, inappropriate manners now and then? Disney at least did what they usually do and took some of that edge away to make the movie friendlier for a younger audience.
Also speaking of content, in this day and age where school shootings are a far too common occurrence, the part where we learn that Marco has stolen his father's gun and gone to find Will and kill him is a little extra disturbing. I know this book was written before that kind of thing started being so common, but it's something some readers sensitive to such things might want to be aware of.
On a related subject, I also felt Marco was defeated a little too easily? Like, he's pointing the gun at Will and Ellie and then Will gets the sword and just commands him to drop the gun and he just... does. It's one of those things that was difficult to explain without the presence of magic in any form because otherwise, the kid was stinkin' nuts and shouldn't have been intimidated by Will holding a sword too far away from him to do anything. I'm not sure what I would have preferred to happen, but it just wasn't that satisfying a defeat to me.
Overall, I'm struggling how to rate this book. I was hoping to like it resoundingly better than the movie, but I actually didn't. I didn't dislike it, but there were still just as many disappointments with it as with the movie. In fact, I kind of want to rewatch the movie now and see if I might actually like it better than the book because I'm starting to understand why Disney made a lot of the changes they made, and I can already tell you even without a rewatch that I liked more of the characters in the movie than in the book. Sooo... I think I'm going with 3 stars for the book for didn't-love-it-didn't-hate-it. It wasn't terrible, and the content wasn't as bad as I've found in some contemporary secular YA, but I was hoping to like it more than I did.
Content Advisory:
Language:
Christ's name in vain 3 times. God's name in vain five times. A form of a** one time. Ellie says Marco told Will to do something she wasn't sure was anatomically possible. Will says "something unkinglike" about a certain group. H*** once. D*** once. A mention or two that someone swore, without the word being detailed.
Sexual:
Boys are called hot. Lots of tingles and fuzzy or fiery feelings in response to the touch and/or nearness of the boy Ellie likes. Ellie frequently notices this boy's good looks. Mention of someone not wanting to stick their tongue in someone's mouth. Several instances of wanting to kiss someone and wondering what it would be like to do so. Ellie catches a teenage couple making out on a bed but there's no description. A character states that there's sexual tension between a couple. It's discovered that a girl is cheating on her boyfriend with her boyfriend's best friend and this is portrayed as very hurtful to everyone involved. Two semi-passionate kisses between Ellie and her love interest are somewhat described in terms of intense feelings, burning in a good way, and tingles. A couple other kisses are less described but still implied as passionate and long.
Violence:
Minor bullying when some football players steal another boy's papers and push him around. (Will comes to the kid's rescue.) A nasty boy grabs El's arm roughly and later shoves her out of his way hard enough that she falls. (She falls on a couch and is unhurt).
Marco intentionally drives a boat straight toward another boat to make them swerve and someone falls overboard and doesn't come back up until rescued by Will. Marco doesn't seem to care that the person's life was in danger. There's a rumor that Marco attempted to kill a teacher at school. Whether he was really trying to kill the teacher is questioned, but it's true that he attacked the man. Later,
Worldviews and Magic I'm lumping these together because they go together in this instance. The twist to this story is that
By the end of the story, Ellie still questions whether or not any of this is true and even when seemingly magical things occur, there's always also a supposedly natural explanation for it, as if the author wanted readers to choose for themselves whether or not they believe it was reincarnation or just coincidence that people seemed to correspond with the mythical characters. For example, the huge storm could have just been a normal huge storm, and it could have been coincidence that it cleared when it did, etc. However, it should be noted that Morton and Ellie's parents continue to believe that it really was reincarnation.
Other: Ellie is apparently taller than average for a teenage girl (5'8") and has some self-consciousness and self-confidence issues because of that. She repeatedly thinks a cute boy couldn't be falling in love with her because boys just aren't attracted to girls like her in that way. She calls herself a giraffe once. Marco says something unkind about another boy's weight (the boy doesn't hear this) and is unkind to pretty much everyone he encounters. Marco multiple times does things to intentionally hurt people, both emotionally and physically. Will's relationship with his father isn't great because his father tends to force his own desires on Will's life. Near the end of the story when Will
Review: This was an instance when I saw the movie long before reading the book. Back when Disney Channel put out the adaptation for this book, I liked it a lot up till the end when the big twist seemed (to me) to come out of nowhere and I was so mad about it I haven't watched it since. Well, it took me nine years to check out the book to see how it differed, but finally, here we are. I did enjoy it for the most part, but it was a mixed bag.
At first I wasn't sure if I even liked the main character, Ellie. She was a little too typical-teenager-whiny right at the very beginning, but soon she started to be different enough that she grew on me. While she was embarrassed by her parents' quirks (as many teens are) it was refreshing that she had a mostly healthy relationship with them nevertheless. I actually started being more annoyed with her parents wanting her to not spend so much time floating on their pool and do "normal" teenage things instead. Like, you'd really rather she spend her after-school time with kids who could bully her or peer-pressure her than read a book in the pool? Really??? This seems to pop up most often in contemporary YA fiction where the parents want their teen to stop doing their quirky thing and be more like other teens, and I just don't get it. Last I checked, most real life parents are a lot more worried about their teens picking up bad habits from their peers and losing themselves by trying too hard to fit in with a certain crowd, not worried that they aren't enough like their peers.
Anyway. I liked that the foreshadowing for who Ellie was supposed to be in the book was stronger (in my opinion) than for her movie equivalent. (I'm sorry movie makers, but if you have to show flashbacks to all the supposedly foreshadowing things in order to prove that you did foreshadow, you might not have done a good enough job.) Whereas the twist of who the main character of the movie version was a total shock for me, I was easily able to identify who she was going to be in the book, in spite of some of the characters getting it wrong.
As for other characters, I liked Will from the beginning. It was nice that he was a decent, upstanding kid with healthy aspirations for the future and not the brooding bad boy. It was also nice that Ellie didn't have to change her quirky, funny ways (in spite of her best friend's suggestions) for Will to like and fall in love with her. I even appreciated that though Will didn't have the best relationship with his dad, he *wanted* a good relationship with him, yet didn't whine about it or rebel all the time because of it. In fact, he even tried to fix it, and though it didn't work, I appreciate that he tried.
Some things I didn't like:
The fact that the twist involved reincarnation. I'm a Christian and don't believe in reincarnation and don't really like seeing it in stories aimed at kids or teens. On the plus side, the author played it in a way that if you wanted to believe that all the similarities to King Arthur's story and the supposedly magical occurrences were coincidence you could. I mean, it would be a pretty big coincidence, and there was some stuff that is hard to explain away without the presence of magic, but having Ellie still doubting by the end that she and the others were supposedly reincarnations of people from mythical history invites the reader to doubt it as well if they want to. Even still, it's not my favorite thing to have in a story.
I also didn't care that much about any of the characters besides Ellie and Will. Like, I both didn't like them and didn't care about them. Marco was a complete wackadoo with no redeemable qualities, Lance had some redeemable qualities, but I still had no real reason to care about him, Jennifer came off as a one-dimensional, cool cheerleader bubble head who I was annoyed with more often than not. (Not to mention the whole "We tried not to cheat on/betray you but just couldn't help it!" excuse is stupid and I hate it with the fury of a thousand suns.) Also, one of the teachers being a member of a secret sauce organization that shadows kids they think might be King Arthur reincarnated was just kind of... weird? (I also didn't get until it was pointed out that he was supposed to be the equivalent of Merlin.) I think Disney made a good choice putting a kid in that role in the movie instead. Then there were these girls Ellie hung out with at a school pep rally and they got dialog and Ellie was kind of friends with them, but I can't even remember their names because they just... didn't matter? I seriously only remember they were in the story at all because one of them made a mildly crass comment that I had to note for my content section.
Speaking of content, that was something about the Disney movie that I liked better than the book. The book has that edge to teenage behavior that, while it could have been much worse, still irritates me. Some teens do act like that, but I don't feel that every story featuring teens has to have the edgy content in order to be "realistic". The nice thing about fiction is sometimes you can show things how they could be instead of how they are. Also, since there's so much talk about representation in fiction these days, what's wrong with representing the teens that *choose* not to behave in edgy, inappropriate manners now and then? Disney at least did what they usually do and took some of that edge away to make the movie friendlier for a younger audience.
Also speaking of content, in this day and age where school shootings are a far too common occurrence, the part where we learn that Marco has stolen his father's gun and gone to find Will and kill him is a little extra disturbing. I know this book was written before that kind of thing started being so common, but it's something some readers sensitive to such things might want to be aware of.
On a related subject, I also felt Marco was defeated a little too easily? Like, he's pointing the gun at Will and Ellie and then Will gets the sword and just commands him to drop the gun and he just... does. It's one of those things that was difficult to explain without the presence of magic in any form because otherwise, the kid was stinkin' nuts and shouldn't have been intimidated by Will holding a sword too far away from him to do anything. I'm not sure what I would have preferred to happen, but it just wasn't that satisfying a defeat to me.
Overall, I'm struggling how to rate this book. I was hoping to like it resoundingly better than the movie, but I actually didn't. I didn't dislike it, but there were still just as many disappointments with it as with the movie. In fact, I kind of want to rewatch the movie now and see if I might actually like it better than the book because I'm starting to understand why Disney made a lot of the changes they made, and I can already tell you even without a rewatch that I liked more of the characters in the movie than in the book. Sooo... I think I'm going with 3 stars for the book for didn't-love-it-didn't-hate-it. It wasn't terrible, and the content wasn't as bad as I've found in some contemporary secular YA, but I was hoping to like it more than I did.
Content Advisory:
Language:
Christ's name in vain 3 times. God's name in vain five times. A form of a** one time. Ellie says Marco told Will to do something she wasn't sure was anatomically possible. Will says "something unkinglike" about a certain group. H*** once. D*** once. A mention or two that someone swore, without the word being detailed.
Sexual:
Boys are called hot. Lots of tingles and fuzzy or fiery feelings in response to the touch and/or nearness of the boy Ellie likes. Ellie frequently notices this boy's good looks. Mention of someone not wanting to stick their tongue in someone's mouth. Several instances of wanting to kiss someone and wondering what it would be like to do so. Ellie catches a teenage couple making out on a bed but there's no description. A character states that there's sexual tension between a couple. It's discovered that a girl is cheating on her boyfriend with her boyfriend's best friend and this is portrayed as very hurtful to everyone involved. Two semi-passionate kisses between Ellie and her love interest are somewhat described in terms of intense feelings, burning in a good way, and tingles. A couple other kisses are less described but still implied as passionate and long.
Violence:
Minor bullying when some football players steal another boy's papers and push him around. (Will comes to the kid's rescue.) A nasty boy grabs El's arm roughly and later shoves her out of his way hard enough that she falls. (She falls on a couch and is unhurt).
Marco intentionally drives a boat straight toward another boat to make them swerve and someone falls overboard and doesn't come back up until rescued by Will. Marco doesn't seem to care that the person's life was in danger. There's a rumor that Marco attempted to kill a teacher at school. Whether he was really trying to kill the teacher is questioned, but it's true that he attacked the man. Later,
Worldviews and Magic I'm lumping these together because they go together in this instance. The twist to this story is that
By the end of the story, Ellie still questions whether or not any of this is true and even when seemingly magical things occur, there's always also a supposedly natural explanation for it, as if the author wanted readers to choose for themselves whether or not they believe it was reincarnation or just coincidence that people seemed to correspond with the mythical characters. For example, the huge storm could have just been a normal huge storm, and it could have been coincidence that it cleared when it did, etc. However, it should be noted that Morton and Ellie's parents continue to believe that it really was reincarnation.
Other: Ellie is apparently taller than average for a teenage girl (5'8") and has some self-consciousness and self-confidence issues because of that. She repeatedly thinks a cute boy couldn't be falling in love with her because boys just aren't attracted to girls like her in that way. She calls herself a giraffe once. Marco says something unkind about another boy's weight (the boy doesn't hear this) and is unkind to pretty much everyone he encounters. Marco multiple times does things to intentionally hurt people, both emotionally and physically. Will's relationship with his father isn't great because his father tends to force his own desires on Will's life. Near the end of the story when Will
November 6, 2012
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
You don't have to know and enjoy the legend of King Arthur to fully appreciate AVALON HIGH, but it probably helps. Meg Cabot has taken the legend of Arthur and the main people in his lives--Merlin, the magician and guardian of young Arthur; the Lady of the Lake, who gave Arthur his magical sword, Excalibur; Guinevere, Arthur's wife and Queen; his most esteemed knight, Sir Lancelot; Mordred, Arthur's half-brother; and the elusive Elaine of Astolat, the Lady of Shalott--and found them modern-day counterparts within the halls of Avalon High School just outside of Washington, D.C.
Ellie Harrison isn't thrilled with leaving St. Paul, Minnesota, and moving to a new state, and starting a new school, while her parents are on sabbatical. Both her mom and dad are medievalists and Professors, and her father has dragged the family closer to D.C., where he can study up-close-and-personal the sword he's researching.
And then Ellie meets Will, the most interesting and good-looking boy she's ever seen. Sure, he has a girlfriend, the very lovely Jennifer, so she resigns herself to just being his friend. But as time goes on, Ellie realizes that there are some very strange similarities between life at Avalon High and the legend of King Arthur. The events that unfold, such as one of the teachers, Mr. Morton, going a little batty, and Will's girlfriend, Jennifer, being secretly in love with his best friend, Lance, start to add up to one bizarre scenario--could Will be the reincarnation of King Arthur, and could something really bad be working its way towards the halls of Avalon High?
I truly enjoyed AVALON HIGH, but Ms. Cabot's customary humor was strangely missing from the story. Although there are a few slightly humorous spots in the book, the laugh-out-loud wit and sarcasm from her previous releases is strangely absent. Overall, though, lovers of Athurian history or books about good versus evil will thoroughly enjoy this latest release.
You don't have to know and enjoy the legend of King Arthur to fully appreciate AVALON HIGH, but it probably helps. Meg Cabot has taken the legend of Arthur and the main people in his lives--Merlin, the magician and guardian of young Arthur; the Lady of the Lake, who gave Arthur his magical sword, Excalibur; Guinevere, Arthur's wife and Queen; his most esteemed knight, Sir Lancelot; Mordred, Arthur's half-brother; and the elusive Elaine of Astolat, the Lady of Shalott--and found them modern-day counterparts within the halls of Avalon High School just outside of Washington, D.C.
Ellie Harrison isn't thrilled with leaving St. Paul, Minnesota, and moving to a new state, and starting a new school, while her parents are on sabbatical. Both her mom and dad are medievalists and Professors, and her father has dragged the family closer to D.C., where he can study up-close-and-personal the sword he's researching.
And then Ellie meets Will, the most interesting and good-looking boy she's ever seen. Sure, he has a girlfriend, the very lovely Jennifer, so she resigns herself to just being his friend. But as time goes on, Ellie realizes that there are some very strange similarities between life at Avalon High and the legend of King Arthur. The events that unfold, such as one of the teachers, Mr. Morton, going a little batty, and Will's girlfriend, Jennifer, being secretly in love with his best friend, Lance, start to add up to one bizarre scenario--could Will be the reincarnation of King Arthur, and could something really bad be working its way towards the halls of Avalon High?
I truly enjoyed AVALON HIGH, but Ms. Cabot's customary humor was strangely missing from the story. Although there are a few slightly humorous spots in the book, the laugh-out-loud wit and sarcasm from her previous releases is strangely absent. Overall, though, lovers of Athurian history or books about good versus evil will thoroughly enjoy this latest release.
August 8, 2008
Okay. I admit it. I'm a sucker for any variation of the Arthurian legend and this was a fun, modern spin on the story you think you know. Ellie Harrison has just moved from St. Paul, Minnesota to Annapolis, Maryland and is going to spend her junior year attending Avalon High, while her parents do a year of sabbatical research in the area. (They are, of course, both medievalists.)
A few days before school starts, Ellie catches the eye of a handsome senior while running in a nearby park. It isn't until she attends her first day of school that she finds out that the young man who caught her eye is Will Wagner, golden boy and boyfriend of head cheerleader, Jennifer Gold and best friend of star football player, Lance Reynolds. Though she wasn't part of the popular crowd in her last high school, Ellie is pulled into this circle by Will, who seems to feel some sort of connection to her, while Ellie feels great attraction to him.
The plot thickens as Ellie, raised on a healthy dose of literary allusions by her professorial parents, begins to wonder about the parallels between what she knows about the legends of King Arthur and what seems to be going on around her.
A few days before school starts, Ellie catches the eye of a handsome senior while running in a nearby park. It isn't until she attends her first day of school that she finds out that the young man who caught her eye is Will Wagner, golden boy and boyfriend of head cheerleader, Jennifer Gold and best friend of star football player, Lance Reynolds. Though she wasn't part of the popular crowd in her last high school, Ellie is pulled into this circle by Will, who seems to feel some sort of connection to her, while Ellie feels great attraction to him.
The plot thickens as Ellie, raised on a healthy dose of literary allusions by her professorial parents, begins to wonder about the parallels between what she knows about the legends of King Arthur and what seems to be going on around her.
April 29, 2020
i used to love this book when i was younger, and when i saw it at a used bookstore for 5 dollars, i couldn't resist! i still think it's great :)
October 7, 2017
This book is fucking RIDICULOUS and I love it and I always will
April 18, 2010
Okay, I will start off by saying this isn't my first Meg Cabot book. I knew what I was getting into. I knew I wasn't about to engage in literary gold when I opened this book. Anybody who would expect that needs a reality check because....well, look at the cover. It's pink and purple for crying out loud.
This book was very quick and entertaining. It's fluffy, girly brain candy. I always have trouble rating books like these because my wanna-be intelligent self is like "you're too good for these books, go read Chaucer instead", while my teenage girl self enjoys them. Alas I am a conflicted soul.
I went into this all haughty, believing it to be all too predictable, and it was for the most part. Meg Cabot leaves little hints before hand so you know what's going to happen before the narrator does and then repeats it often enough for the especially dense. But then came the twist....those things always make me feel like an a-hole.
The narrator is likeable enough. I didn't want to drown her, which is something special considering most of the heroines in YA nowadays. But then she committed the Ultimate Offense in my mind- claiming some guy is your soulmate after two days. Ugh, I HATE characters like that, especially when they are in high school. Hey, the guy who sits next to me in math class is pretty hot, but that doesn't mean I want to spend eternity with him. I guess I let it slide this time because these characters are reincarnated and have know each other for centuries, which is plenty of time to get to know someone (but do we ever really know someone hmmm?).
Some of the plot points were pretty ridiculous and had me holding back chuckles of disbelief. I know...you guys are probably like "Well, it is a fantasy set in highschool, what did you expect?". To that I say IT'S MY REVIEW AND I GET TO COMPLAIN IF I WANT TO.
The characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been. Particularly Lance. Poor Lance, he is practically brushed aside in this retelling. And did Jennifer HAVE to be a cheerleader? (guess what color her hair was). I also would have liked to see some other Arthurains characters and more (dare I say it) education. This book barely touches the surface of the tale it's based on. And for those who enjoyed the book and want to read more Arthurian fiction- whilst still be entertained- I recommend The Once and Future King
The writing is nothing challenging and is meant to be read quickly. No moments of beauty here. Just straight-to-the-point-prose with the occasional dash of humor.
I have to give it up to Meg Cabot. She sure knows how to get people to read her books. I knew I wasn't going to love this book before I went into it, and yet I read it anyway. God help her fans.
For a moment I was considering reading the sequel before I discovered it was THIS. What the hell is that? The frame with Ellie in the pool is practically porn for nerdy teenage boys.
This book was very quick and entertaining. It's fluffy, girly brain candy. I always have trouble rating books like these because my wanna-be intelligent self is like "you're too good for these books, go read Chaucer instead", while my teenage girl self enjoys them. Alas I am a conflicted soul.
I went into this all haughty, believing it to be all too predictable, and it was for the most part. Meg Cabot leaves little hints before hand so you know what's going to happen before the narrator does and then repeats it often enough for the especially dense. But then came the twist....those things always make me feel like an a-hole.
The narrator is likeable enough. I didn't want to drown her, which is something special considering most of the heroines in YA nowadays. But then she committed the Ultimate Offense in my mind- claiming some guy is your soulmate after two days. Ugh, I HATE characters like that, especially when they are in high school. Hey, the guy who sits next to me in math class is pretty hot, but that doesn't mean I want to spend eternity with him. I guess I let it slide this time because these characters are reincarnated and have know each other for centuries, which is plenty of time to get to know someone (but do we ever really know someone hmmm?).
Some of the plot points were pretty ridiculous and had me holding back chuckles of disbelief. I know...you guys are probably like "Well, it is a fantasy set in highschool, what did you expect?". To that I say IT'S MY REVIEW AND I GET TO COMPLAIN IF I WANT TO.
The characters weren't as fleshed out as they could have been. Particularly Lance. Poor Lance, he is practically brushed aside in this retelling. And did Jennifer HAVE to be a cheerleader? (guess what color her hair was). I also would have liked to see some other Arthurains characters and more (dare I say it) education. This book barely touches the surface of the tale it's based on. And for those who enjoyed the book and want to read more Arthurian fiction- whilst still be entertained- I recommend The Once and Future King
The writing is nothing challenging and is meant to be read quickly. No moments of beauty here. Just straight-to-the-point-prose with the occasional dash of humor.
I have to give it up to Meg Cabot. She sure knows how to get people to read her books. I knew I wasn't going to love this book before I went into it, and yet I read it anyway. God help her fans.
For a moment I was considering reading the sequel before I discovered it was THIS. What the hell is that? The frame with Ellie in the pool is practically porn for nerdy teenage boys.
February 18, 2019
Back in the day, I remember really enjoying Avalon High but I'm not thrilled with it now. Mostly, it's dull, and it takes such a long time for the characters to figure out what's going on. The plot's lacking given that it's supposed to be a play on King Arthur. The characters are pretty flat, so, even though I can appreciate that Jennifer's not a mean girl, I don't actually care about any of these relationship. Worst of all, it seems like the worst in bad diversity (though he could just be white but come on, he could have been Mark or something) that the one villain in the whole thing is Marco.
April 10, 2008
King Arthur as high school DRAMA OMG. Quite a bit better than the adult Cabot I’ve read, actually, and there was at least one nice twist. Still the mental equivalent of candy floss, though. And not even, like, awesome maple candy floss from the Addison County Fair, to pick a very specific and increasingly ridiculous analogy. I think there need to be superheroes or buddy-cops to reach that level. At least for me.
I think maybe 1 1/2 sentences of this review were actually on-topic. I win!
I think maybe 1 1/2 sentences of this review were actually on-topic. I win!
November 7, 2009
Another light, fun read by Meg Cabot. I liked the whole King Arthur twist to the high school romance. I only wish the characters said, "OMG!" a lot less.
July 13, 2020
So, instead of reading Le Morte D'Arthur or rereading The Green Knight (all hail our bisexual icon Gawain, by the way), I instead read...this.
I'm not proud.
I started off laughing at the story, feeling vaguely fond and a little nostalgic for bad early-2000's YA. But this book used up my kitty minutes, let me tell you. This isn't 'this book has sucked me dry, leaving me a husk of myself' levels at all, but it was just...Oh God. Honestly, there were so many things wrong with this book I'm not sure I'll be able to unpack them all here? But let me start off with the treatment of Guinevere. Firstly, you should know that ANYONE WHO SAYS ANYTHING BAD ABOUT GUINEVERE EVER CAN DIE BY MY SWORD. (Kidding. There are some decent criticisms of the character. But anything about her being an evil stupid slut who cheated on the super coolz King Arthur is NOT it.)
This book is sexist. There, I said it. Guinevere is only allowed to be shallow and slutty, because she's blond and (*gasp*) a cheerleader. She's a gossip who cheats. That's her only personality. Her only purpose is to be the whore for the virgin heroine to hate--not that Elaine is any purer, but the book wants us to pretend. Because how dare Guinevere make moves on Elaine's man? Never mind the fact that Guinevere is the one who is dating Elaine's 'man' in the first place, and technically, Elaine is the one making moves on Arthur. I'm sorry, I'm okay with committing adultery when you've been pushed into an arranged marriage and you never had the option to break up in the first place. I'm not okay with cheating in any sort of modern context. But anyway, Guinevere is only granted 'redemption' when she grants her approval to Arthur and Elaine's relationship, and even then, the scene emphasizes how shallow she is, poking fun at her revulsion to talking instead of making out.
Just to drive home how awful the sexism was, allow me to share this quote here:
Hello, 911? I'd like to report the murder of my soul.
(I knew some boys back in high school and they were the nastiest people you can imagine. This whole thing where teenage boys are mature and reasonable and teenage girls are harpies ready to turn on each other at any moment is bizarre. Also, what...is up with the grammar in that quote 💀)
Let me pause this review for a second to say: WHERE ON EARTH IS GAWAIN. Arthurian retellings that could feature Gawain and don't have him should be cancelled smh.
Mordred is just...I don't know. I liked him because I want someone to kill all these excuses for characters, but let's be real, there were scenes in this book where he might as well have tied young maidens to train tracks. He was ridiculous. I can't hate him, because no human would ever act like thisand because hating Mordred is illegal. I also like that nice removal of free will with how Mordred is destined to be evil. Nothing like a villain that literally can't make any other choice! Frankly, there are medieval stories with a way more nuanced take on this character.
Also, the writing is SO bad. Elaine kept using this sentence structure where she'd say something sarcastic, and then, because we are much too stupid to understand anything like sarcasm, she'd immediately add 'not' afterwards. And she did this so. Many. Times. Pretty much every time she said something sarcastic. Fun times!
At one point in the story, Elaine spends THREE PAGES describing how to clean a pool. I'm sorry, I thought I picked up a novel, not a pamphlet on pool-cleaning?
As if to prove my point that this book had no editing, Lancelot flushes...umber???!! He is white. Umber is dark brown. I'm the child of an artist, I should know this. I mean, unless Lancelot is taking blackfishing to a whole new level, this makes no sense.
Speaking of, there are no POC characters, except for when Arthur needs to play white savior to a few minor characters. It's set in Annapolis, a pretty big city, so I feel like there should be a more diverse population...? And there are a couple nasty ableist comments as well, such as the multiple times Elaine thinks certain characters don't 'look' mentally ill (as a mentally ill person, what the hell does that mean?), or when she treats mental illness as being synonymous with 'weird' behavior, or when she treats these asthmatic kids as freaks. And then she has the AUDACITY to put Arthur on a pedestal for standing up for the asthmatic kids when someone bullied them. Pick a stance, girl!!
The plot was non-existent lmao. There was something shoved in last minute about the dark side? Star Wars had better worldbuilding, and I think that's honestly the meanest roast I can say.
This book had no research put into it? The medieval period was not full of godless darkness and plague. It was only like that some of the time! Everyone stereotypes the medieval period as having no technological advancement and full of filthy and uneducated people. People took baths back then, alright? Sure, it was a harsh time, and women and poor people were NOT treated well, but people still lived. Humanity doesn't drastically change just because we're from a different culture or time period.
Also, allow me to scream for a moment about some of the weird things asserted about Arthurian legend.
MORDRED IS ARTHUR'S SON AND/OR NEPHEW. NOT HIS HALF-BROTHER. I literally have no idea where this one came from. Mordred is Gawain's brother in pretty much every legend. Wtf?
No, scholars do NOT agree on whether or not Arthur existed. Literally no one can agree on whether Arthur existed. There isn't enough evidence to say, honestly. He might have existed, he might have been inspired by a real life person, he might have been invented by some imaginative Welsh poet. And we have even less evidence for Lancelot's existence. He was probably Chretien's oc. I don't understand any of this.
Elaine of Astolat...didn't commit suicide in any story I've heard? In Tennyson, she died due to a curse. I haven't read Le Morte D'Arthur all the way through, but I thought she died of a broken heart? Either way, the heroine needs to stop shaming her and calling her weak for committing suicide. It isn't cute.
Oh, and one last thing; don't...just don't make Igraine cheat. She was raped in the original legends. Please. Stop.
Anyway, there were so many things that went wrong. I think I've exerted enough brainpower over this book, so I'll stop here before I keel over.
I'm not proud.
I started off laughing at the story, feeling vaguely fond and a little nostalgic for bad early-2000's YA. But this book used up my kitty minutes, let me tell you. This isn't 'this book has sucked me dry, leaving me a husk of myself' levels at all, but it was just...Oh God. Honestly, there were so many things wrong with this book I'm not sure I'll be able to unpack them all here? But let me start off with the treatment of Guinevere. Firstly, you should know that ANYONE WHO SAYS ANYTHING BAD ABOUT GUINEVERE EVER CAN DIE BY MY SWORD. (Kidding. There are some decent criticisms of the character. But anything about her being an evil stupid slut who cheated on the super coolz King Arthur is NOT it.)
This book is sexist. There, I said it. Guinevere is only allowed to be shallow and slutty, because she's blond and (*gasp*) a cheerleader. She's a gossip who cheats. That's her only personality. Her only purpose is to be the whore for the virgin heroine to hate--not that Elaine is any purer, but the book wants us to pretend. Because how dare Guinevere make moves on Elaine's man? Never mind the fact that Guinevere is the one who is dating Elaine's 'man' in the first place, and technically, Elaine is the one making moves on Arthur. I'm sorry, I'm okay with committing adultery when you've been pushed into an arranged marriage and you never had the option to break up in the first place. I'm not okay with cheating in any sort of modern context. But anyway, Guinevere is only granted 'redemption' when she grants her approval to Arthur and Elaine's relationship, and even then, the scene emphasizes how shallow she is, poking fun at her revulsion to talking instead of making out.
Just to drive home how awful the sexism was, allow me to share this quote here:
I made a mental note to tell Liz that this is what the In Crowd--the female members, anyway--does after parties...talk bad about everyone who showed up behind their backs.
Hello, 911? I'd like to report the murder of my soul.
(I knew some boys back in high school and they were the nastiest people you can imagine. This whole thing where teenage boys are mature and reasonable and teenage girls are harpies ready to turn on each other at any moment is bizarre. Also, what...is up with the grammar in that quote 💀)
Let me pause this review for a second to say: WHERE ON EARTH IS GAWAIN. Arthurian retellings that could feature Gawain and don't have him should be cancelled smh.
Mordred is just...I don't know. I liked him because I want someone to kill all these excuses for characters, but let's be real, there were scenes in this book where he might as well have tied young maidens to train tracks. He was ridiculous. I can't hate him, because no human would ever act like this
Also, the writing is SO bad. Elaine kept using this sentence structure where she'd say something sarcastic, and then, because we are much too stupid to understand anything like sarcasm, she'd immediately add 'not' afterwards. And she did this so. Many. Times. Pretty much every time she said something sarcastic. Fun times!
At one point in the story, Elaine spends THREE PAGES describing how to clean a pool. I'm sorry, I thought I picked up a novel, not a pamphlet on pool-cleaning?
As if to prove my point that this book had no editing, Lancelot flushes...umber???!! He is white. Umber is dark brown. I'm the child of an artist, I should know this. I mean, unless Lancelot is taking blackfishing to a whole new level, this makes no sense.
Speaking of, there are no POC characters, except for when Arthur needs to play white savior to a few minor characters. It's set in Annapolis, a pretty big city, so I feel like there should be a more diverse population...? And there are a couple nasty ableist comments as well, such as the multiple times Elaine thinks certain characters don't 'look' mentally ill (as a mentally ill person, what the hell does that mean?), or when she treats mental illness as being synonymous with 'weird' behavior, or when she treats these asthmatic kids as freaks. And then she has the AUDACITY to put Arthur on a pedestal for standing up for the asthmatic kids when someone bullied them. Pick a stance, girl!!
The plot was non-existent lmao. There was something shoved in last minute about the dark side? Star Wars had better worldbuilding, and I think that's honestly the meanest roast I can say.
This book had no research put into it? The medieval period was not full of godless darkness and plague. It was only like that some of the time! Everyone stereotypes the medieval period as having no technological advancement and full of filthy and uneducated people. People took baths back then, alright? Sure, it was a harsh time, and women and poor people were NOT treated well, but people still lived. Humanity doesn't drastically change just because we're from a different culture or time period.
Also, allow me to scream for a moment about some of the weird things asserted about Arthurian legend.
MORDRED IS ARTHUR'S SON AND/OR NEPHEW. NOT HIS HALF-BROTHER. I literally have no idea where this one came from. Mordred is Gawain's brother in pretty much every legend. Wtf?
No, scholars do NOT agree on whether or not Arthur existed. Literally no one can agree on whether Arthur existed. There isn't enough evidence to say, honestly. He might have existed, he might have been inspired by a real life person, he might have been invented by some imaginative Welsh poet. And we have even less evidence for Lancelot's existence. He was probably Chretien's oc. I don't understand any of this.
Elaine of Astolat...didn't commit suicide in any story I've heard? In Tennyson, she died due to a curse. I haven't read Le Morte D'Arthur all the way through, but I thought she died of a broken heart? Either way, the heroine needs to stop shaming her and calling her weak for committing suicide. It isn't cute.
Oh, and one last thing; don't...just don't make Igraine cheat. She was raped in the original legends. Please. Stop.
Anyway, there were so many things that went wrong. I think I've exerted enough brainpower over this book, so I'll stop here before I keel over.
September 2, 2022
This book was just as good as I remember I still love all things Arthurian Legend related. I loved all of the characters so much especially Ellie she is a really likable character who comes off as an easy to like character I really loved her growing relationship with Will they just fit so well together from the start of the story. I really liked the plot it started with Ellie being in a new place since her parents are professors with Ellie meeting someone she likes from the start her then going to her first day of school other things happen and the Tale of Arthur Genevieve and Lancelot plays out just in modern day with different results other things happen and we have an happy for now with things being found out. So I really loved this book will read more by this author for sure.
May 28, 2020
2.5 stars
This book was really slow at the beginning but it got better. I like mythology and legends so that aspect was nice.
This book was really slow at the beginning but it got better. I like mythology and legends so that aspect was nice.
February 2, 2024
the audiobook is so good! played me in w rock music and out with medieval. big fan. revisited bc i really liked this as a kid and am now taking a medievalism class so
September 25, 2007
Meg is back! I have been a fan of Meg Cabot since first reading The Princess Diaries, I also loved the entire Mediator series and the first All-American Girl book. However, I have been increasingly unimpressed with the later Princess Diaries books and hated the second All-American Girl. I realize that teenagers are thinking about and talking about sex, but I don't like YA novels that just start taking for granted that young adults are all - and should all be - having sex. I teach young adults. I know them. There is no WAY they should be thinking sex is something for them to be doing. Now that I have finished my rant.... I loved Avalon High. I love Cabot's skill at characterization and the deft way that she taps into teenagers. She's also crafted a creative spin on the Arthurian legend - a legend I love and never tire of reading new incarnations of. I thoroughly enjoyed the concepts of repeated reincarnations of the key characters from the legend and the spin she gives to the story of the Lady of Shalott. Two thumbs wayyyyyy up! (and yay for going back to the more "innocent" boy-girl physical relationships.)
December 17, 2008
One of the best books I have read. It is a book that
I can relate to.
I can relate to.
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