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Rapunzel Let Down: A Fairy Tale Retold
A teen summer romance in New England has disastrous consequences when the daring son of a conservative senator forms a secret relationship with the isolated daughter of a reclusive scientist. A modern retelling of the classic tale 'Rapunzel.'
482 pages, Paperback
First published March 18, 2013
9 people are currently reading
686 people want to read
About the author
Regina Doman
32 books510 followersRegina Doman is a Catholic wife, mother, author and editor. Currently she runs her own company, Chesterton Press, which publishes and distributes quality Catholic fiction. When she worked as the editor of Sophia Institute Press' fiction line, she launched the popular John Paul 2 High series for teens, and Rachel's Contrition became a #1 Best Seller in Amazon's Women's Fiction category, and winner of the 2011 Catholic Arts and Letters Award for best adult fiction. As an author, she has written the Fairy Tale Novels, a series of books for teens and adults that places fairy tales in modern settings with Christian themes interwoven. The fifth book in that series, Alex O'Donnell and the 40 CyberThieves, won the 2011 Catholic Arts and Letters Award for best young adult fiction. In 2013, she published her longest and most challenging fairy tale novel yet, Rapunzel Let Down. Her only picture book Angel in the Waters has sold over 120,000 copies. In 2010 she was presented with the "In Defense of Sanity" award from the American Chesterton Society. Regina and her husband Andrew live in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley on a farmstead with their children. To the question, “How do you manage to get it all done?” Regina responds, “What makes you think I get it all done?”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
July 18, 2014
They say the key to good writing is to write what you know. As a fan of Regina Doman, I want to see her succeed. And where she kept closely by this maxim she did pretty well.
As a Catholic myself, I am interested in the propagation of good literature, especially fiction, one from a Catholic perspective. While I wasn’t exactly expecting “Brideshead Revisited”, I picked up “Rapunzel Let Down” by Regina Doman. I had heard this was her “controversial” novel, and that most reviewers gave it five stars.
Unfortunately, there were way too many problems with this book to overlook. It has no business getting a five star review from any mature reader -- and, unlike her other Fairy Tale novels, this book was aimed at an older (college and above) audience who ought to know the difference between good writing, and simply mediocre writing.
I won’t try to refute the fact that the book itself was a page-turner. However, once the main plot began to progress, almost every turn of the page was painful. Doman stretched herself too thin, and fell extremely flat when writing about:
- law
- court proceedings
- prison experiences (the prison seems to be set in the 1950s, as the characters have names such as “Plato” and “the Shiekh”, who wax philosophically with complex syntax and never, ever swear)
- liberals/feminists/feminist liberals (every single one was a caricature, and said things no feminist/liberal/liberal feminist would ever, ever say)
- poverty (specifically, how a character who is suddenly impoverished thinks)
- teenaged boys (which is a problem when half of the book is from the perspective of a teenaged boy)
There were problems from the (plodding) start. The dialogue was far from natural. The characters were flat and wooden. And I have *major* problems of physics and basic mechanics with the way the author described how the main character, Hermes, climbed a fence, then a tower. Without being seen. O_o The ending was first bizarre, then too pat (although given that this is a fairytale, the latter can be overlooked).
However, most problematic were the ham-fisted ways in which very real, very weighty topics were treated: lust, fornication, sadism, sexual abuse, abortion, homosexuality, rape, etc. As per usual, Doman was trying to view these things through a Catholic lense of sin and redemption, which she has done beautifully in the past. She can be a capable writer and put forth a beautiful Catholic worldview wrapped in compelling fiction. But in “Rapunzel Let Down”, we, the audience, were, indeed, let down. As the above list may suggest, she tried to cram way too many of these topics into way too small of a medium to do any of them justice. Her treatment of these topics was either painfully naive (much like with her completely out-of-touch-with-reality prison scenes), contrived, or simply biased.
For example, it could have been possible to portray Elma Zilberger as a sympathetic character. After all, the situation with her daughter, a minor, and Hermes, aged eighteen and entering through her window at night to have sex with her, is objectively alarming. Instead, she comes off a shrill, typically liberal feminist with views that no feminist would espouse, such as the methodical way she despises any hint of anything traditionally feminine in her daughter, pushing her into a homosexual relationship/orientation despite the expressed preferences (or previous disinterest) of her daughter, and the line, “They’re just another bunch of impoverished Indians.” (Said no liberal feminist, ever.)
(I’m also curious as to what scientist makes as much as Dr Zilberger, who owns multiple multi-million dollar properties, orders bespoke … everything, and employs a household staff. Because, I should get into that science.)
I also find the way she treats homosexuality extremely troubling. There are whiffs throughout the book that homosexuality is a learned, not inborn, trait, or that it is something with which teenagers sometimes experiment, or put on to garner attention. While this may be the case with a select few people in reality, this comprises 100% of the homosexual characters in the book, suggesting this may be Doman’s worldview (and not one of the Catholic Church, who has no position on how or why any person is gay).
Her treatment of race/heritage was also quite bland. Hermes McCafferty, being an Irish Catholic, of course has the “luck of the Irish” and his spirituality includes devotions to St. Patrick, and several quarterbacks. Raphaela (who, being Hispanic, should spell her name with an “f”) finds Our Lady of Guadalupe. Oh how quaint. Not to mention Raphaela’s Mexican family, being Mexican, were naturally illegals. (???!!!) ALL of them. Stereotypes much?
Finally, in the middle of all these very problematic issues, there is a short but very random homebirth screed -- not simply pushing it for the plot, but pushing homebirth/natural birth/unassisted childbirth as better and superior to ways other women birth. When the father of the child(ren) objects on the basis that his own mother very nearly died in childbirth, he is handily dismissed.
I will say the book has a handful of very, very touching moments, mostly dealing with the poignancy of young love, and genuinely emotional scenes with one character encountering fatherhood for the first time. Many of Doman’s phrases and descriptions are quite apt (although how does one sit down “with a slap”?), and I find her authorial voice enjoyable.
All in all, Doman does a lot of telling, not showing (yes, tell us again about the protagonist’s “prison hardness”), all while painting with such a Catholic brush that she fails to consider the reality of such situations, or other points of view. Had she done this, I believe she could have painted a much more believable and naturalistic picture, in which she could have achieved her goal of portraying sin and grace and redemption in modern times through the outline of a classic fairy tale. Her subject had such potential, but in her rush to solve all the world’s ills, she overstepped her abilities.
As a Catholic myself, I am interested in the propagation of good literature, especially fiction, one from a Catholic perspective. While I wasn’t exactly expecting “Brideshead Revisited”, I picked up “Rapunzel Let Down” by Regina Doman. I had heard this was her “controversial” novel, and that most reviewers gave it five stars.
Unfortunately, there were way too many problems with this book to overlook. It has no business getting a five star review from any mature reader -- and, unlike her other Fairy Tale novels, this book was aimed at an older (college and above) audience who ought to know the difference between good writing, and simply mediocre writing.
I won’t try to refute the fact that the book itself was a page-turner. However, once the main plot began to progress, almost every turn of the page was painful. Doman stretched herself too thin, and fell extremely flat when writing about:
- law
- court proceedings
- prison experiences (the prison seems to be set in the 1950s, as the characters have names such as “Plato” and “the Shiekh”, who wax philosophically with complex syntax and never, ever swear)
- liberals/feminists/feminist liberals (every single one was a caricature, and said things no feminist/liberal/liberal feminist would ever, ever say)
- poverty (specifically, how a character who is suddenly impoverished thinks)
- teenaged boys (which is a problem when half of the book is from the perspective of a teenaged boy)
There were problems from the (plodding) start. The dialogue was far from natural. The characters were flat and wooden. And I have *major* problems of physics and basic mechanics with the way the author described how the main character, Hermes, climbed a fence, then a tower. Without being seen. O_o The ending was first bizarre, then too pat (although given that this is a fairytale, the latter can be overlooked).
However, most problematic were the ham-fisted ways in which very real, very weighty topics were treated: lust, fornication, sadism, sexual abuse, abortion, homosexuality, rape, etc. As per usual, Doman was trying to view these things through a Catholic lense of sin and redemption, which she has done beautifully in the past. She can be a capable writer and put forth a beautiful Catholic worldview wrapped in compelling fiction. But in “Rapunzel Let Down”, we, the audience, were, indeed, let down. As the above list may suggest, she tried to cram way too many of these topics into way too small of a medium to do any of them justice. Her treatment of these topics was either painfully naive (much like with her completely out-of-touch-with-reality prison scenes), contrived, or simply biased.
For example, it could have been possible to portray Elma Zilberger as a sympathetic character. After all, the situation with her daughter, a minor, and Hermes, aged eighteen and entering through her window at night to have sex with her, is objectively alarming. Instead, she comes off a shrill, typically liberal feminist with views that no feminist would espouse, such as the methodical way she despises any hint of anything traditionally feminine in her daughter, pushing her into a homosexual relationship/orientation despite the expressed preferences (or previous disinterest) of her daughter, and the line, “They’re just another bunch of impoverished Indians.” (Said no liberal feminist, ever.)
(I’m also curious as to what scientist makes as much as Dr Zilberger, who owns multiple multi-million dollar properties, orders bespoke … everything, and employs a household staff. Because, I should get into that science.)
I also find the way she treats homosexuality extremely troubling. There are whiffs throughout the book that homosexuality is a learned, not inborn, trait, or that it is something with which teenagers sometimes experiment, or put on to garner attention. While this may be the case with a select few people in reality, this comprises 100% of the homosexual characters in the book, suggesting this may be Doman’s worldview (and not one of the Catholic Church, who has no position on how or why any person is gay).
Her treatment of race/heritage was also quite bland. Hermes McCafferty, being an Irish Catholic, of course has the “luck of the Irish” and his spirituality includes devotions to St. Patrick, and several quarterbacks. Raphaela (who, being Hispanic, should spell her name with an “f”) finds Our Lady of Guadalupe. Oh how quaint. Not to mention Raphaela’s Mexican family, being Mexican, were naturally illegals. (???!!!) ALL of them. Stereotypes much?
Finally, in the middle of all these very problematic issues, there is a short but very random homebirth screed -- not simply pushing it for the plot, but pushing homebirth/natural birth/unassisted childbirth as better and superior to ways other women birth. When the father of the child(ren) objects on the basis that his own mother very nearly died in childbirth, he is handily dismissed.
I will say the book has a handful of very, very touching moments, mostly dealing with the poignancy of young love, and genuinely emotional scenes with one character encountering fatherhood for the first time. Many of Doman’s phrases and descriptions are quite apt (although how does one sit down “with a slap”?), and I find her authorial voice enjoyable.
All in all, Doman does a lot of telling, not showing (yes, tell us again about the protagonist’s “prison hardness”), all while painting with such a Catholic brush that she fails to consider the reality of such situations, or other points of view. Had she done this, I believe she could have painted a much more believable and naturalistic picture, in which she could have achieved her goal of portraying sin and grace and redemption in modern times through the outline of a classic fairy tale. Her subject had such potential, but in her rush to solve all the world’s ills, she overstepped her abilities.
February 18, 2023
I read this back in 2017 and gave this four stars, and I'm ashamed of myself. I normally don't remember things I've read six years ago, but I do remember the propaganda that this book shoved down my throat.
Whenever I think of a strawman fallacy, I think of this book. This book raised an army of scarecrows and was so proud of itself when it toppled them all to the ground, while the real topics remained unaffected by this books portrayal of them.
Our main character's mom is part of a lesbian feminist cult that is hellbent on raising all their daughters to love women and hate men. Her mother has picked her out a girlfriend, failed to teach her about safe sex, and tries to force an abortion on her when she finds out that she's pregnant. (I think there was also some child pornography debacle as well, and a natural birth in the woods and some other topics I don't remember). I was raised in a religion that taught me that this was definitely what a lesbian and a feminist acted like, so I liked this book at the time because that was all I knew at 17 as an indoctrinated homeschooler.
Thankfully, six years later I know that sexuality is not a choice. You can't shove lesbianism down the throat of a straight girl, just like how you can't force a lesbian to be straight. Thankfully, I know that feminism is about equal rights and it benefits both men and women. Thankfully, I know that being pro-choice is about letting women have the choice to be pregnant or not. This is why this book is nothing more than a christian wet dream against feminism, the "gay agenda", and abortion. Even at seventeen I didn't have the words to say it, but I rated this four instead of five stars because I felt like it tried to tackle too many topics at once that it didn't give any of them the time or detail it would actually deserve. I'm not even going to talk about the only person of color being the teenage girl who is abused and forced to be pregnant.
A fun tidbit about my upbringing and how it got this book into my hands: I was warned before reading this book about the catholicism (more so than the lesbianism surprisingly). If that doesn't speak to the chronic infighting between Christian denominations, I don't know what will.
So please don't read this book, even if you are a catholic who hates LGBTQ+ people, feminism, and abortion. I'm sure there are books that have less obvious strawmans and "better" arguments than this awful attempt of a book.
I will give this book one thing: It follows the original fairytale better than Tangled. That's it. That's all it deserves.
Whenever I think of a strawman fallacy, I think of this book. This book raised an army of scarecrows and was so proud of itself when it toppled them all to the ground, while the real topics remained unaffected by this books portrayal of them.
Our main character's mom is part of a lesbian feminist cult that is hellbent on raising all their daughters to love women and hate men. Her mother has picked her out a girlfriend, failed to teach her about safe sex, and tries to force an abortion on her when she finds out that she's pregnant. (I think there was also some child pornography debacle as well, and a natural birth in the woods and some other topics I don't remember). I was raised in a religion that taught me that this was definitely what a lesbian and a feminist acted like, so I liked this book at the time because that was all I knew at 17 as an indoctrinated homeschooler.
Thankfully, six years later I know that sexuality is not a choice. You can't shove lesbianism down the throat of a straight girl, just like how you can't force a lesbian to be straight. Thankfully, I know that feminism is about equal rights and it benefits both men and women. Thankfully, I know that being pro-choice is about letting women have the choice to be pregnant or not. This is why this book is nothing more than a christian wet dream against feminism, the "gay agenda", and abortion. Even at seventeen I didn't have the words to say it, but I rated this four instead of five stars because I felt like it tried to tackle too many topics at once that it didn't give any of them the time or detail it would actually deserve. I'm not even going to talk about the only person of color being the teenage girl who is abused and forced to be pregnant.
A fun tidbit about my upbringing and how it got this book into my hands: I was warned before reading this book about the catholicism (more so than the lesbianism surprisingly). If that doesn't speak to the chronic infighting between Christian denominations, I don't know what will.
So please don't read this book, even if you are a catholic who hates LGBTQ+ people, feminism, and abortion. I'm sure there are books that have less obvious strawmans and "better" arguments than this awful attempt of a book.
I will give this book one thing: It follows the original fairytale better than Tangled. That's it. That's all it deserves.
May 2, 2013
Absolutely amazing. I've never read anything like this: courageous, gritty, truthful, spiritual, scary, and beautiful all at once. The joke in our family is that the Grimm brothers were aptly named - their fairytales were grim indeed! The original Grimm version of Rapunzel features an evil witch, an abducted and psychologically abused girl, a selfish boy, an unplanned pregnancy, violence and broken hearts. "Rapunzel Let Down" does, too, though cleverly adapted to modern times. Warning: This retelling is not for the young or the faint of heart. I agree with the over-18 warning.
There are too many facets to this rich, excellently researched story for me to discuss them all here, so I'll touch briefly on some things that stood out to me. First, the importance of grace to an imperfect species, humans. Second, the importance of traditional love and parenting. Many of the characters in this book were or are being subjected to deviations from the child-rearing ideal and they are all injured by it, some to the point that they become injurious adults. But - as in real life - characters who are raised in an ideal traditional home are often no better, also behaving selfishly and injuring others. The difference is that the characters with strong family and faith are capable of introspection, of admitting that they are wrong, of acknowledging their flaws and sins, and of striving to do better. (In some circles, this is known as "growing up.")
At the center of it all is Raphaela, taken from her biological family as a child, hidden away by her ultra-feminist mother who, in her own demented way, is doing her best to keep her daughter safe. But the adoptive mother's oppressive control creates a girl so innocent, she has no clue about how to defend herself, or even that she might need defending. And despite all that is done to her, Raphaela remains strong, true, brave, healthy, and most important, loving. Raised to despise traditional faith, she still senses that a higher power protects her. Having spent her entire life separated from and taught to hate all that most people consider wholesome, she nonetheless needs and desires these things. The truth is the truth. How satisfying to find this conclusion in such a great read! (And it is a great read - many late nights spent with this one.) Read it! Seriously, read it.
There are too many facets to this rich, excellently researched story for me to discuss them all here, so I'll touch briefly on some things that stood out to me. First, the importance of grace to an imperfect species, humans. Second, the importance of traditional love and parenting. Many of the characters in this book were or are being subjected to deviations from the child-rearing ideal and they are all injured by it, some to the point that they become injurious adults. But - as in real life - characters who are raised in an ideal traditional home are often no better, also behaving selfishly and injuring others. The difference is that the characters with strong family and faith are capable of introspection, of admitting that they are wrong, of acknowledging their flaws and sins, and of striving to do better. (In some circles, this is known as "growing up.")
At the center of it all is Raphaela, taken from her biological family as a child, hidden away by her ultra-feminist mother who, in her own demented way, is doing her best to keep her daughter safe. But the adoptive mother's oppressive control creates a girl so innocent, she has no clue about how to defend herself, or even that she might need defending. And despite all that is done to her, Raphaela remains strong, true, brave, healthy, and most important, loving. Raised to despise traditional faith, she still senses that a higher power protects her. Having spent her entire life separated from and taught to hate all that most people consider wholesome, she nonetheless needs and desires these things. The truth is the truth. How satisfying to find this conclusion in such a great read! (And it is a great read - many late nights spent with this one.) Read it! Seriously, read it.
June 2, 2020
So. Here we are. The review. I feel like I've been reading this book forever. Not in a bad way, mind you, note the five star rating, but this book is so intense and emotionally draining it really felt like a slow motion event reading-wise. I could do a serious review, but aside from mentioning that it's a really good book and highly recommending it, I think I'd mostly just spend said serious review ranting about what an absolute piece of trash Elma Zilberger is.
So I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to write the following review/summary more as if it's a segment on "Telenovelas are Hell".
Do you like stories with crazy lesbians, framed gay guys, home birth in the wilderness, illegal immigrants, random Congress media and tabloids and a guy who gets his face shoved in dog pee by a murderous pervert? Then, this book is for you!
Young Hermes is upset because his hotter older brothers keep hitting on this random girl he's got a crush on after watching her get the mail and this one priest desperate to fill his quota won't leave him alone to sulk. Also, he's named after some PR type guy nobody in the family seems to remotely like, so bummer.
He meets Raphaela, a rich adopted girl whose mother is so racist she won't even spell her Spanish kid's name the Spanish way. Raphaela is depressed because her mother has locked her in a tower and seems hell-bent on not letting her leave it unless she becomes a lesbian. But Hermes reminds her of her favorite dead cat, so she sleeps with him.
Raphaela wants Hermes to take her away from her crazy mother and introduce her to his family, because who wouldn't, but he won't because he's kind of a jerk. Instead he waits until she gets knocked up and he's arrested for rape because he's 18 and she's, well, not.
So he gets tossed in the pokey where a guy blinds him by punching him in the face after he gets some really crappy advice from his lawyer's assistant who is adorkable and has a red haired girlfriend we only see once.
Meanwhile, to avoid being forced to get an abortion, Raphaela runs away and lives at a medical library and washes veggies for a minority as long as they're willing to give her a cut of the sweet, sweet lettuce. Also this excitable guy named Paul gives her two lunches and a free ultrasound. Things are going okay, until Raphaela's lesbian friend Minot sees her at the lettuce store and totally rats on her! Luckily for Raphaela, Minot then has an emotional and psychological breakdown because she never had a daddy and gives Raphaela her credit card. So, after visiting an atm machine, Raphaela hitches a ride with some nice girls going out of state.
Things are looking up for Raphaela who has a job as a telemarketer and lives in corners and basement apartments until she runs off to have her twin babies alone, in a cabin on a hiking trail. Meanwhile, Hermes is bitter in prison until he decides he's not and makes friends with a random gay guy called Pinkie who happened to be framed for murder by the psycho groundskeeper on Raphaela's mother's property.
Raphaela is accosted by a Mexican guy who keeps saying she looks like his girlfriend. She freaks the hell out and tries to fight him to defend herself and her baby boys but it turns out he is actually just her long-lost biological sister's boyfriend, and Raphaela has 14 brothers and sisters and a father so elderly you're surprised he doesn't fall down dead at any point.
Her bio-sis Mona takes Raphaela to visit Hermes in prison so he can see his twin children who are inexplicably named after Bible characters. He's so happy to see them all that he dips into his trust fund so Raphaela and Mona can live in a crappy apartment with his sons. But Raphaela's bitchy adoptive mother who is already the worst person in this can't stand to see people happy so she kidnaps Raphaela, imprisons her in her tower with all her belongings taken out if it, makes the babies cry, and allows groundskeeper mcPervy to get those dang attack dogs he's been bitching about since page one.
Hermes who is miraculously no longer blind gets out of prison only to find his girlfriend was taken hostage by a crazy lady who has a bad gym teacher haircut and spells "women" with a y because reasons. He bursts onto the property and throws Raphaela some climbing gear and kills mcPervy's dogs. He then is made part of a kangaroo court with a bunch of sad women who lose interest after five minutes and leave him to be murdered by mcPervy. He gets his face shoved in doggie pee and gets whipped a lot but survives it by pretending he's Jesus... Or something like that...
Raphaela gets his family and the police to arrest mcPervy and Hermes saves her adopted mother from hanging herself because he's Catholic and even though she's a horrible human being he doesn't actually want her to go straight to hell.
Then Hermes and Raphaela get married.
Also Minot and Pinkie become BFFs at the wedding. It's not said if Minot catches the bouquet but in my head!canon she totally does. Because problematic or not they're the most shippable pairing in this thing.
I'd assume they all lived happy ever after, but the book literally ends by saying they didn't, that they were just happier than they otherwise would have been. Which given how dark this thing got is probably the best any of these characters could hope for.
The end
(Seriously, though, it's a great book, read it)
So I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to write the following review/summary more as if it's a segment on "Telenovelas are Hell".
Do you like stories with crazy lesbians, framed gay guys, home birth in the wilderness, illegal immigrants, random Congress media and tabloids and a guy who gets his face shoved in dog pee by a murderous pervert? Then, this book is for you!
Young Hermes is upset because his hotter older brothers keep hitting on this random girl he's got a crush on after watching her get the mail and this one priest desperate to fill his quota won't leave him alone to sulk. Also, he's named after some PR type guy nobody in the family seems to remotely like, so bummer.
He meets Raphaela, a rich adopted girl whose mother is so racist she won't even spell her Spanish kid's name the Spanish way. Raphaela is depressed because her mother has locked her in a tower and seems hell-bent on not letting her leave it unless she becomes a lesbian. But Hermes reminds her of her favorite dead cat, so she sleeps with him.
Raphaela wants Hermes to take her away from her crazy mother and introduce her to his family, because who wouldn't, but he won't because he's kind of a jerk. Instead he waits until she gets knocked up and he's arrested for rape because he's 18 and she's, well, not.
So he gets tossed in the pokey where a guy blinds him by punching him in the face after he gets some really crappy advice from his lawyer's assistant who is adorkable and has a red haired girlfriend we only see once.
Meanwhile, to avoid being forced to get an abortion, Raphaela runs away and lives at a medical library and washes veggies for a minority as long as they're willing to give her a cut of the sweet, sweet lettuce. Also this excitable guy named Paul gives her two lunches and a free ultrasound. Things are going okay, until Raphaela's lesbian friend Minot sees her at the lettuce store and totally rats on her! Luckily for Raphaela, Minot then has an emotional and psychological breakdown because she never had a daddy and gives Raphaela her credit card. So, after visiting an atm machine, Raphaela hitches a ride with some nice girls going out of state.
Things are looking up for Raphaela who has a job as a telemarketer and lives in corners and basement apartments until she runs off to have her twin babies alone, in a cabin on a hiking trail. Meanwhile, Hermes is bitter in prison until he decides he's not and makes friends with a random gay guy called Pinkie who happened to be framed for murder by the psycho groundskeeper on Raphaela's mother's property.
Raphaela is accosted by a Mexican guy who keeps saying she looks like his girlfriend. She freaks the hell out and tries to fight him to defend herself and her baby boys but it turns out he is actually just her long-lost biological sister's boyfriend, and Raphaela has 14 brothers and sisters and a father so elderly you're surprised he doesn't fall down dead at any point.
Her bio-sis Mona takes Raphaela to visit Hermes in prison so he can see his twin children who are inexplicably named after Bible characters. He's so happy to see them all that he dips into his trust fund so Raphaela and Mona can live in a crappy apartment with his sons. But Raphaela's bitchy adoptive mother who is already the worst person in this can't stand to see people happy so she kidnaps Raphaela, imprisons her in her tower with all her belongings taken out if it, makes the babies cry, and allows groundskeeper mcPervy to get those dang attack dogs he's been bitching about since page one.
Hermes who is miraculously no longer blind gets out of prison only to find his girlfriend was taken hostage by a crazy lady who has a bad gym teacher haircut and spells "women" with a y because reasons. He bursts onto the property and throws Raphaela some climbing gear and kills mcPervy's dogs. He then is made part of a kangaroo court with a bunch of sad women who lose interest after five minutes and leave him to be murdered by mcPervy. He gets his face shoved in doggie pee and gets whipped a lot but survives it by pretending he's Jesus... Or something like that...
Raphaela gets his family and the police to arrest mcPervy and Hermes saves her adopted mother from hanging herself because he's Catholic and even though she's a horrible human being he doesn't actually want her to go straight to hell.
Then Hermes and Raphaela get married.
Also Minot and Pinkie become BFFs at the wedding. It's not said if Minot catches the bouquet but in my head!canon she totally does. Because problematic or not they're the most shippable pairing in this thing.
I'd assume they all lived happy ever after, but the book literally ends by saying they didn't, that they were just happier than they otherwise would have been. Which given how dark this thing got is probably the best any of these characters could hope for.
The end
(Seriously, though, it's a great book, read it)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2024
I read this as a kid, and I’m still a little sorry I did. I remember liking the first few books, and this one fell so so flat that I still remember how it felt to read 10 years later.
I wish I hadn’t read the cruel stereotype of the evil lesbian mom and all of the little pops of racism.
I wish I hadn’t read the ways this pushed purity culture so hard, it filled me with shame.
The other books were for kids and young adults. I know now that this one was for an older, grittier crowd, but lacked the media literacy at the time to realize it wasn’t for my age.
It was just a little hateful and ham-fisted propaganda-y.
I wish I hadn’t read the cruel stereotype of the evil lesbian mom and all of the little pops of racism.
I wish I hadn’t read the ways this pushed purity culture so hard, it filled me with shame.
The other books were for kids and young adults. I know now that this one was for an older, grittier crowd, but lacked the media literacy at the time to realize it wasn’t for my age.
It was just a little hateful and ham-fisted propaganda-y.
September 14, 2017
Regina Doman was again able to convert a fairy tail into modern day life with things that could happen in real life. Although this book is the sixth in a series it also stands on its own. If this is the first book in this series you read nothing is spolided. There are a few characters that are in the other books that are in this book but they have minor parts. On the whole I liked this book and would highly recommend it and the rest of the books in this series.
June 25, 2013
I'm pretty guilty of not knowing my fairy tales that well. And I have Regina Doman to thank for not only educating me in the last few years with her Fairy Tale Novels, but for also making them relevant to modern life.
Her latest installment, Rapunzel Let Down, is categorized adult fiction (all the others are young adult), and not only tackles a fairy tale that I didn't appreciate, but also deals with some topics that are critical and touchy.
The tale of Rapunzel is one I know, mostly, through Disney's rendering of it in one of our family's favorite movies, Tangled. Call me uncultured: I know. The Disneyification of fairy tales hasn't just affected me, and it makes me appreciate, even more, Doman's work with the Fairy Tale Novels.
Doman's rendition of this tale is based on Grimm, and she shares the thumbnail at the very end (it would ruin the plot, in some ways, to share it here or to have it as a preface to the book). I'm glad she did. It almost made me want to look it up for myself (it's pretty dark, really).
I wasn't able to stay up all night and finish this book in one or two sittings the way I would have liked to, but I was no less entertained and enthralled through the longer time spent with this plot.
The characters are honest and real in a way that I can only salute. The plot is well-done and thought out to the tiniest detail, as far as I can tell as a reader.
And...it's dark. It's scary. And whatever ending it has, you're still left haunted by the what-could-have-beens and the what-might-have-happeneds.
In Rapunzel Let Down, we get a perspective on morals, specifically as they relate to sexuality, that's unabashedly Catholic. Don't read that to mean that it's not full of ugliness and true humanity, though. One of the ways I think Doman wrote this book completely right was with her exploration of how society and sin lead people astray and how the Church (and Jesus) always wait, offering a hand and forgiveness and right relationship if only we choose.
This book is shocking in some ways and refreshing in others. You won't find apologies in this book and you'll get a hearty dose of how life really is. There are nightmare-inducing scenes and terrible consequences.
All in all, it's been one of my favorite reads of the year. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend it.
Her latest installment, Rapunzel Let Down, is categorized adult fiction (all the others are young adult), and not only tackles a fairy tale that I didn't appreciate, but also deals with some topics that are critical and touchy.
The tale of Rapunzel is one I know, mostly, through Disney's rendering of it in one of our family's favorite movies, Tangled. Call me uncultured: I know. The Disneyification of fairy tales hasn't just affected me, and it makes me appreciate, even more, Doman's work with the Fairy Tale Novels.
Doman's rendition of this tale is based on Grimm, and she shares the thumbnail at the very end (it would ruin the plot, in some ways, to share it here or to have it as a preface to the book). I'm glad she did. It almost made me want to look it up for myself (it's pretty dark, really).
I wasn't able to stay up all night and finish this book in one or two sittings the way I would have liked to, but I was no less entertained and enthralled through the longer time spent with this plot.
The characters are honest and real in a way that I can only salute. The plot is well-done and thought out to the tiniest detail, as far as I can tell as a reader.
And...it's dark. It's scary. And whatever ending it has, you're still left haunted by the what-could-have-beens and the what-might-have-happeneds.
In Rapunzel Let Down, we get a perspective on morals, specifically as they relate to sexuality, that's unabashedly Catholic. Don't read that to mean that it's not full of ugliness and true humanity, though. One of the ways I think Doman wrote this book completely right was with her exploration of how society and sin lead people astray and how the Church (and Jesus) always wait, offering a hand and forgiveness and right relationship if only we choose.
This book is shocking in some ways and refreshing in others. You won't find apologies in this book and you'll get a hearty dose of how life really is. There are nightmare-inducing scenes and terrible consequences.
All in all, it's been one of my favorite reads of the year. I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend it.
April 20, 2013
I read the Kindle version of this book. There are some typos that need to be edited, but nothing that inhibits the flow and understanding of the story.
Regina Doman has written a story that not only retells a fairy tale in a modern perspective, but addresses issues in our society that need to be addressed. There is a little of the good, the bad, and the ugly in it.
The issues of pre-marital sex, date-rape, homosexuality, abortion, deceit, and radical feminism are all brought to an obvious, but not too graphic surface. Although there are some parts that made me feel a little uncomfortable to read because I try to keep my reading at no more than a Rating of PG, I felt they needed to be focused on.
As all good-story tellers do, Regina keeps the reader's attention not only with the action within the story, but with the hope for a good ending.
The themes of family support and love, a mother's love, friendship, forgiveness, and faith make this story, for me, one of the best fictional books I have read in a while.
This is a PG-17 book in my opinion. It is a story that both men and woman will benefit from.
Regina Doman has written a story that not only retells a fairy tale in a modern perspective, but addresses issues in our society that need to be addressed. There is a little of the good, the bad, and the ugly in it.
The issues of pre-marital sex, date-rape, homosexuality, abortion, deceit, and radical feminism are all brought to an obvious, but not too graphic surface. Although there are some parts that made me feel a little uncomfortable to read because I try to keep my reading at no more than a Rating of PG, I felt they needed to be focused on.
As all good-story tellers do, Regina keeps the reader's attention not only with the action within the story, but with the hope for a good ending.
The themes of family support and love, a mother's love, friendship, forgiveness, and faith make this story, for me, one of the best fictional books I have read in a while.
This is a PG-17 book in my opinion. It is a story that both men and woman will benefit from.
January 28, 2016
It has been nearly three years since I've read this book, but I've so regretted the three stars which I gave it on a previous Goodreads account that I felt compelled to write this review.
Rapunzel Let Down touts itself as a book which will help teenagers understand sin and forgiveness and chastity. Well, I think one must be pretty far gone for this story to be a "help." Far from being strengthened in this virtue, I found myself continually having to repel thoughts aroused by badly-handled scenes of impurity. Also, I know that pretty much all of Regina Doman's novels contain overdrawn scenes of violence (like Fish's scene in Waking Rose...) but the ones in this book take the cake. Raphaela's foster-mother is not just an extreme feminist: she's a madwoman. Everything felt badly-handled and exaggerated, and it's waaay too explicit (while somehow still childish...) for "good girls" of even the 11th grade+ group that it was written for.
The original three stars were given because I enjoyed the story when no one was committing sins or being tortured, and I was interested by Raphaela's self-support adventures.
Rapunzel Let Down touts itself as a book which will help teenagers understand sin and forgiveness and chastity. Well, I think one must be pretty far gone for this story to be a "help." Far from being strengthened in this virtue, I found myself continually having to repel thoughts aroused by badly-handled scenes of impurity. Also, I know that pretty much all of Regina Doman's novels contain overdrawn scenes of violence (like Fish's scene in Waking Rose...) but the ones in this book take the cake. Raphaela's foster-mother is not just an extreme feminist: she's a madwoman. Everything felt badly-handled and exaggerated, and it's waaay too explicit (while somehow still childish...) for "good girls" of even the 11th grade+ group that it was written for.
The original three stars were given because I enjoyed the story when no one was committing sins or being tortured, and I was interested by Raphaela's self-support adventures.
Read
March 10, 2018"Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." - Rom 5:20 In this modern adaption of the classic tale of Rapunzel, Regina Doman brings us the story of Hermes, a conservative senator's son, who falls in love with Raphaella, the adopted daughter of a radical feminist. Hermes impregnates the innocent Raphaella and from there sin begets sin and suffering. Fans of Doman's fairytale novels and new readers alike will enjoy this adaption that brings to life both the dire consequences of sin and the graces borne of virtue. The contemporary setting meshes wonderfully with the timeless fairytale sprinkled liberally with a Catholic worldview. Reminiscent of Doman's other novels, the heroic ending will have you on the edge of your seat.
April 21, 2017
So I've been trying to read this book for awhile now and keep getting stopped or losing interest. It is bad. Poorly written and way too preachy on teen relationships and other issues. Pass on this if you are looking for good fairy tale retellings.
May 7, 2020
Where sin abounds, there grace abounds more... (Romans 5:20). This story is full of grief and sin, but also grace, redemption, sacrifice, and the abundant mercy of God. That is why I liked this book so much.
February 13, 2016
I have loved the Fairy Tale Retold series. Each new one I read became a favorite of mine, and I reread all of them multiple times. But, as you might gather from the past tense, that streak has ended with this book.
Where the other books have been combination romance/thriller novels, this one spent 300 pages being a case study in all the bad things that can happen if you have premarital sex. Admittedly, that is a serious subject to address in a novel, and I can understand why Doman attempted to do so. However, she allowed that aspect to completely dominate more than half of the (already longer than all others in the series) book. That portion was not a novel, it was a sermon, and not a very efficient or effective one.
The final 200 pages mostly returned to the style of the other Retold books, and my complaints there are small. (For example, Doman tries a little too hard to make sure you hate the "bad guys" of the story by throwing in some horrible things they do that aren't important to the overall plot.) I wish the book's setup had been more concise so the reader didn't have to work so hard to reach the payoff. I honestly almost decided not to finish the book, and I probably will not read it again.
Where the other books have been combination romance/thriller novels, this one spent 300 pages being a case study in all the bad things that can happen if you have premarital sex. Admittedly, that is a serious subject to address in a novel, and I can understand why Doman attempted to do so. However, she allowed that aspect to completely dominate more than half of the (already longer than all others in the series) book. That portion was not a novel, it was a sermon, and not a very efficient or effective one.
The final 200 pages mostly returned to the style of the other Retold books, and my complaints there are small. (For example, Doman tries a little too hard to make sure you hate the "bad guys" of the story by throwing in some horrible things they do that aren't important to the overall plot.) I wish the book's setup had been more concise so the reader didn't have to work so hard to reach the payoff. I honestly almost decided not to finish the book, and I probably will not read it again.
April 8, 2013
While the other books in the fairytale series by this author are excellent and can be enjoyed by a wide range of readers, this book definitely suits the 11th grade and up reader. The themes are mature, but entirely relevant to living in our world today. To say I enjoyed this book would seem odd. It was disturbing, but in a good, soul-searching way. An updated story of Rapunzel is much needed in a world where human trafficking and victimization is commonplace. But, there's so much more to this re-telling than just the sharing of the darker and deviant side of humans; there's truth. Truth brings peace and joy and redemption.
This book made me look back, within, and around my life and the lives of my children. It aroused a deep concern within me for the welfare of others. What a journey!
This book made me look back, within, and around my life and the lives of my children. It aroused a deep concern within me for the welfare of others. What a journey!
August 9, 2016
I was completely surprised by this book! I love Regina Doman's books because they are quite good, as well as Catholic, which is hard to come by but I did not expect it to have so many controversial subjects. I was not aware of the real Rapunzel's story and so this was a bit of a shock. However, after learning the real story I have to say this book goes along with the classic very well all the while staying modern to our times.
September 24, 2017
While Doman's first three are favourites of mine, her other work leaves me unimpressed. I am not a great fan of the modern YA genre, and this book was no exception. While the premise is good, and the writing not unbearable, the delivery was wanting. The author attempts to address too many issues and questions for the plot to handle, and it weighs down the story and begins to feel more like propaganda than a fairy-tale.
June 30, 2013
Very good book!(also very different from her other ones.) It deals with many moral issues of today, (lust, sex before marriage, unplanned pregnancy, even abortion is brought up...) so I would definitely say that only mature older readers, or teens that really understand the issues addressed in the book. (The book also follows the original Rapunzel by the Grimm fairytales.)
January 29, 2015
This book really kept you engaged. Just when you thought things had calmed down, even more crazy things started to happen. I liked the mixture of fairy tale and religion. I never would have expected this book to be like it was, with the combination of fairy tale, religion, and suspense. I thoroughly enjoyed the unexpected intensity of it.
December 2, 2021
This book lacks the feel of the earlier books, and I honestly believe it would be better to leave this book out of it. Rapunzel let down is a prime example of telling, not showing. It feels preachy, flat, and boring. The characters are flat and uninspired. Too many pages, not enough of an interesting story to pull really pull readers in.
November 13, 2016
Chesterton Press classifies this as "Adult Fiction," but the cover and general marketing--as part of a series of Fairy Tale Novels by the author--is bound to attract teens. It does not pull punches, though--the modern retelling of "Rapunzel" takes some dark turns--but teens with a good, firm foundation in an authentic Christian worldview (if there are any of those left these days), regarding sexual morality in particular, and who are not over-sheltered, may enjoy it very much. I don't mean just kids who "know what not to do," but also have at least a good beginning of a real understanding of WHY; a solid foundation of conscience formation in application (not just in theory). This book helps to make explicit the WHY, but it isn't the place to start; it is rather a cautionary tale and an exploration of the consequences of poor choices.
The poor choices in question, interestingly, are not all on the part of the teen protagonists. There is a lot of very real pain, and people acting out of that pain, harming others, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In the right context, it could be a good focal novel for catalyzing discussion of some of the most controversial issues in our culture now.
This is the first of this author's books that I have read; I will certainly be looking at some of her other work.
The poor choices in question, interestingly, are not all on the part of the teen protagonists. There is a lot of very real pain, and people acting out of that pain, harming others, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In the right context, it could be a good focal novel for catalyzing discussion of some of the most controversial issues in our culture now.
This is the first of this author's books that I have read; I will certainly be looking at some of her other work.
October 10, 2021
Reading these books made me realize that I need to read the original fairy tales that they are based off of. Loved the book and loved the little cameos that previous characters had in the book. Now that I am done with the entire series I want a book that updates us on each couples stories, like I want to know what happens next and how their lives have turned out since the ending of their books. For example does Paul marry Rachel or is the wife he talks about someone else. I just want more books with all these characters.
December 24, 2021
If you read this book, be prepared to be torn apart emotionally. This was a hard book to read. It deals with a lot of hard subjects (sex, rape, consent, abortion, psychological abuse, etc.) If these are things that are triggers for you, do not read this book. Overall the writing and the story were good and I felt the author treated most of these sensitive subjects well without going into pornographic detail. I would not, however, recommend this book for younger teens.
January 7, 2023
I thought this story was pretty good when I was younger, as I liked the realistic spin on the story of Rapunzel, but reading it now I find it really disturbing the way that feminists, liberals, and LGBTQ+ people are portrayed as trying to force their views on others and attacking them when they don't comply.
July 30, 2020
Doman sets her contemporary version of Rapunzel in New England.
Doman's story contains a lot of stariotypes that boarder on being Racist. The Gay and Lesbian characters are portrayed in a very unfavorable light.
I was surprised that Doman relied on the Grimm version of Rapunzel.
Doman's story contains a lot of stariotypes that boarder on being Racist. The Gay and Lesbian characters are portrayed in a very unfavorable light.
I was surprised that Doman relied on the Grimm version of Rapunzel.
December 10, 2024
This was almost a DNF if I’m being honest… it dealt with some very heavy topics, but also truly the font was so small it drove me crazy. Nice messages, but didn’t love the sporadic poetry throughout. Wanted to like it more than I did, but glad I persevered.
February 17, 2018
Review to come.
February 2, 2019
Missed the feel of the originals
September 2, 2022
Though darker than her other work in this series, Rapunzel Let Down was an incredible book. It takes a raw and gritty look at the dangers of our current culture
May 24, 2017
I have read all of Regina Doman's books in the A Fairy Tale Retold series and this is by far my favorite! I cannot put into words how much I love this book! Thank you Regina Doman for this amazing book!
January 5, 2018
This is such a hard book to review. It was a hard book to read. There were SO MANY issues addressed in this single book that my head is still spinning. I LOVE the entirety of Doman's Fairytales Retold Series. But this one sets itself apart. This is an adult book, with adult themes that will cut to the quick. Catholic conservatives - this is the book for you. It is challenging and thought provoking in a way none of her other novels have been. This is not a book to enjoy. This is a book to make you think and feel and explore faith, falling, forgiveness, and redemption.
I have seen complaints that a lot of the scenarios and characters are caricatured. And I can see how that conclusion can be reached. However. However, I think the real problem is that these "caricatured" characters are actually more real than we would like to admit in the world we live in. Thinking about a world where people and ideas like this exist just makes people (especially fair-weathered Catholics) uncomfortable, and it is a lot easier to say they don't exist. This is a book that deals with extremes. Go into it knowing that. Regina Doman has come a long way from Blanche Briar being picked on at school for being pure (I don't mean this sarcastically. Blanche has always been and will always be my favorite character. Just to clarify).
I don't think this book is perfect, but there are parts in it that are. Two parts in particular will stick with me for the rest of my life.
1) When Hermes is at his lowest point and Fr. Knopff comes to visit him and Hermes lashes out:
That scene hit me like a ton of bricks. And in context, it is a light in the dark. It is so much of what we need to know as Catholics.
2) There is a scene when one of the characters explains the relationship between God and marriage; how God is in marriage, a part of marriage, is marriage. Regina Doman put this concept, one that philosophers and intellectuals have been debating for centuries, into words that set a light bulb off in my brain. Once she said it, everything was put into perfect clarity. At least for me. Everyone sees things differently, and I think Regina Doman and I are just on the same wavelength. How she says things just make sense to me. I'm still geeking out about it.
Those two scenes alone make this a 5-star book to me.
There are also some wonderful little easter eggs in the form of familiar faces along the way, most notably Fish Denniston. I loved his role in this book. It was small and secondary, but wonderful nonetheless. Rose even makes a one line cameo and that small moment made my heart flutter.
But at the heart of this book, as with all of Doman's Fairytale Retold Series, is God. He is what makes these books incredible - linking everyday people and problems with Him and the Catholic faith.
I have seen complaints that a lot of the scenarios and characters are caricatured. And I can see how that conclusion can be reached. However. However, I think the real problem is that these "caricatured" characters are actually more real than we would like to admit in the world we live in. Thinking about a world where people and ideas like this exist just makes people (especially fair-weathered Catholics) uncomfortable, and it is a lot easier to say they don't exist. This is a book that deals with extremes. Go into it knowing that. Regina Doman has come a long way from Blanche Briar being picked on at school for being pure (I don't mean this sarcastically. Blanche has always been and will always be my favorite character. Just to clarify).
I don't think this book is perfect, but there are parts in it that are. Two parts in particular will stick with me for the rest of my life.
1) When Hermes is at his lowest point and Fr. Knopff comes to visit him and Hermes lashes out:
"What do we have priests for if they can't fix things like- like-"
"...He did not spare his His Son... not even His own Son."
That scene hit me like a ton of bricks. And in context, it is a light in the dark. It is so much of what we need to know as Catholics.
2) There is a scene when one of the characters explains the relationship between God and marriage; how God is in marriage, a part of marriage, is marriage. Regina Doman put this concept, one that philosophers and intellectuals have been debating for centuries, into words that set a light bulb off in my brain. Once she said it, everything was put into perfect clarity. At least for me. Everyone sees things differently, and I think Regina Doman and I are just on the same wavelength. How she says things just make sense to me. I'm still geeking out about it.
Those two scenes alone make this a 5-star book to me.
There are also some wonderful little easter eggs in the form of familiar faces along the way, most notably Fish Denniston. I loved his role in this book. It was small and secondary, but wonderful nonetheless. Rose even makes a one line cameo and that small moment made my heart flutter.
But at the heart of this book, as with all of Doman's Fairytale Retold Series, is God. He is what makes these books incredible - linking everyday people and problems with Him and the Catholic faith.
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