I would like to start this review with a caveat: I didn’t hate Rapunzel Untangled. I didn’t hurl my Kindle across my room in exasperation or pray for it’s swift and ultimate demise. By the end, I was mostly glad to be free of it. I have no extreme feelings for this book, one way or another. Even now, it’s really just the book I read that one time about when Rapunzel used Facebook.
Largely, that is what Rapunzel Untangled is. Rapunzel with a modern twist.
Because Rapunzel has SCIDS, a genetic disorder where the T and B cells of the immune system are disabled and unable to function properly, she is forced to remain in her tower with only contact from her distant mother, Gothel. With fifteen feet of hair and a world-saving prophecy resting on her shoulders, Rapunzel is far from ordinary. Still, she yearns for the world beyond her tower, with only a computer to connect her to it. It’s on Facebook she meets Fane, a local boy who challenges Rapunzel to examine her life and everything it was destined to be.
Let me tell you another story.
In April of 2008, Elizabeth Fritzl was rescued from a twenty four year imprisonment in her father’s cellar. There it was discovered she had been raped by him and had given birth to seven of his children as a result. Three of these children were kept with Elizabeth in the dimly-lit cellar for their entire lives. In the aftermath, the three Fritzl children’s health remained uncertain: “…health experts say a chronic lack of sunlight and exercise can leave children's bones pliable, their muscles weak and their eyes overly sensitive to strong light. The Fritzls' vulnerabilities hardly stop there. The immune system, like the brain, requires stimulation to develop.”
Rapunzel, our titular protagonist, is a conundrum to me. Though kept to a much more luxurious standard than the Fritzl children, Rapunzel, like them, has never been in direct contact with the outside world. Her only access to it is from a single window in her bedroom and her brief interactions with Gothel. She has some exposure to sunlight through this window, though only in the morning when it is “early enough that the works hadn’t show up,” which is a few moments before six o’clock in the morning. Yet, when she makes her first foray into the outside world, she is completely unfazed by direct sunlight. She ought to be at least a little sensitive to it, since it’s a light much stronger than she’s used to even in her rooms. Alas.
She hadn’t even touched a live plant before, but rolls around in the grass with no problem at all. She touches birds and eats McDonald’s and kisses Fane with really no physical consequences at all. Fane keeps insisting that Rapunzel’s health is in jeopardy as she does these things, but because nothing really happens, the stakes never really feel that high. It isn’t until after Rapunzel attends a Halloween party that there are any repercussions for her jaunts with Fane. Because of her underdeveloped immune system, she finally catches sick. I think this was Bennett's way of acknowledging some of the problems I raised, but because Rapunzel recovers and eventually does go outside again to no further consequence, I had trouble making sense of this.
Throughout the rest of Rapunzel Untangled, we’re led to believe that Rapunzel’s immune system is reasonably intact. She visits Fane for Thanksgiving where at least thirty of his relatives are present, even spends the night, and her body is none the wiser. She doesn’t get sick, doesn't react in any negative way to her environment and is totally fine for the remainder of the book. This ruined Rapunzel Untangled for me on every level. Rapunzel’s relative health was more fantastical to me than any other element or magical twist.
I could also get into how strange it is that Rapunzel is so socially well-adjusted, considering she’s only ever been in contact with two people and has nothing more than a computer and some movies to guide her, but I don’t think that’s fair. This aspect of Rapunzel’s imprisonment, given the very many ways this would change her interactions with the outside world, was better glossed over. The Fritzl children were observed to have problems orienting in larger spaces because of their limited confinement, and I imagine the same would have been true of Rapunzel as well. But unlike her health, which is the reason Rapunzel is locked in her tower, these consequences didn‘t demand to be acknowledged. This is something I could let go of.
I would, however, had liked to see her a little more interested in her surroundings. She touches grass for the first time in her life, and then Fane suggests they return to her rooms for some lunch. And without much protest she agrees. This girl never knows if she’s ever going to see the grass again, has only spent a paragraph touching it and heads inside to eat, something she has done three times a day her entire life. I wish she had been more hungry to discover the world around her, and just a little less occupied with Fane.
My biggest issues with Rapunzel Untangled have to do with its implausibility. Not only because of Rapunzel's physical and mental well-being, but also because of Gothel as a villain. I realize she's a bit older and certainly a little on the mental side, but after spending so long concocting the lie that is Rapunzel's life, I expected her to be a little well, er, vigilant. Not only does she supply Rapunzel with a computer and internet service for "homework," a curriculum which Gothel never seems the least bit interested in, but she doesn't ever once monitor Rapunzel's internet activity. Rapunzel Skypes and Facebooks with Gothel unaware. At one point, she even leaves Rapunzel alone with a cell phone.
Another gripe I have with Rapunzel Untangled was the use of Google. With just one internet search, all of my and Rapunzel's questions are answered. With just a few words typed into a Google search engine, literally all of the questions Rapunzel has had her entire life are answered just like that. I literally could not believe the level of laziness in this one scene. We spend the entire book surrounded by the mysteries of Gothel and her mansion, and Rapunzel just Googles it and reads a single article that answers every single question. Sigh. I still haven't processed the level of ridiculousness contained in that one chapter. Thanks a lot, Stephenie.
Despite my many problems with Rapunzel Untangled, I found Rapunzel and Fane to be one of the more enjoyable aspects of the book. They were a bit on the sugary side, but I liked their relationship. Their Thanksgiving together, and Rapunzel’s first experience with a real family, were rather nice and surprisingly tender. Though a bit on the bland side, they were one of the reasons Rapunzel Untangled was a benign experience for me.
As for the ending, it took a turn for the bizarre that didn't really jive with me. I couldn't believe any of it, and was, in the end, unsatisfied. In large because Rapunzel doesn't seem to have any interest in her birth parents. But also because "they'd done a DNA test on her [Rapunzel] to discover who she really was," as if it were really just that easy. Without leads or her DNA in an existing system of dental records, how does taking her DNA offer up any of that information? I suppose I shouldn't be debating that after all this book and I went through together, but this was just another little thing that went on to create big, gaping plot holes that, like Rapunzel, never saw the light of day.
Like I said, I didn't hate Rapunzel Untangled. Browsing through my status updates on GoodReads and this review you might think I did, but that's not the case. My feelings for this Rapunzel retelling aren't violent. I don't want to exile this book to the depths of Hell. I don't want to light it in on fire and then light its remains on fire. I don't even want to discourage anyone from reading it, because I'm sure it will be enjoyed by people who can get over what I couldn't. Really, I'm just glad it's over and that I can move onto greener pastures.
I was given an advanced reader's copy via NetGalley for reviewing purposes.
- Bitterblue
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