[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.
Karena kemaren dapet pinjaman Meg Cabot banyak, dan ni termasuk teenlit, jadi termasuk bacaan ringan untuk weekend, jadi baca yang ini dulu :)..Elaine Harrison atau Ellie, orangtuanya dua2nya professor, seorang medievalist (ahli2 yang mempelajari sejarah jaman pertengahan), harus sering berpindah2 sekolah, karena orang tuanya sering mendapat sabatikal (atau liburan) untuk membuat buku2. Ellie masuk ke SMA Avalon, dan bertemu dengan A.William Wagner, kapten tim footbal di Avalon, sekaligus presiden siswa senior di Avalon. Sbelumnya, mereka pernah bertemu di Taman setempat, bahkan Will sempat mememrgoki Ellie sedang asyik mengapung di kolam, dan ikut berenang dengannya.Ellie adalah orang praktis, pragmatis, makanya dia terpana pas dia tahu kalau dia menarik perhatian pada Will. Hello, Ellie tidak percaya pada Love at the first sight, tapi itulah kenyataanya yang terjadi padanya, perasaannya pada Will yang tiba2, serta ucapan Will yang bilang kalau mereka pernah bertemu sebelumnya, padahal jelas2 mereka tidak saling kenal sebelumnya. Namun bukan berarti perjalanan Ellie untuk merebut hati Will mudah. Karena Will sudah punya pacar, Jennifer Gold, kapten cheersleader di Avalon. Sampai suatu hal yang gawat terjadi...Yup, tanpa sengaja, Ellie memergoki Jen, berselingkuh dengan Lance, sahabat karib Will. Jan berusaha menutup2inya, agar Will tidak tahu. Tapi, Marco, saudara tiri Will tidak berpikir demikian. Saat mereka sedang berlayar di laut lepas, Marco memberitahu Will, bahwa Jen dan Lance berselingkuh di belakangnya. Ellie membenci Marco karenanya, dan sempat mengkhawatirkan keadaan Will, namun anehnya Will malah biasa saja, dan terus2an mengatakan bahwa dia pernah mengalami hal ini sebelumnya.Bukan hanya itu saja, Mr Morton, guru Sejarah Dunia di SMA Avalon, bersikap aneh. Dia terlihat ketakutan, dan berulang2 mengucapkan "semuanya sudah terlambat." Ellie mendesak Mr Morton, apa yang sedang terjadi, dan menemukan fakta yang menakjubkan sekaligus menakutkan, tentang keterkaitan SMA Avalon dan Legenda Raja Arthur. Ellie yang menyadari hubungan antar keduanya, mendesak Mr Morton untuk tidak menyerah, bahwa mungkin Will dalam bahaya... Namun tidak peduli apa yang dilakukan Ellie, Ellie takut dia sudah terlambat menyelamatkan Will...Overall, ceritanya cukup bagus, dan walau idenya sendiri bisa diilang ga fresh, tapi apapun yang berhubungan dengan mitologi dan legenda selalu menarik perhatianku.Kali ini Meg Cabot mengambil Legenda Raja Arthur sebagai fondasi cerita SMA Avalon ini. Dan beberapa nama karakter di buku ini memang mengambil karakter2 Legenda Raja Arthur, like :Ellie : Elaine of Astolat, Lady of Shalott, cewe yang naksir Lancelot, tapi budir karena Lancelot memilih Guinevere, atau begitulah yang Ellie dikira awalnya di buku ini...(yang ternyata bukan, trus siapa dong? baca bukunya aja ;) )William : Arthur, udah nebak kalo ni cowo udah pasti Arthur, walau nama depannya disingkat cuma A doang, dan personalitinya memang mirip Arthur, dengan aura kepemimpinannya. Agak terlalu baik, tapi maybe memang he is born to be leader..Jennifer : Guinevere, permaisuri raja Arthur, yang selingkuh dengan Lancelot, dan di buku ini dia selingkuh dengan Lance, teman baik WillLance : Lancelot, ksatria terbaik raja Arthur, sekaligus sahabat san Raja, dan sama dengan legendanya, Lance akhirnya mengkhianati Will, selingkuh dengan pacar sahabatnyaMarco : Mordred, saudara sedarah (ada yang bilang anak) Arthur,laki2 yang membunuh Arthur di masanya, dan sesuai legenda, keberadaan Marco = Bahaya bagi WillMorton : Merlin, seperti halnya Merlin di Legenda Arthur, sebagai penasihat Arthur, tapi di buku ini ga begitu kelihatan perannya, walau terakhir2 dia jadi orang penting...Beberapa event di buku ini memang dibuat mirip2 dengan Legenda Raja Arthur dulu. Ada beberapa hal yang agak maksa, tapi ga mengurangi keasyikan membaca. Ellienya agak2 annoying, tapi Meg Cabot selalu bisa bikin kita malah sayang sama tokoh yang annoying ini ^^. Beberapa fakta tentang Raja Arthur yang ditambahkan di cerita ini cukup lah bisa menambah sedikit pengetahuan, dan adanya puisi The Lady of Shallot juga menambah nilai plus.Tiga setengah bintang : Dua buat ceritanya (yang emang biasa aja, ga pake mikir ribet2) Satu buat ide mitologi Raja Arthurnya Setengah buat puisinya :)) Recommended buat yang doyan baca teenlit dan fansnya Meg Cabot, atau yang suka legenda raja Arthur, juga bisa mencoba baca yang ini,walau ga bisa berharap sesuatu yang lebih ya :)
What do You think about Avalon High (2006)?
To me, this is one of the few Meg Cabot books that ages well. The Princess Diaries (the first few) and All American Girl were enjoyable, but I wouldn't readily recommend them as "great books" to anyone over the age of seventeen/eighteen. Avalon High is different. It is a high school story with a little more meat, fantasy, and wonder going for it. The characters are well-drawn out, overall, and I'm not ashamed to admit I enjoy revisiting them with multiple re-readings. It's kind of nice to have a teen Cabot story where the 'problem' is something bigger than "Oh, no I'm a princess...waaahhhhhh..." or "Oh darnskis, I just saved the life of the president and now a cute guy likes me, my life is OOOOOVEEERRR" or worst of all, "Whoa is me, I have to watch over a celebrity I don't like just because I'm good at keeping secrets" (I'm looking at you, Teen Idol! Talk about your first world problem!) Here, Ellie actually has issues to deal with. Sure, it has the typical girly "I'm not pretty enough, and the guy I like isn't right for me" jazz thrown in there, too, but it's less grating and more drawn out and the King Arthur backstory does wonders for its believability. It's also just a really fun read. My favorite scene would have to be when Ellie runs out into that storm with the sword, racing to the park to get to Will and the lightning is striking... It's just a really cool thing to read about! So yeah, I recommend this one. It's pretty great.
—Lucy March
Avalon High was a modern take on the Arthurian Legend - in a high school setting. Sounds crazy I know, but it worked! Ellie moves to new town and a new school - yep, Avalon High. She meets A. William Wagner, who is strangely drawn to her as if he's known her in another life, Jennifer, who is Will's girlfriend and Lance, Will's best friend. Jennifer and Lance have something going on behind Will's back. Then there's Mr Morton, Ellie's World Lit teacher, who's intent on pairing Lance and Ellie together to study the Lady of Shalott. And Marco, Will's step brother who doesn't seem to like Will very much. And Will's father transferred his friend overseas which got him killed, then married his wife. Much like Uther Pendragon. Sound familiar yet?Though at times predictable, when it mattered, Meg Cabot delivered a bombshell that rocked the plot. I really liked the twist (view spoiler)[of Ellie being Lady of the Lake (who gave Arthur a weapon to defend himself) as opposed to Lady of Shalott (who killed herself over Lancelot). As well as the Lady of the Lake ending up with Arthur, which was not true to the legend but a welcome turn! (hide spoiler)]
—Christina
It's a little embarrassing, but I'll admit that I've completely missed the Meg Cabot boat. Thankfully (with the help of a friend!) I've fixed the error of my ways by devouring Avalon High, which is a contemporary retelling of Arthurian legend. Sure this whole King Arthur in high school sounds kind of weirdly far-fetched, but that's pretty much what makes this book a great read. Ellie, our protagonist and narrator, is such an intelligent, likeable heroine. I loved Ellie's voice, especially as she responded to feelings and circumstances that were clearly beyond her control or comprehension. Yes, Avalon High includes some instalove, but I actually didn't find this swooning annoying like I usually do in most YA novels. Meg Cabot's clearly got the writing chops to pull off a star-crossed, zany mash up of Arthurian legend with Tennyson's Lady of Shalott in a way that's as fresh as it is enchanting.
—Emily
