Book Review: Sorcery & Cecelia

[juushika]

Title: Sorcery & Cecelia: or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot (Cecelia and Kate #1)
Author: Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
Published: New York: Open Road Young Readers, 2012 (1988)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 350
Total Page Count: 164,976
Text Number: 482
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: When a sorcerer tries to poison Kate in London, she writes to her cousin in the country—and together they unravel a magical mystery. Sorcery & Cecelia is more novelty than success. The letter game that spawned it is brilliant, and the authors's engagement and joy in their joint story is infectious. But that extemporaneous style lacks refinement, and makes for a predictable, even repetitive story. I still recommend this—it lacks complexity but has a wealth of charm and good intentions.


The historical name-dropping was heavy-handed but, like most things, still charming:

Allusions in Sorcery & Cecelia by Wrede & Stevermer
(historical figures, objects, authors, books, literary allusions, and otherwise, in approximate order of appearance, probably not exhaustive)

Horace Walpole
Elgin Marbles
Lord Byron
The Monk, Mathew Lewis
Brutus, Sappho, Penthesilea (specifically their hair styles, as per Oliver's obsessions)
I Dilettanti (opera)
"Ill meet by moonlight" quoted by Kate, from A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare
Hansel and Gretel (as metaphor)
Anne Radcliffe
Caroline Lamb
Atalanta, Handel
Epicyclical Elaborations of Sorcery (a fictional text)
John Dee