Towering by Alex Flinn is a retelling of the childhood classic Rapunzel with a few modern twists. The result is a creepy gothic tale complete with ghosts and mysteries. Towering is set in upstate New York in the Adirondacks. The region’s natural beauty combined with its isolation from civilization creates a spooky atmosphere. Our heroine Rachel has been living in a tower for almost as long as she can remember. She’s 17 years old and has beautiful “golden princess” hair which grows so fast it must be cut weekly. Rachel occupies herself by reading books – mostly the classics. Her “mama” visits daily, bringing her food and reading to her. Rachel is incredibly innocent and naïve – she has little life experience and no interactions with her peers. When she narrated her point of view, her voice seemed pure and innocent, almost as if she were from another time period. The second narrator Wyatt is an interesting character. Wyatt left his home to move in with Mrs. Greenwood. Wyatt has left home because of a traumatic experience resulting in the death of his friends. It’s kind of funny watching Wyatt acclimatize to the cold winter and the limited activities of a small town. There’s creepy characters hanging out at the hardware store and cell phone reception doesn’t exist unless you climb a tree or are at the top of a hill.At Mrs. Greenwood’s home, Wyatt mistakenly enters Danielle’s old bedroom and discovers her diary. The diary left a few clues as to what happened to Danielle. Soon he’s seeing ghosts and hearing someone singing. Wyatt also realizes that there is something strange going on. The town had quite a lot of missing people over the years. Towering was a quick and entertaining read for me. I enjoyed how the author was able to take a well-known fairy tale and create a fresh, new story. Thank you to Edelweiss and Harper Teen for a review copy of this book.
