Tris & Izzie

November 1, 2011

Gr 7-10-Harrison crafts a modern retelling of the "Tristan and Isolde" story with magic love potions and all. Isolde, Izzie to her friends and family, is dating the "king" of her high school, Mark, and has a BFF, Branna. Everything is going along swimmingly and non-magically, despite the fact that her EMT mom makes potions that she occasionally slips to the patients transported in her ambulance. But all of that changes when Mel Melot brags of having a magical never-empty wine bottle. Suddenly Izzie's normal life is turned upside down. Now she is "burning" for the new boy, Tristan, and battling slugs and serpents on school grounds. The idea of a retold fairy tale is intriguing, but this offering falls totally flat. A slow buildup is followed by a rushed ending, and the story is filled with unlikable characters, poor narration, and out-of-place dialogue. Mark is drawn as a typical all-American prom king, and Tristan is a pale, brooding antihero. Branna has been pining for Mark for years (of course she has). Libraries are best advised to pass on this one.-Elaine Baran Black, Georgia Public Library Service, Atlanta

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