Sylvia Rieß: Der Axolotlkönig
As part of the Fairy Tale Summer/Märchensommer you get my review for Der Axolotlkönig (The Axolotlking) by Sylvia Rieß.
What is it about?
Fynn, a well liked musician, finds himself 20 centimetres tall and with strange outgrowth where his neck should be in an aquarium; with no idea how he got here.
But it seems it was quite on time, as his new room mate Leonie has not just lost the last connection she had had to her grandmother, but because of being bullied in school she also only sees one way out of this…
Can axolotified Fynn convince her that it’s a horrible idea?
The Frog King meets The Snow Queen in this Fairy Tale adaptation by the Märchenspinnerei.
The reading experience
For some reason did I wait quite a while to read it after I won it back in February. Which probably wasn’t that bad, seeing as I created the Fairy Tale Summer because of it…
[...]The story is written with a first person narrator switching between Leonie’s and Fynn’s perspective, which I usually don’t like, but I got used to it over time. Especially towards the end was it the better choice as the thought-conversations between Leonie and Lurchi-Fynn would have been even more complicated than they already were. Which by the way was an interesting twist on how the Frog communicated with the Princess. The only time she breaks from this pattern are the prologue and a passage in the middle from a third perspective. The story also has some insertions as flashback (granny, as I mentioned above), private messages from Leonie’s online friends, Facebook comments from her classmates and her diary entries. Ever since reading Dracula I enjoy well made diary-narration and this was one example for it. You knew it was made by a child/young adult, but at least not an annoying one.
The characters
[...]
General Opinion
I really like the ending, especially considering the original Fairy Tale. In addition to that are the mirror pieces a great metaphor for depression, it’s just sad that it doesn’t work like that in Real Life, so the afterword is just as important.
With Leonie’s experiences some very important light is shone on the development of the Bullying culture and on its consequences and of course depressions in general. There were a few heavy passages throughout the book, some mostly because I went through similar things. There was also some very serious stuff about online dating for minors who do not read messages carefully enough. In short: While I would consider this a YA story does it also contain mature content which needs to be discussed more often, especially with young adults.
I would also have liked [..]
All in all is it a round and great story about a young girl that learns to ask for help and manages to get out of a very deep hole. It was fun to follow the story and discuss it in the group.
Continue Reading: Sylvia Rieß: Der Axolotlkönig
Interview mit der Autorin: Märchenspinnerei im Interview: Sylvia Rieß
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