The Magic Circle

The Magic Circle is a retelling of Hansel and Gretel, from the witch’s point of view. Donna Jo Napoli is a talented writer, and the witch’s sympathetic, tortured first person POV is excellent throughout. However, this is genuinely the darkest, most disturbing fairy tale retelling I’ve ever read, and I can’t say I personally enjoyed my time reading this. I loved reading Grimms’ Fairy Tales growing up, but this particular book would’ve given me terrifying nightmares as a kid. I think The Magic Circle would appeal most to readers who like their fairy tales VERY dark and disturbing (and heavy on the demons and psychological agony).

The Magic Circle is a re-visioning of the classic children’s story Hansel and Gretel which seeks to entertain the reader by telling the story of how the child eating witch with the confectionary hut, isolated from the world came to be. Napoli’s The Magic Circle is short (barely over 100 pages) but it manages to be powerful, poignant and more than a little bittersweet as she takes what were common beliefs of the time (medieval Europe) and weaves a story that feels like it could actually have happened. Further, this is the witches’ story, not the story of Hansel and Gretel. Napoli’s version dovetails nicely with the traditional telling that most of us are familiar with…it begins well before we ever meet Hansel and Gretel and show more ends just as their part of the story is taking off…and as such, in this book we never get to really know them at all…but we do get to know The Ugly One (as the witch is known by her community) and hear her story as she fights to be a good Christian and to do what she believes is right.

The protagonist here (The Ugly One) starts out as a simple midwife who enjoys her work and appreciates beautiful things in life (the beauty she will never have herself) and she works long and hard to support her daughter (who is beautiful where her mother is not). Through the somewhat deceptive nagging of her friend Bala, The Ugly One is tempted (through pride) to take on more varied types of healing work. As the story progresses she is transformed from a simple midwife and healer to a sorceress, working within a magic circle and controlling demons to perform her healing magic and she quite successful for 9 years…until she becomes tempted by an object she desires…tempted to break the magic circle and herein she becomes vulnerable to the revenge of the demons she previously controlled and used for her good purposes. In the last third of the story, her pride leads to her downfall…she transforms once again from Sorceress to Witch (as in the diabolic satanic child eating witch feared in medieval times) and details her struggles to withstand the temptations that torment her once she is transformed into a diabolic witch.

This story is all about temptation, personal pride, courage and ultimately redemption and readers will delight in the witch’s story from humble beginning to demonic ending. My only complaint is that I KNOW this story wasn’t about Hansel and Gretel, but they came so late in the story that we really never go to know them at all and it’s hard to enjoy the ending without knowing them somewhat better than we get to here in this story. Overall, I give The Magic Circle 4 stars, it’s a magnificently dark retelling of the classic Hansel and Gretel story that really draws the reader along, I know I couldn’t put it down once I’d started it (read it in one sitting, which I have to admit was easy since it’s so short). Highly enjoyable and I would definitely recommend it for young adult readers (ages 12 and up) and for adults who enjoy fairytale adaptations. show less

This is the retelling of Hansel and Gretel from the viewpoint of the wicked witch. She is simply called Ugly One in Magic Circle. She may be ugly but Napoli wants you to think she has a good heart. Ugly One starts off as a loving single parent to a daughter named Asa and works as a healer blessed with magic powers. She is able to bring sick people back to health and dangerous pregnancies back from the brink of death. Her reputation as a sorceress borders on evil because with great powers comes temptations and an easy fall from grace. When the Ugly One starts accumulating gems and jewels as payment for her services, greed sets in. All she can see is her daughter clothed in wealth; "diamonds on the soles of her shoes." Blinded by a gem, show more she makes a deal with the devil and her fate is at once sealed. She becomes a true witch who cannot bleed or cry; banished to live in the deep woods as a hermit and destine to eat small children. Enter Hansel and Gretel. Are they Asa's children?
As an aside, the number nine seems to be important. Peter reads to the Ugly One for nine years and the Ugly One lives alone in her sugar cottage for nine years before Hansel and Gretel come along. I am sure there is religious significance with the number nine.
As another aside, the character of Bala reminded me of Iago. I never knew if I could trust her even though the Ugly One called her a friend. show less

This version of the famous story of Hansel and Gretel and their encounter with a candied house and the witch inside is told from the perspective of the witch. The novel begins with The Ugly One as a pious Christian midwife and follows her as she is encouraged by a neighbor to become a healer--a sorceress. She serves her village well for many years until she makes a fatal mistake one day and is from then on doomed to serve demons as a witch. She flees, leaving behind her cherished daughter, and the story picks up with the one most of us are familiar with--but with more details. She has iron teeth, can shape-change and cannot bleed or cry. The story is told as though the Ugly One is somewhat narrating to herself: "I run at first randomly. show more Just away. Keeping far from villages. . . . When I come to a lake, I know I must metamorphose once more. . . . I must be as revolting to others as I am to myself" (p 65). Napoli's writing is intense and rife with strong emotions as The Ugly One struggles from the first page to the last. For this, I believe The Magic Circle earns a 5Q.

Because not everyone is interested in re-written and re-imagined fairy and folk tales, I am not confident enough that this is a 5P. I am certain the empathy Napoli helps readers to develop for this witch and the near-tangible horror and disgust she has for herself as well as the love and compassion held by several characters will reach out to many readers making is have broad general or genre YA appeal. show less

OMG. Resembles Grimm's version of the Hansel & Gretel story very little. About 2/3 of the very short novel tells how the witch became a hermit in a cottage made of candy. It's not a story of the children's courage, but a fable of what can happen to single mothers who want the best for the own child but only have talents that make the community uncomfortable. Intense. It looks like a book for 8 year-olds, but I'd not readily recommend it for under 12.

One interesting thing is that 'diamonds on the soles of her shoes' was a motif... but used in a manner that doesn't appear to have anything to do with how Paul Simon used the phrase... or does it? And is Napoli paying homage to Simon, or are they both referencing older folklore? I tried to show more learn more but couldn't. show less

Well, that was depressing.

I've read my share of "other side of the coin" retold fairy tales, and I have to say, this is probably the grimmest (no pun intended); the story itself has only a couple of gruesome little moments, but the whole tone is so relentlessly dark and dank that it became a chore to read. This, combined with the narrator's detachment - part religious fervor, part mental instability - had me ready for the end by halfway through this tiny little book. Napoli's idea - changing the witch of Hansel and Gretel into a pious midwife led to sin by a love of pretty things - is intriguing, but although the different elements of the fairy tale are covered well, my basic interest in the story sank once I made it through the first show more few chapters. "It's never going to let up," I thought to myself - and it never did. show less

A talented healer is tricked by demons into becoming a witch. She hides herself away in the forest where she can't harm anyone, particularly children. And then one day, Hansel & Gretel arrive.

Why I picked it up: I read this when it first came out, and thought it deserved the Newbery. I remember liking it better than "Wicked," particularly how the witch's end was a redemptive triumph (instead of the senseless accident in Maguire's book).

Why I finished it: I've lately become interested in the idea of witches as villains, so I thought I'd revisit this memorable but under-appreciated work.

I'd give it to: Someone looking for a new angle to pursue in contemporary paranormal fiction. I think dangerous, wicked witches could provide a fertile show more alternative to vampires and werewolves. show less