Long May She Reign
by Ellen Emerson White
Published by Feiwel and Friends
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Reviewed By Mimi H. Davis
(Review written by 13-year-old)
Meg Powers is the daughter of the first female President. Powers consistently complains about being abducted by terrorists, who aren’t what Americans have come to believe is a terrorist profile–they were Caucasian. Powers spent a total of thirteen days away from the White House, her two younger brothers and her parents.
At 700 pages, the book is a long read for a teen novel, and Powers whining about her broken bones doesn’t get me to sympathize with her until page 262, when Powers college floor counselor, Susan McAllister, gets the omnipresent paparazzi interested in her and her past.
When Powers meets Jack Taylor, a self-proclaimed player with a bad reputation on the Williams college campus, things get heated between them, but personalities are shallow and one-sided. Taylor’s brothers call President Powers Emma Peel, and while I’ve watched The Avengers TV show from the 1960s, actress Diana Rigg didn’t come to mind until I asked my mother who Emma Peel was. This indicates to me that the audience of this book is misplaced, which is ages twelve and up.
White’s characters have only one or two defining characteristics, and what I learned the most from this book is how hard a job it is to be the President, or even one of her children. The political process, familial dramas and the “Press Death Watch” over Meg Powers, are some of the best-rendered descriptions in the book. Power’s friend Beth is funny and interesting, and Powers by proxy becomes more of a fleshed-out character towards the end of Long May She Reign.
Boring until about the middle of the book, then picks up to be a much more fascinating read. Definitely written for an older teen audience and firmly camped in the chick lit category.
Armchair Interviews agrees.
Author’s Web site: http://www.EllenEmersonWhite.com