Andrew Wheeler (4)

I like the female empowerment, but that couldn't make up for the fairly bland fantasy story. The servants Gorga and Fog were the best parts of the book for me as they were vulnerable and wore their hearts on their sleeves, but they couldn't offset the Saturday morning cartoon tone of the rest of the book.

This was a really fun story about a princess who gets imprisoned by an evil dark lord who is forcing her to marry him so he can take over her kingdom. Her almost-betrothed sets off to rescue her, but she decides she needs to help herself.

The secondary characters in this are really great. I loved Gorga, and would have gladly read a book centered around her. Unfortunately, I never really connected with Misty the way I did with the secondary characters - mainly because I never saw her exhibit show more any traits other than generic fantasy heroine.

Despite that, I enjoyed the book. I liked the messages about not making assumptions about people (monsters are people too!), and was greatly amused at how utterly useless Pete was at heroing.

I wish the story had been drawn out a bit more so I could have stayed in the world a bit longer.

Review copy courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. show less

There is a lot to like here. The storytelling has a good pace, the characters are immediately fairly memorable and clearly drawn (both metaphorically and literally), the aesthetics are pleasant and the narrative -- considering it is based on slightly skewed tropes -- is reasonably fresh.

That said, in my eyes, the book suffers greatly from being caught between wishing to address the protagonist's morals and desires with real complexities, nuance and realism, but also wanting to write a show more morality tale where having the virtuous goals and the strength to stick to one's principles magically carries the day. This leads to a frequent set up where the protagonist is confronted with the naivete of her behaviour, only to then make barely any adjustments to it, and largely through blind luck and storytelling needs still succeed. (And indeed, the entire book ends on decisions which, based on the factors already established in the story, should likely lead to enormous amounts of violence and suffering, but which is presented as though it's purely a Good Thing and so no mention of the almost inevitable negative consequences is done.) It would perhaps have been better to not lampshade these issues by first introducing the moral complexities in the first place, and keep it a simple black-and-white fairy tale where goodness of heart wins the day.

As it stands, the story is decent, if simplistic, has some clever mythological building blocks (particularly the logic of the villain's scheme is good) and has several lovely moments, as well as opportunities for the protagonist to overcome (largely self-caused) problems with actual resourcefulness. And I very much enjoyed the additional, aspirational level of meaning the book's title took on in the last page. I just wish it by then hadn't been already undercut by the sparse attempts at realism. show less

The princess saves herself in this one. Enough said! Except, not. The spectacular plot is conveyed in beautiful art and disses many stereotypes. There is the idea that monsters can be nice too. The dashing righteous heir to the throne is a Person of Color. I liked how a homosexual relationship was casually mentioned, without making a big deal about it. And no, the kickass princess is not exactly a tomboy either. She likes her dresses and makeovers and wants to fight too. Yes, women like show more that do exist and I need more such books! Highly recommended!

Note: I received a free copy of the book from the publisher. show less