2021 EDIT: 'Princess Academy' is a lovely, bountiful, funny, lived-in and soulful book. The realness of its world! The female power! The amount of life lessons that can be learned from it!
Everything is easy to picture and follow without over-descriptions, and I was never bored. I could feel the weather conditions, the rock, the stones, the crags, the songs, the air, the sweetness of the worldbuilding. I didn't even mind there being no straightforward plot structure throughout. The events felt more real that way.
I adore young Miri. She's a fantastic heroine. Brave, smart, bold, practical, and hilarious! What a great, well developed and blossoming daughter, sister and friend to have. She grows like the strong, tiny flower she was named after.
I remember almost nothing about 'Princess Academy' from my first read, bizarrely, but to relive it again is a huge treat. Thank goodness, too, as many of my previous rereads of books I liked in the past had been a bust. I was beginning to despair of reading; like maybe books were no longer my thing. But now I can relay my fears, and I feel more confident that I'll enjoy reading again. Books like 'Princess Academy', a light-but-no-less-magical-fantasy for all ages, make it worth it.
Peder is still an ass. Thankfully the romance subplot doesn't overshadow other developments, scenarios, and themes; such as bigotry, female friendships, families, community, and home being where the heart is.
The monarchy in the story is barely criticised, though. Shannon Hale seems to glorify being a princess, or at least she paints it as being worth it, a bit too much in her princess stories.
And where are the characters who are explicitly POC? A book about people who live on mountains, quarries, and far off, rustic lands, and no one is described as being naturally dark-skinned, without a tan? Really?
Yet somehow, I still love 'Princess Academy' with all my heart, in spite of its flaws.
Final Score: 4.5/5
Original Review:
'Princess Academy' is a wonderful and exceptionally well-written book for both children and adults. It reminded me of 'Alanna: The First Adventure' in its mark on feminist fantasy fiction, but without the swords and sorcery; 'Princess Academy' is more subtle in communicating its magic. It also reminded me strongly of 'A Little Princess', where a group of girls in an oppressive boarding school work off each other and develop and grow to become friends instead of rivals.
'Princess Academy' really has it all when telling a story for children. Beneath its colourful, flowery highland surface, it addresses important universal themes. These include family love and trust, friendship, loving yourself and what you have, not judging someone before knowing them, fighting corruption, challenging an unfair class system, educating yourself and others, seeing the value in a person when he/she uses a skill selflessly, and the theme of happy endings being earned through committed use of hard work and bravery. Recognising and believing in one's strengths is the overall message in this priceless quarry treasure of a novel.
From what I've read of Shannon Hale's work so far, she is a writer of smart fantasy. Aside from being creative with her plot points and elements, she adds layers to her stories that relate to the social and ethical issues of the real world in intricate stitches. She also describes settings beautifully, and in ways which are true to her main characters in how they feel about their surroundings. She recognises the symbolism in colours, plants, animals and the weather, and she paints them in her pages so vividly I could almost see and even smell them myself whilst reading. Woven in is the avid explanations of how her characters are feeling and why. Recollecting old memories is an effective tool to make the readers care about book characters and see and even wish them to be real; and Shannon Hale understands this. She understands people. Reading her stories is a joyous, imaginative and eye-opening experience and I am glad that I've finally given her a chance. She is a remarkable author, and sure to become a new favourite of mine.
One character in 'Princess Academy' I want to talk about in great praise is the protagonist, Miri. She is just fantastic. Fourteen-years-old and small for her age, she feels she is an outcast in her mountain village of Mount Eskel, and in her own family. But she is far from introverted. She tells jokes - genuinely funny ones - to lighten the mood in the worst situation. She is sarcastic and sometimes rude, materialistic and judgmental, but she grows out of it. Miri, for a so-called primitive mountain girl, is very smart and observant; in fact a lot of the female characters in this book are. Each are wonderful and real in their own way, but spunky little Miri, who simply wishes to be someone of worth in her existence, might just be the most important person her village will ever be in need of. Even if she doesn't become a princess at the princess academy and marry a prince, she is still loved by all who know her.
Miri's major flaws are her naivete concerning lowlander behaviour and her dishonesty about her feelings, but her development - with her courage to fight for her people and to improve her own person - are such fun to read about. This heroine's biggest accomplishment is her discovering new ways to communicate with people positively (which includes telepathy through rocks, called quarry-speech); and new ways to express herself.
I rooted for Miri all the way - princess or not, she does stuff! I also love how she is not conventionally pretty; never a fair maiden. Though however plain she might be described, that she wears her hair in braids is adorable.
Miri's relationship with the former lowlander girl, Britta, is one of the best written in the book, in my opinion, along with Miri's relationship with her father and sister. Miri first sees Britta as being beneath her because she's a lowlander who keeps to herself. She thinks Britta is a smug showoff and that, as a lowlander, she must be looking her nose down on the mountain girls (yeah, see the hypocrisy there?). But when talking to and educating one another outside of the academy classroom at breaktime, an unexpected alliance blossoms; built on respect and a familiar sense of justice. A revelation about Britta that comes at the very end of the novel shows Shannon Hale's subtle use of foreshadowing and gift of writing in plot twists at just the right, smack-bang moment.
Blossoming, familiar, warm and sweet are yet more words that best describe 'Princess Academy'.
It's not perfect, though nothing is. I didn't care a big deal about Miri's relationship with her childhood-friend-turned-love-interest, Peder. It didn't feel as well-developed as the other bonds she forms, and Peder came across as a stubborn, possessive stalker. Aside from his good looks, why does Miri like him? I know she's fourteen but I'd have thought she's smarter than that. Although I quite like that the conclusion to their relationship was left up to the reader, with no concrete resolution. Nothing feels forced or contrived then.
Also, the lessons taught at the princess academy are not given much written attention or thought - that the school itself is so small doesn't help. But at least the subjects become important to the plot; the mountain girls learn to read and about how commerce works.
A lovely tale full of songs, mountains, kingdom landscapes, nature magic, realistic characters and societies and customs; fantasy readers of all ages are sure to adore 'Princess Academy'. More than a great story, it has a great big heart as well, with something to learn from in each carefully-crafted chapter.
Pretty as a picture, the novel ultimately teaches girls - whether they be would-be princesses, rustic mountain squatters or whatever background they come from - that they can be themselves, and that they also have the power within to improve themselves if they have to or want to. For the good of others, and of their homeland.
Final Score: 4.5/5
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