Review: Well written YA novel with action, character development, and awesome gender politics
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 27, 2013
“A princess, cook, master horsewoman, and assassin. I hope this blue-eyed boy is worthy of her” (page 295).I have finally found a book I will let my daughter read. Granted, I don’t exactly have a daughter, but if I did, this would be one of the books we'd read together. The story clips along at a bustling pace, it provides ample space for its characters’ physical and emotional development, and it has some kick-butt gender politics.Princess Interrupted is the prequel to Rothman’s Prophecies Series. It encompasses several months, perhaps a year, of Princess Arabelle’s life as she shoulders the responsibilities of soldier, herbalist, and protector. As she trains herself into a stronger incarnation, both emotionally and physically, her compassion lands her the friendship of a gentle, shape-shifting dwarf and leads her closer to freeing their country from the tyranny of a (rather hypocritically anti-magic) dark wizard and to locating the literal blue-eyed boy of her dreams. Yeah, our caravan princess has a lot on her gilded plate.The novel switches vantage points among three characters: Arabelle, the princess and main character; Grisham, the pubescent, orphaned dwarf boy; and Kirag, the evil wizard’s right hand baddie. These are very different persons: Arabelle is a brash, brave, and fiercely protective human princess; Grisham is a gentle and sad young man with a greater affinity for animals than people; and Kirag is a half-ogre whose hobbies include strolls along the mountainside, torturing, and slaying. The author does an admirable job nestling inside their heads and making these characters come alive in their multifaceted and very different ways.From my perspective, the best part of the novel is its gender politics. In the beginning of the novel, Princess Arabelle is afflicted with a curse that forces her to work out, practice with weapons, and in general train to become a soldier. A good soldier. I love how fiercely she fights to protect her loved ones, how her months of training sculpt her body into a tightly controlled fighting machine. Yet, she simultaneously trains herself in the art of herbs and potions and in doing so becomes a skilled cook. I really enjoyed that, since all-too-many contemporary princess-empowerment stories feature young women who find themselves balking at traditional femininity. Femininity is weak and stupid, these stories hint. Why can’t princesses be powerful warriors instead? In Princess Interrupted, there is no instead. Arabelle is a warrior, but at no time do I feel she devalues more traditional femininity and womankind. She doesn’t want to escape womanhood; she wants to expand it to include all of her. She is a warrior, an assassin, a spy, an herbalist, a cook, and a teenager who dreams of finding true love. And throughout all this, she remains a compassionate and loving friend and daughter.The novel leaves countless threads untied, which perfectly sets up the next book, Heirs of Prophecy, which I’m now reading. Until I have a daughter with whom I can read this series, I’ll content myself with collecting and vetting them all for her. I’m just a good pretend-mom like that.