A Novel Novel: Princess Academy

Hello, readers!

Up until now, I've only gone into discussions on book series. In the YA world, it isn't hard to get stuck on trilogies and sagas. That's why, today, I'm going to discuss a novel. This novel is Shannon Hale's Princess Academy. Take in mind the text that reads "THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER."

I need to admit, though I just finished this book today, I'm a little late on boarding the Princess Bus. This book has been around for quite some time. It reached the public's shelves in 2006.

There is something about the word "princess" that always strikes me as childish and overtly girly. That's probably why I saw this book multiple times in various stores and scoffed at it, snubbing it for the word girl's gloat around when they're little in the title. For whatever reason I was at a resale bookstore and decided, "One buck, I'll take it," I'm glad. Princess Academy was not a book about naive school girls battling one another to win the favor of their kingdom's prince. I'm ashamed I ever thought that. This book, which I finished in one day, was something else entirely. It should NOT have been marked $1.

The plot of this book revolves around a girl named Miri, who starts the book out at fourteen. In her tiny village, she feels weak and unwanted, for instead of mining the quarries like every other teenager her age or younger, she tends to the chores of her house, oftentimes alone. However, when a messenger of the king visits her small village, everything Miri has ever done becomes inconsequential. Miri's life changes from a life of goat-herding to a life of text books and court manners. She, along with the other eligible girls of her village, are to be bred up to parr so that, in a year, when the prince comes to choose his new wife, he is not left disappointed. Miri must learn not only the art of being a lady but also to read and write if she wants to become princess. Up against twenty other girls, she must shine above, especially when it becomes clear there are more challenges than becoming a proper lady that come along...

This book was AWESOME.

Hale knows how to write like no other. She's got that fairy tale quality to her writing that other authors never can accomplish. The setting she chooses, in the mountains, is breathtaking. You are not seeing the mountains in your head. You are on the mountain crags yourself, sucking in the thin air. The imagery, as a whole, is stunning. There are scenes so vivid that you find yourself longing to be a character to feel the mountain breeze. And while we're mentioning Hale's characters... all of them are fleshed out to a point that's phenomenal. None are flat. All are round. All are changing. All make sense. Hale is remarkable. This story is not about girls competing for a prince, it's about girls competing to find themselves.

The amount of folklore and culture is so rich in this story it makes the reader want to live where Miri lives. We want to put the book aside, sing mountain songs around a fire. Also, there is a conflict between social classes, the lowlanders versus the highlanders, that even the readers is a part of. Both struggle and acceptance are things the reader comes to terms with. Through the characters, the wealth of them, but mostly Miri, we get this. Characters must prevail over prejudice, but they must also stand up for themselves. Miri, as a character, is so strong. She's amazing. She's every girl, and who every girl wants to be.

This is a book that reminds me why I always go back to reread Ella Enchanted and Howl's Moving Castle. In fact, when I go back to rereread those books, I'm going to go back to rereading this book, too. Can we go back to the part where I said Hale's writing was beautiful? GOSH.

Rating?

Fiction or Literature?
0% Fiction, 100% Literature

Good or Bad?
100% Good

Read it. Take it in. Smile. Wait a year. Read it again. Smile. It's that good. It's a book to remember.

Till next time,
Alex