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Entwined by Heather Dixon
Jul. 4th, 2011 11:28 amAn adaptation of "The Seven Dancing Princesses"* that largely follows the fairy tale, but has some interesting bits that set it apart for me.
The basic setup is that the queen dies giving birth to the twelfth princess, causing the king to sink into a serious depression, part of which includes becoming incredibly strict with his daughters and removing many of their freedoms. I don't think I've encountered a single version of this story where the queen isn't dead (as we all know, unless they're evil stepmothers, mother's aren't allowed in fairy tales, though it's ok for daughters to mourn them and fathers to be to strict because of them) I think this is the first that didn't go "mom died and everyone was sad and dad got strict for a bit" and instead portrayed it as something that was completely devastating to the entire family, and something that takes a long time to recover from. Which isn't necessarily better than the standard "dead mommy" plot in these stories (as in, still with dead mothers, since you can't have a heroic journey with your mom alive), but it was at least done a little better than the norm.
But what I primarily liked about this one is that it drew out the descent narrative aspects of the tale better than any other version I've encountered, and instead of the typical sexual temptation of the heroine receiving the attentions of a Dark Other, the temptation is to escape from the pain and memories. in addition, the soldier plays a much smaller role than usual. While he's there, he's actually an old friend of the heroine, Azalea's, and is absent from much of the story. As a result, the heroic arc, including freeing the princesses from the evil influences, is entirely Azalea's, without her really needing much help or rescuing at all.
*There seem to be a lot of these in YA lately? I can think of 4 relatively recent ones off the top of my head. Not that I'm complaining.
The basic setup is that the queen dies giving birth to the twelfth princess, causing the king to sink into a serious depression, part of which includes becoming incredibly strict with his daughters and removing many of their freedoms. I don't think I've encountered a single version of this story where the queen isn't dead (as we all know, unless they're evil stepmothers, mother's aren't allowed in fairy tales, though it's ok for daughters to mourn them and fathers to be to strict because of them) I think this is the first that didn't go "mom died and everyone was sad and dad got strict for a bit" and instead portrayed it as something that was completely devastating to the entire family, and something that takes a long time to recover from. Which isn't necessarily better than the standard "dead mommy" plot in these stories (as in, still with dead mothers, since you can't have a heroic journey with your mom alive), but it was at least done a little better than the norm.
But what I primarily liked about this one is that it drew out the descent narrative aspects of the tale better than any other version I've encountered, and instead of the typical sexual temptation of the heroine receiving the attentions of a Dark Other, the temptation is to escape from the pain and memories. in addition, the soldier plays a much smaller role than usual. While he's there, he's actually an old friend of the heroine, Azalea's, and is absent from much of the story. As a result, the heroic arc, including freeing the princesses from the evil influences, is entirely Azalea's, without her really needing much help or rescuing at all.
*There seem to be a lot of these in YA lately? I can think of 4 relatively recent ones off the top of my head. Not that I'm complaining.