Ever After High books by Suzanne Selfors
Oct. 14th, 2015 10:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreFor anyone reading this who is not familiar with Ever After High, it's a toy line from Mattel with dolls for the sons and daughters of Fairy Tale characters, and there's a webseries and book series based on the characters. I don't have (or have much interest in) the dolls, but love the books and show.
Anyway, I read Suzanne Selfor's Ever After High books. (Trilogy? Not sure if she's doing more.) which are smaller both in scope and in page length than Shannon Hale's books, focusing on some of the more minor characters in the series. Next Top Villain is about Duchess Swan (the future Swan Princess) and Lizzie Hearts (Wonderland's future Queen of Hearts) who are assigned to a villainy course, despite being princesses. Lizzie because she's a future chaotic queen, Duchess because her competitive nature and dissatisfaction with being destined to be a swan forever make her a potential Evil Queen, and Headmaster Grimm thinks a backup is a good idea. I liked this one best of the three I read, largely because in the show, Duchess is mostly a one-note (if sympathetic) antagonist, and I liked seeing her get developed beyond that. I also have a lot of fondness for Lizzie, and get a lot of entertainment out of Daring's crush on her.
Kiss and Spell is about Ginger Breadhouse, the daughter of the witch from Hansel and Gretel, who has no interest in eating or poisoning anyone, and instead is devoted to making as many delicious pastries as she possibly can, even if everyone asks if her if they're poisoned before eating one. She has a cooking show with 5 viewers (everyone else is watching Daring Charming brush his teeth) and has to find a way to get more viewers or her show will be cancelled. This one was cute, but I didn't like it as much as the other two.
A Semi-Charming Kind of Life is about Darling Charming, the younger sister od daring and Dexter Charming. The Charmings are different from other EA residents in that they don't have have specific destinies they're born with. Instead they're a very, very large family whose members are assigned roles in other people's fairy tales. The princes are the knights and princes in stories that need them, and the princesses are the damsels in distress and princesses in stories that need them. Darling, as the only daughter of King Charming, is naturally the most beautiful and delicate of all the Charming princesses (when she flips her hair over her shoulder, time literally stops because every living thing is so dazzled). She has also spent her life reading her brothers' adventure books and using stacks of books as weights, and doing pullups on her tower's rafters, and is very dissatisfied with her expected destiny. When Dexter gets sick, she starts helping him with his tournament training, with unexpected results. It's probably the most Girl Power Feminism 101 thing in the franchise, but it's warm and positive and fun to read (or watch) as an adult, and no doubt inspires lots of "whees!" from the pre-adolescent girls the series is targeted towards.
The only real issue I have is that Selfors seems to have a clear Raven v Apple bias. And while I, too, am biased in Raven's favor, I also like Apple, and think Selfors sometimes wrote her as more shallow than I think she is, and more focused on "Daring is my perfect prince and will rescue me" than she previously was. In earlier works, I never got the impression that Apple was interested in Daring at all, just idea of them as the perfect fairy tale couple, and her conviction that it's best for everyone to stick to their assigned roles is based on the idea that doing so ensures the most happiness for the most people, not getting swept away and rescued by Daring. (I mean, I think she's wrong about people being happiest if they obey their assigned roles, but that is her motivation and reasoning.)
Anyway, I read Suzanne Selfor's Ever After High books. (Trilogy? Not sure if she's doing more.) which are smaller both in scope and in page length than Shannon Hale's books, focusing on some of the more minor characters in the series. Next Top Villain is about Duchess Swan (the future Swan Princess) and Lizzie Hearts (Wonderland's future Queen of Hearts) who are assigned to a villainy course, despite being princesses. Lizzie because she's a future chaotic queen, Duchess because her competitive nature and dissatisfaction with being destined to be a swan forever make her a potential Evil Queen, and Headmaster Grimm thinks a backup is a good idea. I liked this one best of the three I read, largely because in the show, Duchess is mostly a one-note (if sympathetic) antagonist, and I liked seeing her get developed beyond that. I also have a lot of fondness for Lizzie, and get a lot of entertainment out of Daring's crush on her.
Kiss and Spell is about Ginger Breadhouse, the daughter of the witch from Hansel and Gretel, who has no interest in eating or poisoning anyone, and instead is devoted to making as many delicious pastries as she possibly can, even if everyone asks if her if they're poisoned before eating one. She has a cooking show with 5 viewers (everyone else is watching Daring Charming brush his teeth) and has to find a way to get more viewers or her show will be cancelled. This one was cute, but I didn't like it as much as the other two.
A Semi-Charming Kind of Life is about Darling Charming, the younger sister od daring and Dexter Charming. The Charmings are different from other EA residents in that they don't have have specific destinies they're born with. Instead they're a very, very large family whose members are assigned roles in other people's fairy tales. The princes are the knights and princes in stories that need them, and the princesses are the damsels in distress and princesses in stories that need them. Darling, as the only daughter of King Charming, is naturally the most beautiful and delicate of all the Charming princesses (when she flips her hair over her shoulder, time literally stops because every living thing is so dazzled). She has also spent her life reading her brothers' adventure books and using stacks of books as weights, and doing pullups on her tower's rafters, and is very dissatisfied with her expected destiny. When Dexter gets sick, she starts helping him with his tournament training, with unexpected results. It's probably the most Girl Power Feminism 101 thing in the franchise, but it's warm and positive and fun to read (or watch) as an adult, and no doubt inspires lots of "whees!" from the pre-adolescent girls the series is targeted towards.
The only real issue I have is that Selfors seems to have a clear Raven v Apple bias. And while I, too, am biased in Raven's favor, I also like Apple, and think Selfors sometimes wrote her as more shallow than I think she is, and more focused on "Daring is my perfect prince and will rescue me" than she previously was. In earlier works, I never got the impression that Apple was interested in Daring at all, just idea of them as the perfect fairy tale couple, and her conviction that it's best for everyone to stick to their assigned roles is based on the idea that doing so ensures the most happiness for the most people, not getting swept away and rescued by Daring. (I mean, I think she's wrong about people being happiest if they obey their assigned roles, but that is her motivation and reasoning.)