meganbmoore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meganbmoore) wrote2008-09-03 06:45 pm
meganbmoore) wrote2008-09-03 06:45 pm
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The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine
the Fairy’s Return and Other Princess Tales is a collection of six novellas parodying-sometimes lovingly, sometimes harshly-a number of fairy tales. Set in the kingdom of Biddle and following the royal family all the way from the greedy prince who made the girl who spat pearls and gems talk herself sick to the baker’s boy with the golden goose who made the princess laugh, it begins with the fairy Ethelinda almost ruining a kind girl’s life with her gift, and ends with Ethelinda finally giving a good gift.
The first story The Fairy’s Mistake, is very similar in feel to Levine’s full length YA fantasies, but the other stories lean away from the more serious, harsh conditions she normally puts her heroines through, and are more into poking fun at fairy tale tropes and character types. The strongest theme in the book is showing how irritating the normal personality traits attributed to characters in fairy tales are in their purest forms when you’re someone who has to live with them. I’m especially fond of Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep, where the gifts given to Sleeping Beauty at her christening make her so smart that she becomes a talkative know-it-all and plots to prick her finger at the most opportune time possible.
It didn’t hit me the way Ella Enchanted and Two Princesses of Bamarre did, but this was a lot of fun.
The first story The Fairy’s Mistake, is very similar in feel to Levine’s full length YA fantasies, but the other stories lean away from the more serious, harsh conditions she normally puts her heroines through, and are more into poking fun at fairy tale tropes and character types. The strongest theme in the book is showing how irritating the normal personality traits attributed to characters in fairy tales are in their purest forms when you’re someone who has to live with them. I’m especially fond of Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep, where the gifts given to Sleeping Beauty at her christening make her so smart that she becomes a talkative know-it-all and plots to prick her finger at the most opportune time possible.
It didn’t hit me the way Ella Enchanted and Two Princesses of Bamarre did, but this was a lot of fun.