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tristrams's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Fatphobia
kjboldon's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
4.0
A devourable romp of a story, with a young male protagonist, a carpet seller who falls in love with a princess, who is kidnapped. Adventure ensues, with a djinn in a bottle, a dishonest soldier, a cat, and her kitten.
The line that made me pause and laugh was when the djinn says how he tried to leave someone who cared behind when he kidnapped princesses so they'd follow him, yet most showed "remarkable lack of spirit, like the king of High Norland, who is merely attempting to catalog his books on his own, without his daughter's help."
The line that made me pause and laugh was when the djinn says how he tried to leave someone who cared behind when he kidnapped princesses so they'd follow him, yet most showed "remarkable lack of spirit, like the king of High Norland, who is merely attempting to catalog his books on his own, without his daughter's help."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Slavery, and Fatphobia
pocketspoon's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.0
The author clearly had fun turning arabian-nights-like tales on their heads a bit, and it is definitely fun and clever in some ways. However, there is a lot here that is really problematic, not least of all the general and persistent misogyny of the main character. I'm afraid that learning to love one smart, capable woman doesn't make him not sexist. In the very last pages he is giving away his (previously extensively fat-shamed) relatives as chattel to the villain. But it's okay, because he's handsome and actually wants them because they're not uncooperative like the kidnapped princesses, so they're into it?!
I also find it annoying that the Howl's Moving Castle characters all have babies in this book, as if that's the only possible progression of a young woman's life/story. You could explain some of this away as "satire, not endorsement" but this is a kids' book, and kids don't get sattire; they're going to see women being constantly compared to each other (and generally criticized and found wanting) by the male protagonist, who is pretty unlikeable and shitty, but is still somehow the hero of the story. He rides in and attaches himself to the escape plan the princesses were already working on, and then one of them has to agree to marry a slimeball just so he won't eat them out, and the men get all the credit for the rescue. And a bunch of other toxic stuff.
I also find it annoying that the Howl's Moving Castle characters all have babies in this book, as if that's the only possible progression of a young woman's life/story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Confinement, Sexism, Kidnapping, and Misogyny
Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Minor: Animal cruelty, Slavery, and War
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