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464 reviews for:
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
Linda Rodríguez McRobbie
3.6 AVERAGE
464 reviews for:
Princesses Behaving Badly: Real Stories from History Without the Fairy-Tale Endings
Linda Rodríguez McRobbie
3.6 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
fast-paced
a semi quick read for anyone who likes small doses of history that doesn't feel like you're reading a textbook.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
I first heard of this book when I came across a post on Tumblr all about Isabella, the She Wolf of France. The way the poster wrote Isabella’s story, framed in a positive light, was intriguing to me, and so I wanted to read more. Then I found out it was actually from a book called Princesses Behaving Badly and I was sold. I immediately bought the book, and though I’m a little bit underwhelmed, I’m so happy I did.
I guess I mainly take issue with how this book was written. The one excerpt I read was interesting and snappy, but on the whole, the book felt a little too informal and almost like a tabloid. Even though I know the author’s intent was to get away from the sensational and stick to the truth, this didn’t really come through in the text.
I was also confused about the inclusion of princesses from folklore. Don’t get me wrong – I was very much intrigued by these stories and I love discovering fairy tales and folklore that I hadn’t known about before. However, since the title says Real Stories I thought we’d be sticking with, you know, real stories.
All that said, I very much enjoyed Princesses Behaving Badly. It opened my eyes to a lot of women’s stories that I had never heard before simply because men wrote them out of the history books. I found this book especially inspirational when it comes to my fiction writing – I love retellings, and I think it would be fun to write one that wasn’t yet another Beauty and the Beast tale.
In all, I would absolutely recommend Princesses Behaving Badly. I think a lot of your enjoyment will come from what you expect this book to be – if you’re expecting 100%, indisputable facts about 100% indisputably real women, that won’t happen. What you will get is a sometimes funny, other times shocking, look into yes, real women from history, and also women from fairy tales who have broken the confines of the patriarchal society around them and behaved badly.
I guess I mainly take issue with how this book was written. The one excerpt I read was interesting and snappy, but on the whole, the book felt a little too informal and almost like a tabloid. Even though I know the author’s intent was to get away from the sensational and stick to the truth, this didn’t really come through in the text.
I was also confused about the inclusion of princesses from folklore. Don’t get me wrong – I was very much intrigued by these stories and I love discovering fairy tales and folklore that I hadn’t known about before. However, since the title says Real Stories I thought we’d be sticking with, you know, real stories.
All that said, I very much enjoyed Princesses Behaving Badly. It opened my eyes to a lot of women’s stories that I had never heard before simply because men wrote them out of the history books. I found this book especially inspirational when it comes to my fiction writing – I love retellings, and I think it would be fun to write one that wasn’t yet another Beauty and the Beast tale.
In all, I would absolutely recommend Princesses Behaving Badly. I think a lot of your enjoyment will come from what you expect this book to be – if you’re expecting 100%, indisputable facts about 100% indisputably real women, that won’t happen. What you will get is a sometimes funny, other times shocking, look into yes, real women from history, and also women from fairy tales who have broken the confines of the patriarchal society around them and behaved badly.
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
informative
sad
medium-paced
This was written in a very gossip girl tmz style which made it a lot more entertaining to read but also meant that there was unnecessary cissexism, misogyny, and ableism.
A delightful collection of historical vignettes about princesses (and other royalty) with peculiar stories, put together in sections about madness and sex and war and so on. I got half way through, forgot it, and eventually found it again and finished, but it's the sort of book where it doesn't matter if you pick it up and put it down.
adventurous
dark
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
If you think princesses just sit around waiting for princes, this book is here to shake things up. Princesses Behaving Badly is packed with real-life stories of royal women from all over the world who didn’t follow the fairy-tale script. Some grabbed power, some pulled the strings behind the scenes, and a few completely lost it. There are even warrior princesses—especially from non-European backgrounds—who went into battle and made history on their terms.
These aren’t your average tiara-wearing Disney types. They’re more Daenerys Targaryen than Cinderella—princesses who became pirates, warriors, and even army generals. One of them drank from the skulls of her enemies. That’s the level we’re talking about.
The book delivers bite-sized stories, just 3–5 pages each, written in a chatty, easygoing style. It’s super readable and great if you want a quick hit of badass history without having to dive into a 500-page academic tome. The timeline spans way back—like 3,500 years ago with Hatshepsut of Egypt—to the 1990s and early 2000s, featuring names like Sofka Dolgorouky (a Communist princess who helped save Jews during the Holocaust) and the ever-iconic Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II’s younger sister.
What works is how global it feels. McRobbie goes out of her way to include princesses from everywhere—Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, even Iceland and Greenland. It’s refreshing. And yes, there’s some welcome queer representation too, like Christina of Sweden, who seemed to prefer women and may have been transgender.
I picked this up because I love history, but I’m tired of hearing about the same group of men over and over again. You can name a million male figures from any period, but women? They get squeezed into the margins like bonus trivia. This book tries to change that—and in many ways, it does a great job.
That said, the structure is a bit of a mess. The stories are grouped by labels like “warriors,” “schemers,” “madwomen,” “floozies,” and so on—and honestly, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. So many of these categories overlap (aren’t all of them survivors in some way?). It ends up feeling more gimmicky than helpful. I wish the book had organised the stories by period or region instead. That would've made it easier to follow and added more historical context.
There are a few other hiccups. The language can be outdated (like calling Romani people “gypsies”), and the author tends to judge beauty by today’s standards, which feels unnecessary—especially when only the European princesses get that kind of attention. Also, the way she tells a legendary version of someone’s life for a few paragraphs before going, “actually, that’s not what happened,” gets repetitive fast.
Still, I had fun reading this. It’s a great intro to all the wild, wonderful, and weird ways women have left their mark on history. If you’re a middle or high school student bored to tears in history class, or if you’re just starting to dig into feminist history, this one’s worth picking up.
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced