Take a photo of a barcode or cover
solosetup 's review for:
Princess Ben
by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
I went into this book expecting a fun story, but not much else. What I got was...
- an interesting (if wordy) main character who had some flaws not commonly found in fantasy princesses
- low-magic, high-history setting, heavily based on germany and france
- a story about a girl coming to terms with who she is, growing up and maturing, owning and apologizing for her mistakes. Otherwise known as character growth (holy shit right?).
But of course, there are problems.
- The world-building is inoffensive and does its job, but only just barely. The world does not feel lived-in or believable and ends up being a (minor) distraction.
- That stupid fucking love plot being shoved in the last fifty pages. What the hell was that? Why did that need to be there? No really, I was all set with Princess Ben being all happy and matured and learning MAGIC and then all of sudden she's in love with this asshole prince? I mean, was this really fucking necessary? The answer is: no. If its a detriment to the plot, any element can be left out. I have to wonder if said love plot was put in at an editor's request because as we alllll know girls don't read books without love stories right? /sarcasm
So, in closing, Princess Ben was enjoyable (if mediocre)....up until the end. Then I wanted to throw it across the room. Instead, I closed the kindle file and set about forgetting it ever existed.
- an interesting (if wordy) main character who had some flaws not commonly found in fantasy princesses
- low-magic, high-history setting, heavily based on germany and france
- a story about a girl coming to terms with who she is, growing up and maturing, owning and apologizing for her mistakes. Otherwise known as character growth (holy shit right?).
But of course, there are problems.
Spoiler
- The writing is a treasure trove of run-on sentences like you wouldn't believe. I understand that a certain amount of wordiness is called for to portray a well-read princess, but in this case? Overboard.- The world-building is inoffensive and does its job, but only just barely. The world does not feel lived-in or believable and ends up being a (minor) distraction.
- That stupid fucking love plot being shoved in the last fifty pages. What the hell was that? Why did that need to be there? No really, I was all set with Princess Ben being all happy and matured and learning MAGIC and then all of sudden she's in love with this asshole prince? I mean, was this really fucking necessary? The answer is: no. If its a detriment to the plot, any element can be left out. I have to wonder if said love plot was put in at an editor's request because as we alllll know girls don't read books without love stories right? /sarcasm
So, in closing, Princess Ben was enjoyable (if mediocre)....up until the end. Then I wanted to throw it across the room. Instead, I closed the kindle file and set about forgetting it ever existed.