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A review by aylea
The Princess Protection Program by Alex London
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Princess Rosamund isn't very happy about being woken up from a long sleep by a kiss from a stranger. A Door of Opportunity opens, allowing her to find the Princess Protection Program. This school helps fairy tale princesses escape the challenges of their stories. However, the longer Rosamund is in the program, the more questions she has. Why doesn’t anyone remember former students, and what happens to them when they graduate? What happens if a princess gets caught by her Uponatime, monsters determined to put the princesses back where they belong? Is it possible to change your story instead of simply escaping it?
In a lot of ways, the book feels familiar. It easily sits with stories like The School for Good and Evil, Ever After High, and the Descendants. It’s a familiar take on “fairy tales in real life going against their original trope.” And by familiar, I mean that most of the execution isn’t particularly memorable in a world full of vivid, exciting fairy tale retellings. That doesn’t mean it won’t find fans — young fairy tale lovers hungry for stories of princesses taking charge and being the heroes of their stories will still enjoy this book. But as someone who has always read every fairy tale variation I could get my hands on, I have to say this one doesn’t stand out as special.
Part of the problem is that it doesn’t seem to have a firm grip on its audience. It feels like a book for slightly younger readers (7-10 maybe) because of its lack of depth and occasional bathroom-type humor, but it also has concepts like consent for a kiss or even rebellion that seem slightly older. There’s also a character who is heavily implied to perhaps be gay, but the book doesn’t dare say for sure. I wish it were written a little older to make it a good choice for middle school instead of feeling like an upper elementary school read.
The dialogue felt unnatural, especially from the teenage characters from the regular world. In fairy tale characters, I could understand if they talked a little strangely, but all the characters do, whether they have an “I’m from a different world” excuse or not.
The story develops and has a lot of twists quickly, but unfortunately it doesn’t necessarily help make it more interesting because it actually makes it so that the other characters and general concept of the world they are in don’t have time to develop. There are too many characters and not enough time or effort to get to know them besides, "Oh, that's Cinderella." The ending will either thrill people or leave them confused because a decent amount of it feels like it came out of nowhere.
Those don’t mean it wasn’t fun. It just wasn’t as fun as a story about princesses trying to take care of their happy endings probably should have been.
I appreciated that the author has clearly researched the fairy tales he is working with. There are small references to variations of the stories in different languages, and writers like Perrault and more modern favorites are referenced.
The general moral is that the princesses (and one prince) should be able to make their own choices in their stories. They end up in the real world through a Door of Opportunity that appears because their story doesn’t consider their wants and needs. I like that concept, but I wish the princesses had more influence because it still feels like many characters are not doing much to find their happy endings.
Some young fairy tale lovers will love this, but I wouldn’t recommend it as one of the great books in the category. I wish it had more depth and development to take the interesting levels to that level.
In a lot of ways, the book feels familiar. It easily sits with stories like The School for Good and Evil, Ever After High, and the Descendants. It’s a familiar take on “fairy tales in real life going against their original trope.” And by familiar, I mean that most of the execution isn’t particularly memorable in a world full of vivid, exciting fairy tale retellings. That doesn’t mean it won’t find fans — young fairy tale lovers hungry for stories of princesses taking charge and being the heroes of their stories will still enjoy this book. But as someone who has always read every fairy tale variation I could get my hands on, I have to say this one doesn’t stand out as special.
Part of the problem is that it doesn’t seem to have a firm grip on its audience. It feels like a book for slightly younger readers (7-10 maybe) because of its lack of depth and occasional bathroom-type humor, but it also has concepts like consent for a kiss or even rebellion that seem slightly older. There’s also a character who is heavily implied to perhaps be gay, but the book doesn’t dare say for sure. I wish it were written a little older to make it a good choice for middle school instead of feeling like an upper elementary school read.
The dialogue felt unnatural, especially from the teenage characters from the regular world. In fairy tale characters, I could understand if they talked a little strangely, but all the characters do, whether they have an “I’m from a different world” excuse or not.
The story develops and has a lot of twists quickly, but unfortunately it doesn’t necessarily help make it more interesting because it actually makes it so that the other characters and general concept of the world they are in don’t have time to develop. There are too many characters and not enough time or effort to get to know them besides, "Oh, that's Cinderella." The ending will either thrill people or leave them confused because a decent amount of it feels like it came out of nowhere.
Those don’t mean it wasn’t fun. It just wasn’t as fun as a story about princesses trying to take care of their happy endings probably should have been.
I appreciated that the author has clearly researched the fairy tales he is working with. There are small references to variations of the stories in different languages, and writers like Perrault and more modern favorites are referenced.
The general moral is that the princesses (and one prince) should be able to make their own choices in their stories. They end up in the real world through a Door of Opportunity that appears because their story doesn’t consider their wants and needs. I like that concept, but I wish the princesses had more influence because it still feels like many characters are not doing much to find their happy endings.
Some young fairy tale lovers will love this, but I wouldn’t recommend it as one of the great books in the category. I wish it had more depth and development to take the interesting levels to that level.