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A review by thewildnorry
Twelve by Andrea Blythe
5.0
“They had secrets, selves they kept hidden.”
The Twelve Dancing Princesses has always been my favorite fairytale. It's a mystery and fantasy all wrapped up into one. It's not a love story. Instead, it's one of the original stories of a strong sisterhood--predating Frozen and Lilo and Stitch. And yet for some reason this story often goes unread or gets forgotten.
Andrea Blythe's stories (because to me they read more like poetically written stories than stories wrapped in poems) honors the original tale while exploring the favored question of modern fairytale fans "What comes next?"
Story-wise, I loved how each sister spiraled in different directions after having their secret found out. It showed how there's not just one way to react to misfortune befalling.
Additionally, if you have not read the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Blythe does an excellent job at summing up the story without it feeling entirely like boring exposition to get on with the rest of the book.
But this book's greatest victory was at guiding the readers through a feminist reading without ever making them roll their eyes or feeling like they're being preached at. The misogyny of fairytales is there and treated as a fact that the sisters must sidestep or sigh and fight against. It does not have the warriors mentality but rather that of an every day woman going against the subtle bs of a world that's not fair. It felt more like a shared joke between the narrator and reader over the foolishness of men underestimating women as the reader no doubt would never do. An example from page 3 and a call-back to the original fairytale: "The soldier, we note, did not credit the old woman on the road, who had ensured this success by warning him to avoid the drugged wine and gifting him a cloak of invisibility."
The message does not get in the way of the story or its telling. Rather, it is amplified through the stories of the characters. Other authors should take notes!
She also plays with cliches and tropes like a master. They are there but tilted and used to leverage or understanding and preconceptions of the trope to place us in the group of characters underestimating these princesses.
Writerly-wise, this book was HEAVEN to read. I adored the cheeky narrative voice threaded throughout the prologue and some of the following chapters. (See the above quote.)
Blythe uses words the way a poet does (thus the categorization of these stories as poems), but bends language so it's easy for prose readers to navigate. (I myself am one such reader.) It wanted to pick out my favorite sentences to prove this point, but it was difficult given that there were so many.
Each word in this book is chosen on purpose. All of the verbs are powerful and poignant. She also uses sentence structure and punctuation to her advantage and to clearly convey certain ideas and emotions and to build a scene. For example,
This is a beautiful work. A literary masterpiece minus the pretension. I can't wait to read it again and again and again.
(Thank you so much to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!)
The Twelve Dancing Princesses has always been my favorite fairytale. It's a mystery and fantasy all wrapped up into one. It's not a love story. Instead, it's one of the original stories of a strong sisterhood--predating Frozen and Lilo and Stitch. And yet for some reason this story often goes unread or gets forgotten.
Andrea Blythe's stories (because to me they read more like poetically written stories than stories wrapped in poems) honors the original tale while exploring the favored question of modern fairytale fans "What comes next?"
Story-wise, I loved how each sister spiraled in different directions after having their secret found out. It showed how there's not just one way to react to misfortune befalling.
Spoiler
Their ends are also so bittersweet. For the most part, they are free to live the lives they choose for themselves, but the reader is left wondering if this truly counts as a happy ending.Additionally, if you have not read the Twelve Dancing Princesses, Blythe does an excellent job at summing up the story without it feeling entirely like boring exposition to get on with the rest of the book.
But this book's greatest victory was at guiding the readers through a feminist reading without ever making them roll their eyes or feeling like they're being preached at. The misogyny of fairytales is there and treated as a fact that the sisters must sidestep or sigh and fight against. It does not have the warriors mentality but rather that of an every day woman going against the subtle bs of a world that's not fair. It felt more like a shared joke between the narrator and reader over the foolishness of men underestimating women as the reader no doubt would never do. An example from page 3 and a call-back to the original fairytale: "The soldier, we note, did not credit the old woman on the road, who had ensured this success by warning him to avoid the drugged wine and gifting him a cloak of invisibility."
The message does not get in the way of the story or its telling. Rather, it is amplified through the stories of the characters. Other authors should take notes!
She also plays with cliches and tropes like a master. They are there but tilted and used to leverage or understanding and preconceptions of the trope to place us in the group of characters underestimating these princesses.
Writerly-wise, this book was HEAVEN to read. I adored the cheeky narrative voice threaded throughout the prologue and some of the following chapters. (See the above quote.)
Blythe uses words the way a poet does (thus the categorization of these stories as poems), but bends language so it's easy for prose readers to navigate. (I myself am one such reader.) It wanted to pick out my favorite sentences to prove this point, but it was difficult given that there were so many.
Each word in this book is chosen on purpose. All of the verbs are powerful and poignant. She also uses sentence structure and punctuation to her advantage and to clearly convey certain ideas and emotions and to build a scene. For example,
Spoiler
the second sister who cannot stop dancing has her story told all in one sentence.This is a beautiful work. A literary masterpiece minus the pretension. I can't wait to read it again and again and again.
(Thank you so much to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!)