Book Review: The Thirteenth Princess

Warning! Here be Spoilers, matey!

The Thirteenth Princess, by Diane Zahler, is a retelling of the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It's narrated through the voice of the thirteenth daughter, 12-year-old Zita. Despised by her father King Aricin since the queen died in childbirth, Zita is raised as a servant in the palace. She maintains a secret friendship with her sisters, as well as with the stableboy Breckin, who has just moved from a neighboring kingdom to work in the palace.

Zita knows that her life isn't normal. Where else does a princess work in the kitchens? Who else isn't allowed to talk to her own family? Young Zita is frustrated by these strange rules, but Breckin's arrival proves to be the catalyst that shows Zita just how wrong things are in her sad little kingdom. First, her once happy sisters get increasingly depressed as they grow into young women with no hope of love, since suitors rarely visit their impoverished kingdom (and worse, the sisters appear unable to speak in the presence of men). Strangely, they also become listless during the day, and their dancing shoes are worn to tatters, despite the lack of opportunity to use them. Zita is confused and upset by these events, but doesn't know how to take action until, one by one, her sisters fall sick and slip into a deathlike coma.

With the help of Breckin and his older brother (the solider Milek, who serves in the King's army), Zita discovers that magic is the root of the problem…even through her father outlawed all magic when his wife give birth to their first daughter, Aurelia. A conveniently placed good witch in the woods near the castle offers some helpful tips and suggestions for breaking the curse, but leaves the bulk of the work to Zita, Breckin, and Milek. The conclusion is largely happy, somewhat twisty, and spectacularly wet (since it involves a magical and cursed underground lake).

Although inspired by fairy tales, The Thirteenth Princess is a pretty mundane story, in that magic is limited to a few people and the characters rely primarily on logic and common sense to solve problems. In fact, the core of the original tale, in which the 12 princesses spend half their lives dancing underground, only shows up after the halfway point of the book, and the main characters only touch the periphery of it when they go to rescue the sisters. At its heart, it's a family drama. This is refreshing in one way, because one doesn't feel that Zita is magically special or has some in-born ability to end curses. She's very much a normal girl in an abnormal situation. However, the other effect of this choice is that Zita is rather an on-looker through most of the book. It's arguable that she is more of a narrator than a heroine.

And if Zita isn't the heroine, the person who really steps up is none other than Milek, the likable soldier who pines for the eldest Princess Aurelia. Milek's a good guy, and his heart is clearly in the right place (which is, in fact, pretty much all we learn about his personality). But his presence really make the story into one where the knight in shining armor rescues the sleeping princess(es). Not a bad story, but perhaps not an ideal message for a book that appears to be aimed squarely at tween girls. (Take one look at the cover and tell me if you think you could pay a boy to read this.)

Another odd aspect of the story is the prevalence of sexuality. The story itself is not sexy (nothing more forward than a kiss happens in the course of the plot). But suggestive lines fly fast among the minor characters (mostly the palace servants). Zita is aware of maids who have left the palace in disgrace, "with swollen bellies", and male servants kicked out for causing those situations. Zita is repeatedly warned to avoid being alone with Breckin to avoid "impropriety" (which both she and Breckin seem to be too young and naive to worry about).

The older princesses become obsessed with romance and marriage, moping about their 'single' status. And most significantly, the reveal of the plot's Big Bad (the witch Taika) centers on how she magically messes with both the King's and the Queen's sexuality in revenge (she curses the king to only be able to sire girls, and messes with the Queen to make her more sick and depressed with each). She even magically forces the princesses to be mute when suitors appear so that they won't be able to attract mates and leave the nest; i.e. grow up. She refers to the King's youthful sexual attraction to her (Taika, as a witch, is still gorgeous even after all these years). The unspoken moral is that desirability matters. A lot. It should be noted, however, that most young readers will sail right over a lot of these bits, so this isn't necessarily a problem.

There are other messages as well, mostly involving the idea of love as either a force for good, such as Milek's love for Aurelia or the young King Aricin and his wife, who are happy before the witch gets to them. It also covers the evil that can come from love, in Taika's passion for the King. Taika's machinations are all the result of her twisted vision of love (she's not evil just for the fun of it, like some villains), which is an interesting approach to the good/evil dichotomy.

Ultimately, however, the main lesson of the book is that the right kind of love conquers all, and that fairy tales better have happy endings or else no one will read them. Thus, Zita and her allies break the curse (while her father sacrifices himself to let everyone else escape), the bad witch is defeated, the palace is rebuilt (using all local craftsmanship and materials, no less), Aurelia and Milek marry, and Zita gains Breckin as a boyfriend. All ends very well.

The takeaway:

While The Thirteenth Princess is a perfectly well-written, lively, and good-hearted story, certain aspects of the story distracted me from enjoying it fully. Those aspects, however, probably won't bother most readers. Zita is a winsome and often brave character, and if she's sometimes naive or overly forgiving…well, those aren't the worst faults one can have. Aurelia's and Milek's romance is sweet, though a bit too simple. And the King's noble sacrifice at the end meant that he remains mostly an enigma. The princesses mourn for him and eventually learn to revive their happiest memories of him, but they never have to learn to deal with him as a person, since he is removed from the story after saving them.

Zahler is a capable storyteller, and has already written two more princess stories after this one, so she's clearly found her market. It's a pleasant read for lovers of fairy tales, and will delight girls who are in a princess phase.