Reviews

The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable

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thechristined's review against another edition

2.0

Sophie Smith is an orphan who was sent away to school by her guardian, Rosemary, as soon as she was old enough. Rosemary was a friend of Sophie’s mother, but she couldn’t care less about Sophie – she simply costs more than she’s worth – and goes off traveling while Sophie is away at school. Sophie gets her wish for something to change when a visitor arrives at Sophie’s school and, after going on a short tour, led by Sophie, asks the headmistress to allow Sophie to visit Saint Petersburg so as to help convince her daughter to go there. The headmistress agrees, but only if Sophie’s friends Delphine and Marianne (whom she believes will represent the school better than Sophie) go too. Except, Delphine forges Rosemary’s signature when she won’t allow Sophie to go – all the while insisting nothing ever goes wrong on a school trip! In Russia, they are abandoned on a train by their supposed guardian, and then dropped off at an old abandoned platform – the destination listed on their ticket. After spending time there in a hut with a warm fire and food, they are found by Ivan Ivanovich who says they had been sent for by Princess Anna Feodorovna Volkonskaya. He takes them back to the Volkonsky Winter Palace where they meet the princess who seems to be overly interested in Sophie and what she might know about the Volkonsky family.

Sophie is the stereotypical orphan who has an unwilling and neglectful guardian. Sophie doesn’t want to have to get in touch with Rosemary for any reason, she doesn’t have good clothes (her school sweater is full of holes), and the majority of her time is spent wishing for or dreaming about the life she could have had if her father was still alive. Though we never meet Sophie’s guardian, she is continually referenced to as being horribly cheap (when it comes to Sophie), and hoping someone else will be found to take care of her so she can get back to her life of traveling around the world without having to worry about anyone but herself.

At school, Sophie has two friends – and they also happen to be her roommates. Delphine is a half-French girl obsessed with her looks and the impression she makes, while Marianne is a school brainiac who focuses on her studies. From the moment Delphine and Marianne were introduced, I felt almost like I was reading a Harry Potter fanfiction where the trio is made up of all girls and, instead of being interested in sports, Ron is interested in fashion. You’ve got the orphan wishing for a better life, the don’t-care-about-said-orphan guardian, and two friends who are there for the orphan through everything, despite their drastically different personalities, a boarding school based in dreary London, and the synopsis promising a dangerous adventure. While it worked for the Harry Potter series, however, The Wolf Princess fell flat.

You can read the rest of my review at my blog: http://readerlymusings.com/2013/10/07/book-review-the-wolf-princess-by-cathryn-constable/

lucialf's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

dmturner's review

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3.0

An implausible but enjoyable YA novel about a young schoolgirl orphan who goes on a school trip to Russia and is drawn into a icy conspiracy in a frozen wilderness. In spite of all its many flaws, it is captivating, and I enjoyed it.

missprint_'s review against another edition

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2.0

Sophie Smith has never been special or interesting. She is the poor girl at her elite private school complete with her shabby clothes, unbrushed hair and callous guardian.

Sophie thinks things might have gone differently if she wasn't an orphan. But she is. Trapped in her grey English boarding school. Trapped in her grey boring life even as dreams of winter in Russia, majestic wolves and a strange forest haunt her.

Nothing interesting ever happens to Sophie. She wouldn't expect anything different.

Then a stranger comes to the school and invites Sophie and her roommates--glamorous Delphine and bookish Marianne--on a school trip to St. Petersburg.

The following adventure is even more than Sophie could hope for as they girls are abandoned in a blizzard and whisked away to a wintry palace to rival Sophie's grandest dreams in The Wolf Princess (2012) by Cathryn Constable.

I went into this book with high expectations and only a vague sense of what to expect beyond a rags to riches fairy tale story.

In a way that is exactly what The Wolf Princess delivers. But in other ways it was a disappointment.

Sophie is fascinated with Russia in a way that should be endearing and draw readers in as well. Instead it comes off as vaguely condescending as she describes Russian words knocking into each other and, at one point, describes a Russian character's handwriting as distinctly foreign.

All of the characters in the story feel like caricatures complete with an icy winter princess, a sturdy Russian officer and, of course, one friend who is defined solely as being glamorous and half-French (no, really) and another who is interesting only in that she is intelligent (I don't even remember if we were ever told her hair color).

Beyond that Sophie is infuriating. She is a mousey heroine with absolutely know self-confidence. Instead of blossoming or coming into her own as the story progresses Sophie continues to doubt herself and remind readers and her friends that she is decidedly not special. Worse, her friends are quick to agree.

The book is also oddly out of time. Reference to cell phones suggest the book is set in the present although the atmosphere and attitudes of the characters seem to suggest an earlier time period. The characters are similarly ageless. The Wolf Princess is marketed for ages 10-14 meaning, because the ages are never implicitly stated, there is a huge spread for how old the characters can be. Taken as a middle grade novel Sophie's behavior might make more sense but I doubt it would make her more tolerable.

This story is likely to appeal to anyone who has enjoyed Leigh Bardugo's Grisha books or wants a riff on the tropes found in A Little Princess. However readers should be wary of the flaws in certain aspects of The Wolf Princess.

Possible Pairings: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Dark Unwinding by Sharon Cameron, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Sender Unknown by Sallie Lowenstein, Kiki Strike by Kirsten Miller, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

myst_ts's review

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3.0

The Wolf Princess mainly takes place in Russia at the Volkonsky Winter Palace. My favorite part of the book was definitely the setting. The plot was okay, but I did find it to be predictable. While I liked the characters for the most part, the protagonist tended to be naïve at times which frustrated me. I gave this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars and a 6/10.