A review by samanthaisonline
Twelve by Andrea Blythe
3.25
I love fairytale retellings. I especially love fairytale retellings that return a sense of agency to the too-often-ignored female characters. Thus I was immediately drawn to this poetic retelling of the 12 dancing princesses.
Blythe makes some interesting points, especially in the author's note at the end. However, the stories weren't quite poems - they were more similar to a couple of paragraphs per princess. The writing, though beautiful, was a bit strange. A smidgen too short to feel complete but too long to be what one usually thinks of as a poem.
There is some beautiful writing and some interesting characterization:
"When she was young, she ate apples whole, swallowing the core and bitter seeds along with the white flesh. Her sisters joked that a tree would take root and grow inside her. Now, as her belly swelled, her sisters whispered behind her hands, not quite meeting her eyes."
Personally, I enjoyed the "The Eighth and Ninth Sisters," "The Tenth Sister," and the beginning of "The Fifth Sister" the most. I say the beginning of that one because it felt like Blythe lost steam near the end of most of the poems, going from concrete and beautifully written characterizations to not-quite sticking the landing.
(A couple small notes. One, it strikes me as odd that a story meant to be centering the princesses doesn't give any of them names. Additionally, the last poem implies that the fairies were bad/draining the women's life force - does that not technically absolve the king of some of the blame, if his actions did protect his daughters? Just a thought.)
*Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*
Blythe makes some interesting points, especially in the author's note at the end. However, the stories weren't quite poems - they were more similar to a couple of paragraphs per princess. The writing, though beautiful, was a bit strange. A smidgen too short to feel complete but too long to be what one usually thinks of as a poem.
There is some beautiful writing and some interesting characterization:
"When she was young, she ate apples whole, swallowing the core and bitter seeds along with the white flesh. Her sisters joked that a tree would take root and grow inside her. Now, as her belly swelled, her sisters whispered behind her hands, not quite meeting her eyes."
Personally, I enjoyed the "The Eighth and Ninth Sisters," "The Tenth Sister," and the beginning of "The Fifth Sister" the most. I say the beginning of that one because it felt like Blythe lost steam near the end of most of the poems, going from concrete and beautifully written characterizations to not-quite sticking the landing.
(A couple small notes. One, it strikes me as odd that a story meant to be centering the princesses doesn't give any of them names. Additionally, the last poem implies that the fairies were bad/draining the women's life force - does that not technically absolve the king of some of the blame, if his actions did protect his daughters? Just a thought.)
*Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.*