Review: Princess Academy: Palace of Stone

Wow, that's a bunch of colons in the title. Oops?

Change is returning to Mount Eskel in the second book of this trilogy as the girls of the princess academy pack their bags and head to Asland for Britta's upcoming wedding to Steffan. Going along with them is Peder, who's to be apprenticed to a stonecarver in the city in the hopes that he'll be able to bring those talents back to the mountain when his year is up.

Peder's not the only one with plans, though: Miri's going to attend the Queen's Castle university, thanks to some strings Britta pulled. She's hoping she'll be able to learn everything there is to know in just one year, but once she arrives, she realizes that there's more knowledge in the world than she could have ever imagined.

She gets to work, though, making friends with a merchant's son named Timon. Timon hangs out with a bunch of reformers who want to help the "shoeless" peasants of Danland by ending the monarchy. At first, Miri really enjoys the discussions she has with Timon and his friends - their points make sense, and she's afraid of what might happen to Mount Eskel if some of the king's harsher decrees get enacted. However, she's also fully loyal to Britta, and is slow to understand that the rebels don't just want her off the throne - they want Britta dead. The way they see it, she stole the opportunity to be the princess away from the "real" Eskelite girls.

As tensions rise and riots start, Miri has to figure out a way to support both the peasants and the princess. She uses the tools she knows best: lessons from the princess academy, manual labor, and quarryspeaking, which has its own equivalent in the royal family, eerily enough. (There's a reason only royals get to live inside the linder walled portion of the palace, apparently.) Will she be able to support Britta without abandoning the shoeless? And is Timon a better choice for her than Peder?

(Spoiler alert: no.)

I actually really enjoyed this book during this reread. I'd read it back when it came out, and I remember feeling a vague sense of disappointment for whatever reason. That feeling didn't come back to me this time around.

I think it helps that I'm a bit older: Miri's struggles in a new place feel very similar to going off to college in the real world, and it's easy to understand how hard it is for her to wrap her head around all these new viewpoints and opinions she's being exposed to. She also begins to question whether she feels more at home in Asland or on Mount Eskel, which is also relatable for any new college kid. Her final realization about which place is home is such a good realization for all of us.

I'm always gonna hate Timon, though. He's very cocky and doesn't seem to get that Miri's upbringing was not like his own, so of course she's not going to understand some of his opinions or decisions. He also can't seem to wrap his head around the fact that Miri and Britta are genuinely best friends, which spurs all the trouble in the last quarter or so of the novel. He really needs to realize that the way he sees the world isn't necessarily the right way to see the world.

Overall, Palace of Stone is a good read for anyone who's just gone off to college, even though they're not the "intended" audience. Miri's new challenges and experiences resonate well, and it's lovely to see all the Eskelite girls learn new skills they can bring back to the mountain when their year's up. Five stars.

Review: Princess Academy

Guys, I'll tell it to you straight: I want this to be required reading for like 5th or 6th graders everywhere. I just love it so much.

Miri Larendaughter feels useless. The only industry there is on Mount Eskel is quarrywork, but her father has never let her set foot in the mines, making her the only person (besides the very old and the very young) who doesn't help out with the linder. (Linder is fairly similar to marble, fyi.) The best she hopes to do is make good deals with the lowlander traders who come with food and supplies every season.

And then the bombshell drops: Mount Eskel has been divined as the home of the future princess of Danland, in accordance with the ancient tradition. Now every girl between twelve and seventeen will be forced to attend a year-long academy to teach them how to read, how to write, and how to behave, among other subjects.

None of the girls are pleased with this annoucement - how are their families supposed to mine enough linder to feed themselves if much of the workforce is gone? They comply with the decree begrudingly, though, and soon over a dozen girls are off to the old minister's house where the academy will be housed.

Their teacher is Tutor Olana, a snobby woman who's used to the finery of Asland, the capital city. She's very strict, too, and kind of a terrible teacher - she punishes a girl for speaking out of turn, and then again for not understanding the lesson she missed while in punishment. Miri studies hard, though, eventually learning more than just book lessons.

You see, the quarriers use what they call "quarry-speech" to communicate over the din of the mines. It's similar to mind-reading, and it's only ever worked in the quarry before - at least, until Miri unwittingly uses it one day in the academy. She figures out through much trial and error that it works via the linder itself, not the mines, and that the reason orphaned lowlander Britta couldn't hear it in the mines is because she doesn't have the lifelong proximity to the stone that the others do.

The tables turn on Olana once the girls put their newfound knowledge to use, and even the traders are forced to reckon with the girls when Miri realizes that linder is worth much more than the traders were giving them. Everything's going smoothly for once as the academy ball approaches, where the girls will meet the prince for the first time.

And then he leaves without choosing any of them to be his bride, leaving them stuck at the school until spring thaw.

Even worse? Bandits attack the girls a few days later, believing that one of them is the future princess and is just trying to keep it a secret. Will Miri be able to summon help from the village to save their lives? And who's the prince going to pick, anyway?

Like I said, I love this book, you guys. Miri is so relatable - she just wants to feel useful, maybe even important, and I think a lot of young teens (and maybe even twenty-somethings) can understand that. Also, everyone's sympathetic after a while. Olana's not an Umbridge-esque irredeemable villain, and Katar, one of the meaner girls, is shown to be dealing with problems of her own. I really love how Princess Academy humanizes everyone without treating the villains like special misunderstood snowflakes.

I'm also a huge fan of the writing style. The language is lyrical and reminiscent of old fairy tales without being hard to follow or overly purple. The chapters also open with snippets of lyrics from songs the characters know, which is a cute way of introducing what's going to happen, in my opinion. The one problem I have with more grown-up fantasy is that the language can get overly complex and fussy, so I love finding good children's books that tell mature stories with simpler language.

Another choice I love from this book is that - spoiler alert - Miri doesn't become the princess. The academy helps her figure out what she really does want from life, and it feels good - a nice blend of her pre-academy and post-academy lives. I appreciate that she didn't have to become royal to be happy.

Overall, Princess Academy is an amazing fairy tale. No monsters, sure, but there are plenty of "real world" problems that will keep you entertained throughout the book. Five stars.

(also, who do I need to call about making this a movie and getting cast as the lead? We are the same body type, you guys.)