Princess of the Midnight Ball: all the worn out shoes

​“As the crown princess, Rose is never without a dance partner. She and her eleven sisters are treated to beautiful gowns, slippers, and dances at party after party in their father’s palace. But their evenings do not end when the guests return home. Instead, Rose and her sisters must travel deep into the earth to the wicked King Under Stone’s palace. There, the girls are cursed to dance each night, even when they grow exhausted or ill.

Many princes have tried – and failed – to break the spell. But then Rose meets Galen, a young soldier-turned-gardener with an eye for adventure. Together they begin to unravel the mystery. To banish the curse, they’ll need an invisibility cloak, enchanted silver knitting needles, and, of course, true love”

- synopsis from the 2009 paperback edition

This is a review of Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. This book is based on the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Accuracy

• 12 princesses dancing their shoes to pieces – check

• Father offering reward for the mystery solved – check

• Soldier deciding to try his hand – check

• Magical, enchanted dancing place – check

• Soldier following with invisibility cloak – check

• Proving to the king what was happening – check

• Soldier marrying the eldest daughter – check

Originality

I will give this book some props, this is not an easy story to tackle. There are a lot of characters and not a lot of depth to the original story. That being said, this story is very similar to the original. There is not a lot of leaps taken to be radically different from the original. Though this story does fill in a lot of the gaps left by the original such as why they are dancing at a fabulous palace and why it is such an issue that the king would give away a daughter to have it fixed.

Creativity

I loved the knitting. This is very much a personal thing since I myself knit and love seeing it integrated into books. Nevertheless this was can be a sore spot for many people who see it as somewhat boring or too much detail. It was kind of icing on the cake that the patterns for some of the important elements in the story were also included.

The King Under Stone was also a nice addition. This added more depth and background to the story that is not in the original. Under Stone plays the villain as well as the reason for the dancing in the first place.

Overall

It is a little telling that this is a YA novel written by a primarily upper grades children’s author. The romance of the story was a little simple at times and not all the characters were particularly fleshed out. My enjoyment of the book may have come from all the knitting references rather than the story itself.

Other bloggers think “Princess of the Midnight Ball is an incredibly loyal retelling of the original fairy tale, deviating only to enhance characters and create a compelling backstory… It’s an enchanting, if straightforward, tale about good and love triumphing over evil, curses bought and broken, and happy ever-afters.” The people’s voice at Goodreads agrees that more character development would have made the book better. They do recognize that this is a tall order, especially considering there are 12 princesses and 12 princes as well as other characters.

Princess of the Midnight Ball is a light-hearted story well suited for a younger audience. I would give this retelling a 3/5 stars.

#Review #TwelveDancingPrincesses #Fantasy #BrothersGrimm