A World Without Princes by Soman Chainani (Illustrated by Iacopo Bruno)
Publication date: April 15, 2014
My rating: 3 stars
Spoilers are marked in purple.
More enjoyable than the first book!
I would probably have even rated it higher if there weren't a few things that
frustrated me.
For one thing, it was interesting how Agatha and Sophie's rules were reversed
in this one.
Now it was Agatha who wanted "more" (a prince, a happy ending) and
Sophie who wanted same old same old (living together with her best friend in
their village).
Sophie even commented on that at the beginning of the book.
I loved Agatha and the witches. I was happy to see that friendship of theirs,
it was both fun and heartwarming, especially when they kept on hanging out
(well yeah, to plot, but still) and saving Agatha, I loved that. I always
thought the friendship was going to be between Sophie and the witches but in an
interesting twist it was the princess and the witches that bonded and it was
lovely.
Agatha giving that long speech to Tedros about why she had to choose Sophie at
the end of the first book and about her life in Gavaldon (did I spell that
right?), I was clapping thinking FINALLY some honest communication right there,
I loved that part!
Despite wanting to slap the characters so many times, I still understood where
everybody was coming from. It’s probably one of the first times I wasn’t
enraged over misunderstandings/sabotaging with relationships because those kids are truly
just traumatized teens trying to survive/be happy.
I mean Agatha was going back and forth between her friend and her prince
because she, naturally, wanted both.
But Sophie wouldn’t let her because: 1) Sophie only has Agatha on her side, and
Sophie is traumatized by people leaving her and she refuses to let Agatha leave
her too and 2) Agatha is the only thing keeping Sophie’s witch as bay (though
it’s a double edged sword and Agatha could also be the thing to drive the witch
mad).
And of course, poor Tedros who keeps making mistakes because he’s been hurt so
much by the women in his past – his mother, and of course Sophie who kept
manipulating him in the first book, so it’s natural to imagine he would be so
paranoid and confused.
And can someone please hug Hort? That poor boy. I would hug him and be his
friend, he’s precious and lonely and just wants to be loved. I really want him
to be happy, but everyone keeps ignoring the boy!
On that note, Tristan. He actually quite reminded me of Hort, just trying to
belong, but... :( (Like I said, those poor kids).
One of the things that I really didn’t like in this book though was Sophie’s
and Tedros getting intimately closer when Sophie was in disguise. Why? UM,
AGATHA! I mean yeah yeah I understand that Tedros was the first boy Sophie
truly tried to love and Tedros was in a vulnerable place thinking Agatha
betrayed him and such BUT STILL, it kind of makes him seem fickle-minded
reacting to Sophie/Filip that way, I mean we didn’t see Agatha reacting to any
boys – or girls – this way in this book, have we? SHE’S YOUR TRUE LOVE DUDE, I
know you “hated” her then, but whew isn’t it too fast to start “flirting” with
others? To be honest I’m not surprised by Sophie reacting to him considering
their history but it did hurt my Tagatha feelings when Tedros also reacted to
her. And poor boy when he was fooled again and asked "why is everything a
lie" I felt for him.
The author should really REALLY work on realistically portraying characters'
motives over time though. I mean characters in this series go WAY WAY WAY WAY
too quickly from loving someone to hating them back to loving them again, to
wanting to save them, to murder them, to kissing them, to despising them, to…
like whew, it’s crazy and makes characters' relationships way too fickle and
untrustworthy.
As long as you don’t take the relationships too seriously, and try to ignore
how some of them only just met each other but declare their love, then their
hate, then their love again, it’s super easy to root for/ship for the
relationships. It’s like a guilty pleasure, you know it’s ridiculous but for
some reason you’re addicted and can’t stop reading! That’s me with these books.
Magnetised - Tom Odell
“No one likes boys! Even girls who like boys can’t stand
boys! They smell, they talk too much, they mess up everything, and they always
have their hands in their pants, but that doesn’t mean we can go to school
without them! It’s like stymphs without bones! It’s like witches without warts!
Without boys, LIFE HAS NO POINT!”