After Ella Enchanted captured my imagination so many years ago, not surprisingly, I was ready for other Gail Carson Levine stories to come my way. I read a few other stories of hers since then, but I haven’t remembered any with such fondness as The Two Princesses of Bamarre. In part, I am fond of this book because a fellow bookworm friend of mine gifted it to me for Christmas many years ago, and also because it’s another charming fairy tale from one of children’s literature’s best voices.
Princesses Meryl and Addie live in the kingdom of Bamarre, which is plagued by a mysterious disease called the Gray Death. No one who contracts the illness survives, and many castle staff members have died from it. And yet, neither Meryl nor Addie expects to ever get it, because brave Meryl expects to battle it, while Addie is so skittish that the disease will never find her. That all changes when Meryl becomes sick with the Gray Death, and Addie becomes the last person willing to set out to find the cure. But how can the world’s most skittish princess hope to find the thing that braver people have searched centuries for…?
This book has a lot to measure up to, given Levine’s extensive body of work. It’s a really standard story with standard characters and a standard adventure, so more people may probably prefer the uniqueness and cheekiness of Ella Enchanted over this. But the mere fact that I came back to this book a second time says a lot about its staying power in my mind.
If Gail Carson Levine is good at one thing, it’s writing clever and likable characters. Addie, while the meeker princess, is the star of the show, and she has to be compelling while still being skittish.
Her relationship with Meryl must also shine, and Levine effectively conveys the depth of their relationship before Meryl ever becomes sick. So, when Addie has a chance to observe Meryl’s worsening condition across her adventure, we can feel Addie’s frustration and fear at how time grows short.
Of course, this being a Gail Carson Levine book, you don’t expect there to be a sad ending, but the suspense is still gripping throughout.
I like Meryl and Addie, but I really like Addie’s scenes with the castle sorcerer, Rhys. It’s clear from their first moment together that Addie’s got a crush, and it is adorable the way she talks about and interacts with him. He even plays a big part in helping Addie on her adventure. But his way of bowing and gesturing dramatically when he talks is so stinking cute, and I can completely understand Addie’s crush. It’s not a particularly deep or complex love story, but I like it anyway, because I’m all about wholesome romances built on time spent together and not love at first sight.
Addie spends a huge chunk of the story trapped in the cave of Vollys the dragon, and I couldn’t help but think of Smaug from The Hobbit. Addie and Vollys have a similar vibe to Bilbo and Vollys, how Addie must tread carefully if she’s going to leave the cave alive, all while Vollys taunts and teases her about how one day she’ll grow bored with Addie and eat her. Volleys is nowhere near as smug or haughty as Smaug, but the image of a skittish person playing a mental game with a dangerous dragon will forever ring of Tolkien to me.
There is a clever thread throughout the story of Meryl and Addie referring to a famous epic poem. The poem tells the tale of a man named Drualt who battled his way throughout the land, saving innocent people and defeating monsters. This poem gets turned around on Addie when she is in Vollys’s cave, and her worldview gets challenged, showing how even the so-called monsters have poetry too, and how that form of language binds the whole land together. The book even ends with some verses from a poem written about Meryl and Addie’s adventures.
Speaking of the ending, I completely forgot how it went, and frankly, it surprised me. The emotional catharsis is probably not as big as it should, but it’s still a good conclusion for Meryl and Addie.
In all, The Two Princesses of Bamarre is a good addition to the Gail Carson Levine library, especially if you’re looking for a quick burst of lighthearted fantasy. I can’t say it tops Ella Enchanted, but I do enjoy the romance and the adventure is fun.
The Library Key 