Damsel

Listened to 50 minutes of this. Utterly boring. There's 49-50 chapters for something that's only 9 hours. Story makes no sense. Too much repetition. The whole climbing and reaching the dragon's lair part was so boring.

There’s a dragon in the land, and the prince needs to vanquish it in order to free the fair maiden. They triumphantly return, marry, and live happily ever after.

I’ve never really questioned the scenario or really thought about it. With “Damsel” by Elana K. Arnold, this changed: The dragon’s lair is actually beautiful. Our damsel, Ama, isn’t all that much in distress - at least until the arrogant, self-serving prick of a prince, Emory, picks her up.

As the story proceeded, I grew increasingly uncomfortable about how Ama is treated not only by the prince, but by everyone around her. All of her needs and wishes are dismissed at best, punished at worst. Ama is treated like a vessel; she has no “value” as a person but as a means to an end. (If you’re living in the US right now, Emory, under another name, is your king.)

Ama is literally and metaphorically hurt by this, but never broken. In a furious, angry finale, she transcends the confines of what was supposed to become her existence, and raison d’être.

Staying in the realm of fairy tales, let me utter three wishes (even though I lack the genie to make them come true):

• I wish for a world where no one needs to be an Ama; for everyone to be seen, heard, and respected for who they truly are. 🏳️‍🌈
• I wish for the Emorys among us to realise that genuine partnership, founded on equality, is worth infinitely more than dominance or rulership.
• I wish for each of us to have the courage to question the stories we've inherited, to claim authorship of our own narratives; to recognise and break the chains of harmful traditions, so that future generations may write new, brighter stories.

By literary merit alone, “Damsel” might not have earned a five-star rating. Combined with its message, though, this is an easy one:

Five stars out of five.

Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam

3.5 stars

When the king dies, his son must “slay” a dragon and save the damsel. Then he becomes king and marries the damsel. That's the tradition anyway.

This book is disturbing. The story itself was ok, but the many references to the prince's “yard” were crazy. I actually laughed at those parts although I don't think that was the intention. The women are just property or “vessels “. Like I said, disturbing. That stuff aside, it was ok.

Hey this book is good! It makes me want to write papers about how good it is...

The blurb does not lie. This is truly a dark, twisted, unforgettable fairy tale, and I love it in all its nasty glory. There will definitely be people who find this sickening, because the nastiness is what makes this book beautiful. There is no romance here. If anything, this is more like the unraveling of a potential romance.

The story starts with our prince in the middle of a quest to slay a dragon and rescue a damsel, who later on wakes up in the arms of the prince with no memories. As he brings her back to his kingdom to become his queen, however, she quickly realizes that it's... not the happily ever after kind of life she's heading into. The kingdom has questionable views of women, the men are nasty with fragile masculinity, and the prince himself quickly turns into a sexual predator.

Through the entire book, Prince Emory constantly belittles and talks down to Ama. He judges her openly, jumps on every chance he gets to molest her, humiliates her in front of everyone in the castle, threatens to kill her pet lynx, and later on even hits her when she refuses to play by his rules. Plus, we later find out that Ama is the dragon, whom Emory turned into a human by raping her via a sword cut. You read that right. He raped the dragon by proudly inserting his pee-pee into a wound. He also demands her to thank him for this, because he "made her beautiful".

I picked up this book knowing exactly what I was going to get, and it feels weirdly satisfying to see Emory acting like a completely irredeemable asshole that I was expecting him to be, even more so whenever Ama questions his behavior despite the acceptance he drilled onto her. I read this to the end expecting Emory to get punched in the face for all the nasty things he's done, and in that aspect the book does not disappoint at all. In fact, the ending is SO satisfying.

Read this if you want to see trash men getting what they deserve.

I got about 1/3rd into this and insisted that my coworker tell me if the cat dies!!!!!!

the cat does not die but whew there are some perilous situations

anyway WHEW this is a gripping read. Difficult, emotionally speaking (and not only for cat-related reasons), but gripping. A lot of content warnings here, but in the right hands/setting could be great for a class on fairy tales/gender/etc.

but also like yo at the end of the day, the king fucked that dragon's armpit wound though like wow though

This book really dragged for me, unfortunately. I was so psyched to start it because I heard it is a dark retelling – which is totally is– but wow, just so slow paced. This book definitely shows a darker side to fairy tales and what happens after the damsel is rescued. I just wanted her to escape and leave all the horror behind her.

The best part of this book was the ending –not because it ended, but like what happens and honestly, I could have had that part be the middle of the book and the ending be where she... well, without spoiling I'd love to read about her continuing to be awesome. But that isn't what the book is about. This book is about the cycle of abuse and all the factors that go into it. It is not subtle, it is hard to read at times, and so heavy.

Trigger Warning for... well... so much: Physical and mental abuse, animal cruelty, sexual assault, self-harm, and probably a few other things I'm completely forgetting.

Before I even get into this review.

CONTENT WARNING. DOMESTIC ABUSE. SEXUAL ASSAULT. ANIMAL ABUSE. GASLIGHTING. 

For all that, though, I loved this book. The protagonist suffers through all of that and perseveres. But it's important to expect those things going into this book, because the central plot of the book is our protagonist being severely gaslit, with the rest of the abuse being in support of that. I agree with other Goodreads reviewers that it's surprising it's being marketed as a Young Adult book because these themes are VERY adult.

So. With those caveats, this book was outstanding. The book opens on Prince Emory riding his horse towards the castle of the dragon, intending to slay it and rescue his future wife, as his tradition in his kingdom. Emory seems to be your typical prince, accomplished, at ease with his sword, his horse, and himself, yet there is the occasional part of his inner narration that comes off...oddly. He enters the dragon's castle, defeats the dragon, and leaves with his prize, a damsel who can remember nothing about herself or her past. A blank slate. Perfect for a queen-to-be.

But as Ama, so named by Emory, learns more about her new kingdom and future husband, and what her place will be, she realizes this is not what she wants. The more Emory tries to convince her that it IS what she wants, the more we get into the abuse factor of the book.

It's very well done. It's a dark fairy tale, it's a consistent metaphor for - well, humanity's treatment of women, really. Sit down, shut up, look pretty, and birth the next generation. You are important because only you can do that, but don't let it give you uppity ideas. All that kind of patronizing misogyny.

I really loved this book, but it's definitely not going to be everyone's cup of tea, and the triggers might be too much for some of the people who WOULD otherwise like it. So know that going in.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

My first DNF book.
Men are bad, men are bad.
Yes, we know we are bad, that's why we started to shave our testi**es with Gillette!