Book Club: The Two Princesses of Bamarre

Princess Meryl is bold and fearless, and Princess Adelina (Addie) is timid and cowardly. All their lives, Meryl has been the adventurer and protector and Addie has been content to support and admire her sister from her shadow. When the Gray Death, a fatal illness plaguing the kingdom of Bamarre, comes for Meryl, Addie needs to step up to the plate and seek the cure.

As a kid I read three books by author, Gail Carson Levine. I read Cinderellis and the Glass Hill. I don't remember a word of it, and I didn't enjoy it. I read Ella Enchanted. I also don't remember a word of it, but I did like it. And then I read The Two Princesses of Bamarre, which imprinted itself so deeply in my brain that I still think about it. I'm not a person who re-reads books, so they generally get one opportunity to give me all they've got. Today I listened to the audiobook, making this the second time I've read it overall. There was actually very little I'd forgotten.

These characters aren't one-dimensional Barbie princesses. They have more depth than I had come to expect from children's fantasy books at that age. When Meryl first becomes ill, she takes some time to panic, to doubt herself, to feel guilt and to cry before she's able to put her brave-face back on. While Addie is a self-proclaimed coward, she's also a problem-solver from the beginning. That's something I can really identify with. Even when I'm scared, part of me insists on fixing the problem. The sooner it's solved, the sooner I can relax.

Levine manages to include a lot of world-building without huge chunks of exposition. It makes the world feel so real. The culture of Bamarre is rich with art, poetry and storytelling. Addie embroiders scenes from mythical and historical battles. Meryl declaims verses from the epic poem of the hero, Drualt. There are elves and dwarfs, spectres and sorcerers, but we don't need to take a detour to learn all about them. Those characters tell us all we need to know just by being themselves.

And there are dragons.

Vollys (mid-book spoilers)

Around the midpoint of the story, Addie learns that her best bet to find the cure for the Gray Death is to ask a dragon. She finds herself captive in the lair of Vollys. I'm almost lost for words to describe how deeply this part of the story shaped the way I think about storytelling. Vollys is both expected and unexpected. She is moody, but she is hospitable. She is fierce, but lonely. She captures humans for company and asks only that they entertain her.

Vollys sleeps in the entrance of the cave for a few days giving Addie time to acclimate herself to the lair, choose new clothes, and decide how she's going to entertain the dragon. Addie supposes she could embroider a likeness of Vollys and sketches it in the dirt floor. But is that really enough to entertain a dragon?

Actually, yes. When showing the sketch to Vollys, Addie worries she's depicted the dragon in a way she would dislike, graceful. She should have made her intimidating and powerful. But the likeness disarms Vollys for a moment. "You portray me sweetly, with a friend's eye." It was perfect. Addie's skill with her fiber arts would be enough.

That idea resonated with me then, and it does now. Addie is very "normal". She's a fraidy-cat, she reads and dreams, she crafts, she worries. She may be a princess, but as a person she's just like me. And she's enough.

Quest's End (ending spoilers)

Addie learns of the cure. Meryl must drink from a waterfall which flows down from the home of the faeries. (Faeries haven't been seen in centuries, and the mountain can't be seen by mortals.) The water can't be brought to the castle without losing its power, and so on Meryl's final evening alive, they must bring her to the waterfall. And of course there's a horde of monsters in their path. They have to fight their way through and Meryl must make it to the fall before dawn.

I was used to books with happy endings where everything works out. I knew that stories sometimes take a turn, and what the hero "needs" turns out to be different than what they "want". (Also, I'm really, really sensitive, emotionally.) So the moment where it became clear that Meryl wouldn't make it, I was already devastated.

"To my dying day I'll wish I hadn't screamed." Addie is badly wounded and screams, and Meryl stops and turns around. And then it's too late.

The story isn't over yet. The actions of Addie and the villagers that joined her for the battle fulfilled the prophecy. There was a healing rain all across Bamarre and the Gray Death was vanquished. All were cured - except those who were moments from death.

Addie wakes up in the kingdom of the faeries, and Meryl is there. Is it Meryl? It's someone who contains Meryl. The faeries were able to revive her long enough to offer her a new life. She could be transformed into a faerie, live forever, and go on adventures to vanquish foes on a scale so grand as to be beyond mortal comprehension. That was an offer that Meryl the Adventurous could never pass up.

But it's so strange! This person's demeanor is so different. Once in a while the old Meryl peeks through, but she's on another level now. She tries to explain it to Addie. Meryl still has her memories, and "the love stays". But it's a lot to take in. Meryl isn't dead, but she's no longer human. She isn't gone, but she can't come home to stay. It's a somewhat bitter pill for Addie to swallow, saying, "loving her had changed me, made me brave. Loving her was the best part of me."

Listening to the story again, I was surprised that there were so many chapters left after the climactic battle. In my memory, Meryl tells Addie about the faeries, Addie gets married to her love-interest, and that's the end, they'll never see each other again. Apparently, I was just crying too hard, sprawled out on my parents' bed, to read the ending properly. There's a little more room to hint at the adventures that await Meryl. There's something more out there. She's not just fading into oblivion, she has work to do.

And the sisters will see each other again. Meryl promises to visit, and to be faerie godmother to Addie's children, the first faerie godparent in centuries. "Your children will know me well." It's actually a lot like the ending to Frozen 2, which I absolutely love. Their worlds are different, but they intersect. I can handle that.

I can wrap my mind around a bittersweet ending now. Life will be different, but it's not over. Addie will be the leader her people need and Meryl has a whole new life to live. And, thankfully, it wasn't goodbye after all.