Review Fridays
Palace of Mirrors

Summary

Cecelia has grown up believing that she is the true princess, but when she journeys to the capitol to finally take her rightful place, the story she grew up with begins to unravel.

Overview (No Spoilers)

At first glance, despite the fact that I really enjoyed Haddix's other book, Just Ella, to which this book is loosely a sequel, I didn't like the summary of the plot. But I decided to give it a try and strangely found myself rooting for Cecelia even as I was rooting against her being the true princess. It was an interesting conflict of interests. What Cecelia truly wanted, and at points, what seemed truly needed, would be too facile to enjoy. At the same time, her character proves to rise above what I initially expected. All in all, it was a great feel good story.

Book Club (Spoilers)

At first I wasn't sure how this book related to Just Ella at all and began to suspect that it might have simply been a marketing ploy to mention it. But when Ella finally cropped up she was fun, yet slightly extraneous. It made me wonder if Haddix had been contracted to write a sequel and this was her way of mostly writing a completely different story.

I think the ending was possibly the best that such a plot could have. As I said, I did not want Cecelia to be the actual princess, but I really enjoyed how the actual ending explored the idea of identity and destiny. How sometimes it's enough to believe you're on the right path and that becomes your path. Cecelia grew up believing that she was the princess and being trained to be the princess, but she ends up choosing to be the princess and working hard with the other girls to set her country to rights. I liked how the princesses weren't princesses by blood in the end, but much better in that they have all been taught to be the true princess.