2024-02-03
This fantasy/romance story set in the world of the animated Disney film Brave reconciles Merida to her mother and her (slightly changed) future.
Nineteen-year-old Merida believes that she’s “her father’s fierce lass, not her mother’s proper princess.” She wants to be free—to change traditions and escape her fate as a bride in a marriage of political expedience. After a heated clash with her mother, Queen Elinor, Merida comes across a witch, who gives her a magical cake that guarantees “a great transformation.” After eating it, Merida wakes up in the past, where she discovers that when she was Merida’s age, Elinor had similar fears and aspirations. The chapters switch between following the young Elinor and the time-traveling Merida. The narrative feels somewhat bloated, but the pace is generally swift enough, propelled by Merida’s need to help her young mother escape her betrothal and maneuver her future parents into love so that she can return to the present. A subplot follows another consequence of Merida’s consumption of the witch’s spell, one involving a Viking threat. Meanwhile, the spell is inexorably physically transforming Merida, while moments of reflection show that she’s changing emotionally. The medieval Scottish setting is not richly developed, but some vocabulary adds to the atmosphere. Readers see Elinor develop royal responsibility but never learn why her own past hasn’t helped her understand her daughter. The story refers glancingly to the film, but the novel can stand alone.
An entertaining and undemanding entry in a popular series. (Fantasy. 12-15)
