The Princess and the Page by Christina Farley

The medieval character (technically French, but the book is in English so….) runs about spouting gems like this: “Thou art most certainly not what I was expecting, but that is nary a worry…Come hither!” Worse, Farley is not consistent with the grammar. Farley lays it on thick, and the result is cringe-worthy. However, I continued powering through, only to discover that the book also contains one of my other least favorite things: ridiculous sounding pseudo Middle English. It’s also one thing that an editor cannot really fix for you, short of hiring a ghostwriter to redo all your sentences. I’ve talked about before how I think that many modern authors simply do not have great prose (Sorry!), but there’s neutral prose and prose that’s grating Farley’s leans toward being the latter, and this is one thing I really cannot stand in books.

I thought the prose jarringly clunky and unsophisticated in general, and I considered DNFing because of it. Who wouldn’t want the stories they put on the page to take on a life of their own? Unfortunately, The Princess and the Page did not capture my attention the way I thought it would, and I closed the covers with some disappointment. Magical pens and stories springing to life sound like the perfect middle grade fantasy, so I was excited to read this one. So when Keira stumbles across a beautiful pen hidden in her parents’ bedroom, she takes it and begins to write a fairy tale, But she has no idea what her words will unleash or the danger she will find herself in. All she knows is that her mom hates stories only lists, facts, and the “the truth” are allowed in their home. Keira has no idea that her family are Word Weavers, who can make stories real by using a magical pen.

The Princess and the Page by Christina Farley