by
Page Count: 306
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, New Adult
Heather's review
it was ok
bookshelves: 2018, abuse, beautiful-cover, cheating, dragons,fantasy, i-choose-me, kingdoms, retelling
Damsel is a fairytale “retelling” following the events after a prince rescues the “damsel” from a dragon.
Damsel is a very strange read. The writing is beautiful, and lyrical, and compels you to read more. A sense of dread fills the background of the story and convinced the reader to keep reading to find out what could possibly happen next.
All the same, it’s weird. The words “yard” and “tusk” are used an uncomfortable amount of times to describe a man’s genitalia. And although the book is supposed to be creepy, and unsettling, it was truly uncomfortable to read the rape/sexual assault scenes but not because of the obvious, but rather because they seemed so out of place.
Men are truly considered to be the villains in this story and the author makes no attempt at disguising this. There are several men in this story, but low-born and high-born and everywhere in between and all of them treat women cruelly, as if they were objects. Honestly, it didn’t feel realistic and would have probably added even more contrast if there had been just ONE man who wasn’t like the others.
Ama as the main character was a bore. She remembers nothing of her “old life” and goes through her new life with few emotions/personality/friends. She doesn’t care for beauty, she doesn’t try to make friends, and she doesn’t seem to want to do anything. In a way, she acts like the object all of the men treat her to be.
Overall, the writing is good, there’s a lot of good feminist points, but an overwhelming amount of moments that feel off and the main character is difficult to connect with.
Damsel is a very strange read. The writing is beautiful, and lyrical, and compels you to read more. A sense of dread fills the background of the story and convinced the reader to keep reading to find out what could possibly happen next.
All the same, it’s weird. The words “yard” and “tusk” are used an uncomfortable amount of times to describe a man’s genitalia. And although the book is supposed to be creepy, and unsettling, it was truly uncomfortable to read the rape/sexual assault scenes but not because of the obvious, but rather because they seemed so out of place.
Men are truly considered to be the villains in this story and the author makes no attempt at disguising this. There are several men in this story, but low-born and high-born and everywhere in between and all of them treat women cruelly, as if they were objects. Honestly, it didn’t feel realistic and would have probably added even more contrast if there had been just ONE man who wasn’t like the others.
Ama as the main character was a bore. She remembers nothing of her “old life” and goes through her new life with few emotions/personality/friends. She doesn’t care for beauty, she doesn’t try to make friends, and she doesn’t seem to want to do anything. In a way, she acts like the object all of the men treat her to be.
Overall, the writing is good, there’s a lot of good feminist points, but an overwhelming amount of moments that feel off and the main character is difficult to connect with.
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