Book Review
Title: Damsel
Author: Elana K. Arnold
Genre: YA/Fantasy
Rating: *****
Review: I didn’t know anything about Damsel going into it, but the synopsis was interesting enough for me to pick it up. We are introduced to Prince Emory of Harding who is on a mission to slay a dragon in the grey lands although we don’t know why just yet, however, I don’t really like him as we learn he is a typical Prince, spoiled and pampered but he also likes to have his way with the female servants who serve his family. It seems that this is a test for the right to rule the Kingdom of Harding, when the King dies his son must go into the grey lands, slay the dragon and rescue the damsel that will become his bride and this has been the law of the lands for centuries but Emory is unprepared as his father died before he reached his 20th birthday when his father and grandfather before him were almost 30 before facing their dragons. As he faces the beast, Emory learns that some of the stories he heard as a child and a young man about dragons are true, their eyesight is poor and he wonders if one of his conquests, Maddie, was right about the dragon’s weak spot being beneath it’s arm. However, this memory is important for learning who Emory is as at the time he didn’t listen to Maddie’s words as he was preoccupied with “relieving her of her virginity”.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Emory defeats the dragon and rescues the damsel although we don’t see how. Upon waking the girl has no memory of anything before that moment, not her name or what she looks like and she relies on Emory for that and he names her Ama. Ama and Emory are travelling back to Harding when they make camp for the night but that night Ama has a dream where she swallows the sun and she finally finds the warmth she is craving but in reality she is burning with fever and Emory has the submerge them both in a river to cool her down. While Ama has no reason to distrust Emory, I do as I believe that the damsels are actually the dragons transformed which would explain, Ama’s reasoning for wanting to stay warm and Emory’s mother’s habit of sitting extremely close to her fire not matter what the weather outside is like. Ama knows nothing of the world before she woke but she quickly learns the meaning of death and sorrow as she watches Emory kill a lynx and despite his protests she takes the kit at her companion naming her Sorrow and we can see in Ama’s curious mind that she isn’t easily going to conform when she learns the way of the world or so I hope.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Ama and Emory have finally returned to Harding and she is beginning to realise that this isn’t somewhere she wants to be but has nowhere else to go. That night she is presented before the Queen Mother who approves of Ama and her slightly cheeky behaviour and Ama seems content to make the best of this situation since she is told that she has no family apart from Emory and his mother and in seven weeks’ time when they are married, their people too. That night Ama cries herself to sleep with Sorrow in her arms although she doesn’t know why until she is awoken by Emory coming into her room and without her permission, he sexually assaults her in her bed knowing fully that Ama has no idea what is going on but she does know the castle and everything in it including herself is Emory’s property. However, Sorrow comes to the rescue, hissing and growling at Emory, poised to strike until he removes himself but he gives Ama the warning that by the time they are married Sorrow will be gone, and the threat of what he would do to the lynx kit is left hanging in the air.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, preparations are made for Emory’s coronation that very day but Ama spends the time learning about the history of the damsels from her servant, Tillie, and her aunt, Allys. Allys tells Ama that the damsels don’t remember anything, they are nothing but there have been damsels in the last that remember. Allys says that Ama is the 3rd she has seen come to the castle, but of the two that came before her one remembered, and one didn’t, the one that remembered living a life of heartbreak while the one that didn’t want happy. However, Ama is curious and wants to know more so she asks about Allys’ missing eye. There is a law in Harding, where if a glass eye is taken from the wall, the thief loses one of their eyes as Allys did. Ama wants to know what made her so desperate that she would even consider suffering that fate and Allys tells her she was the victim of man’s unwanted attention and he was violent with her (I see this as he raped her) and she wanted to be safe from him. However, her wish was granted as after her eye was taken the man wanted nothing more to do with her and I believe this man was the former King, Emory’s father who he takes after as seen in his treatment of Ama and the other servant girls. Allys leaves Ama with the advice to be a cat instead of a rabbit, to be fierce instead of shy. As she tries to fit into her new role Ama keeps making mistakes that has some unexpected consequences. One day walking the gardens with Sorrow she comes across Pawlin who threatens to set his hawk upon Sorrow and Ama turns to Emory for help who leads her back to her room on Sorrow leash. This is a cruel and callous side to Emory that has only been hinted at before and in the wake of this even, Ama realises that she doesn’t want to be alone and she especially doesn’t want to be alone with Emory.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, the next morning she is planning to meet with the Queen Mother as per her request but the night before she talks with Tillie who lets it slip that Emory often visits Fabiana and that she enjoys these visits. As Ama doesn’t understand the so called pleasure a woman can have from such visits as she felt nothing when Emory touched her other than being outside of her body so she goes and talks to the girl who tells her even if she feels no pleasure she must act like she does as that would invite the King’s wrath which is something she doesn’t want to feel. Not long after she is summoned to the Queen Mother’s room where they discuss Ama’s role which is limited to warming her son’s bed and bearing the next King which Ama is disgusted at as she feels they are more than the men that control them but she doesn’t say much. That is until the Queen Mother offers her a cat as her son is already disposing of Sorrow, Ama rushes after him but has no way to get around the castle but she stumbles upon Pawlin who tells her the King was heading for the village and Ama gives chase and I hope she smacks him for his behaviour and to prove she won’t be a meek little thing to be controlled by him or even if she does I hope she gives him a daughter not a son. She chases after Emory but he could be anywhere, in her desperation she takes an eye from the wall of Harding and wishes for Sorrow’s safe return when she is set upon by two men but much to her delight and relief Sorrow comes to her rescue followed by Emory and Pawlin, where she is taken back to the castle to a now uncertain fate especially if the theft of the eye is uncovered.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Ama’s theft hasn’t been uncovered but she has kept the eye even though she knows it is dangerous. As the winter draws in Ama can feel her memories of her life before getting closer to the point where she can almost get to them, but the Queen Mother orders her to be kept warm, to be kept away from them. However, she begins getting colder like a lizard and nothing seems to warm her until Tillie takes her down to glassblower’s workshop deep in the bowels of the castle and there warmth returns to her. But within the workshop Ama begins learning the art of glassblowing and her pieces are formed from the memories of her life before that aren’t quite clear yet but she gets better. As she gets well, Emory begins making more advances towards her as their wedding draws closer but Ama isn’t concerned with him, she is only concerned with making herself whole again. One day she burns herself on a piece of molten glass and the glass residue burned on her palm looks like scales as something sparks in her, the idea for a new design and it seems like she is so close to recovering the memories of her life before as she also starts saying she was kidnapped rather than rescued.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, everything builds to its ending as Ama has to free Sorrow in order to save her although she renames her Fury as she flees into the night and she also learns that Emory knew she stole the eye and did nothing about it because she was to be his Queen. In the three days before the wedding they aren’t going to see each other, and he gives her permission to return to the glassblower’s workshop but first she has one final meeting with the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother explains to Ama that when a new Queen is crowned, the old one dies and because of that she will never know the true power she could hold as a woman on the throne, but she bids Ama to remember. For the next three days and night Ama works without rest in the glassblower’s workshop crafting a dragon of glass when Emory comes for her as they are to be wed. In that small, hot space she learns the truth of what she was, she was the dragon and Emory using his power as a man turned her into a damsel and chained her within his castle, but she refuses to be caged. As they clash, Ama kills Emory and frees herself from her human form heading back to the home she was torn from leaving on the Queen Mother to rule Harding and changing the way Harding is going to be ruled for all time. Overall, Damsel was much more than I was expecting, the way Arnold looks at the position, power and abuse of women was wonderful and even though I caught the twist that Ama was the dragon early on it was still a delight to read. Highly recommended.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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