Book Review: Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir

Title: Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Foot Tower

Author: Tamsyn Muir

Genre: Fantasy Novella

Number of Pages: 145

Rating: B

Recommended?: Yes

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Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower was a rather strange and dark take on the classic fairy tale formula. Princess Floralinda is a cookie-cutter sweet naïve princess when a witch sticks her in a tower with a creature on every floor. All the eligible princes get crunched up by the dragon, and with the reluctant help of an acerbic fairy Floralinda decides to fight her way down to the bottom floor.

I really wasn’t expecting a lot of the twists and turns in this book. It slowly gets darker and darker as Floralinda becomes more acclimated to violence. I liked the narration, which occasionally reminded me of Lemony Snicket in it’s deadpan self-awareness. I wasn’t sure how I felt about the scenes with the monsters themselves- some of them went into great detail and some of them were barely skimmed over.

The ending was crazy but I liked it! I don’t know if it was the best way to end the story but I totally did not see it coming. Despite the darker implications of the story I think this would be a good read for teenagers and maybe even some pre-teens who are in the mood for an unusual story.