The Restless Girls by Jessie Burton

The Restless Girls by Jessie Burton ISBN-13: 9781547600724 Hardcover: 160 pages Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books Released: March 5, 2019

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
For the twelve daughters of King Alberto, Queen Laurelia's death is a disaster beyond losing a mother. The king decides his daughters must be kept safe at all costs, and for the girls, those costs include their lessons, their possessions, and most importantly, their freedom.

But the sisters, especially the eldest, Princess Frida, will not bend to this fate. She still has one possession her father cannot take: the power of her imagination. And so, with little but wits and ingenuity to rely on, Frida and her sisters begin their fight to be allowed to live on their own terms.

The Restless Girls is a fairy tale that doesn't need a prince to save the day, and instead is full of brave, resourceful, clever young women.


My Review:
The Restless Girls is juvenile fiction, a feminist retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses tale. When the queen dies in an automobile accident, the king locks his daughters up and treats them like prisoners to protect them. The princesses discover a secret door that leads below the palace to a dance floor populated with animals, and they go there to survive the dullness of life. When the king discovers that they wear down their slippers every night, he demands an explanation from the eldest daughter, who refuses to tell him and is banished. The remaining princesses use their wits to prevent their secret from being discovered.

The story seems to be set in a 1920s America type of setting, with jazz, automobiles, and planes. It's not difficult to figure out what's going to happen if you know the fairytale and notice that it's the talented princesses that are the focus of this tale. I didn't find story or the drawings particularly remarkable, though it was an enjoyable story. There was no sex or bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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