The Princess and the Hound

This one, by Mette Ivie Harrison, is a perfect transition book. I needed something to go between Omnivore’s Dilemma and whatever I’m going to read next, a kind of cleanse-my-palate thing (you can tell I was just reading a food book). Thankfully, I had picked this up on a whim a few weeks ago at the library, in one of my hey-I-heard-this-was-good moments.

And I’m so very glad I did.

It was a compelling fantasy, an intriguing fairy tale. I love the world that Harrison created, where there’s “animal magic”: the ability to talk to animals in their own language. Unfortunately, that ability is regarded as evil, and so the people who have it are persecuted. Which is a bit of a problem for our hero, Prince George. (Hey! A hero named George! Hubby would be happy; he wanted to name our son George. But we never had a son…) He has the animal magic, as did his mother (who died because of it). He’s grown up hiding it and suppressing it. He eventually becomes engaged to Princess Beatrice, the only (mostly unwanted) child of a rival kingdom, whose sole companion is a wild hound.

To do much more summing up would give away plot points that are much better left as surprises. And this book is full of them; just when I figured it was getting predictable, and I knew what was going to happen next, Harrison threw me for a loop. There were twists in the plot, growth in all the characters (even the bad guys!), happy (mostly) endings for all. It’s also interesting because it’s from George’s point of view. It’s not very often you get a straight up romance from the male point of view. But perhaps that’s partly the the reason I have a quibble is with the love story. It’s good — I like that they weren’t swooning over each other or pining away (I hate that) and that they had some mutual respect. But, I felt like they were missing something elemental, some sort of chemistry that wasn’t there. But, as I said, that’s quibbling.

It’s a very good book. And I’m glad I transitioned with it.

12 thoughts on “The Princess and the Hound”

  3. Yeah, and Mr. Knightly’s first name is George. That, and the Room with a View (and George Washington) were Hubby’s justifications for naming a son George. I guess I was just excited that there was a contemporary author out there naming a male character George. You don’t hear that much anymore.

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  4. I enjoyed the book too, but at the end I was left with the feeling that there were plot holes in the magic aspect that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. In the vein of “Well, if he could do <>this<> with the animal magic than why couldn’t he do <>that<>?” But generally, a good read.

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  5. I completely agree, Pam. I liked the book, but I’m not sure it really resonated with me. I’m not sure if it was the magic, per se (though I can see where you’re coming from), but since the magic and the relationship were so closely intertwined, it could have been. Though I enjoyed it enough to put her other two books on my TBR list, just out of curiosity.

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  6. Melissa, I’ve read Mira Mirror (or is it Mirror Mira) Anyway, I’ve read that one and loved it. 🙂 I enjoyed Princess and the Hound a great deal. It even made my list for best books of 2007. (But not necessarily my top five or ten). This is slightly off topic, but I was wondering if you’d read any Shannon Hale. Book Of A Thousand Days. Goose Girl. Princess Academy. Anyway, just curious. I can’t remember at the moment…

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  9. oh, that sounds great. I’ll need to put that on my (ever growing) list! We never had a boy either, but George was my name for my body pillow, so never on the table for a child name. 🙂glad I just found your site!

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  10. I agree with your assessment of this one–bought it a while back, but I can’t get any of my students to read it. I think the cover/title are deceiving, since it really isn’t a “Princess-y” book at all.

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