Hey, guys. How is everyone? Sorry about that terrible new decade joke in the title of the last post—I know you must’ve that heard that joke all too much, but what’s actually funny is that it’s not even a new decade, not until 2021.
Anyway, back to reviewing. Pennyroyal Academy is a novel that was surprisingly amazing—like, better than your average children’s novel. So good, in fact, that I’m always willing to reread it, even if the target market is a bunch of fantasy-loving ten year olds (none of which describes me).
I got this book years ago, back when the original cover was the only cover. It’s the first in a trilogy (I never read the other two books, actually, but I recently ordered the second one, so maybe soon!) that I’ve literally never heard anyone talk about. Why, I’m not sure. It has all of the elements a great fantasy book needs: an interesting world, lovable characters, multiple strong plot twists, and (of course) a love story.
I’m no world building expert, but Larson’s kingdoms and concepts were really interesting. In this world, there are princesses, knights, witches and dragons. Princesses are trained for a mostly mental (but also slightly physical) fight against witches in a battle of the heart. They’re trained to use compassion and kindness as their weapon—quite literally: the main character’s compassion became an actual shield.
In this world, knights fight dragons. Because the story follows Evie, a princess, we don’t get to see much of this, but from what is told, it’s just straight up sword vs firebreath, the normal dragon-fighting portrayal. (Oh my God. Me over here writing about how the average Joe thinks about dragon fighting. Insert eye roll and squeal of joy about the nerdiness level I have achieved.)
So princesses and knights from all over the country (this is a one-country world) are trained at Pennyroyal Academy, a military-esk three year high school. Starting the year Pennyroyal Academy is set, anyone, royal blood or not, is allowed to go to Pennyroyal because of the need for extra hands in the raging war against witches.
Larson focused on the little details that fit into his fairytale world, making it more believable. There were side characters that weren’t all that necessary but made it real: Rumpelstiltskin was there as Rumpledshirtsleeve (that name is adorable), the resident Home Ec teacher at Pennyroyal Academy. There was a Fairy Drillsergeant (much like Christy Carlson Romano’s character, Jennifer, in Cadet Kelly, for any Disney Channel fans here).
Like I said before, I’m no expert on the world building aspect of writing because I don’t write fantasy, but from my experience from other children’s fantasy novels and books incorporating twisted fairy tales, this one hits a homerun for its little original ideas.
The characters in this book were, at least most of the time, super charming. There was a generally large cast of main characters: Evie, the official main character, Remington, the love interest, Malora, the mean girl, and Anisette, Maggie, and Basil, the best friends.
Evie was a nice character. She had interesting development. I don’t know. Her plotline was kind of weird: girl gets raised in the Dragonlands by dragons and doesn’t know what a human is. Girl proceeds to come to Pennyroyal Academy after seeing a flyer with “someone like her” on it and ends up being the special Warrior Princess, born of royal blood. So that’s a cool storyline, but I always get tripped up at the raised by dragons part. The fact that she didn’t know what a human was—like, I get that she was only ever around dragons, but it’s weird. Especially because then she kind of understood humans perfectly, society-wise. And she tried to fly sometimes; she might’ve actually flown at some point? (It was unclear, but they implied that she did some sort of jump/fly thing because being raised by dragons made her part dragon? She also started to learn how to breathe fire somehow.) It was weird. Just… weird.
She had a generally good arc, though. There were layers of fear of not belonging mixed with feeling like belonging just for being the same species. Evie was a serious underdog after not knowing culture or history or what the Academy even is upon her arrival, and she’s great inspiration for the little kids reading Pennyroyal. Keep in mind that I only really got one third of her arc—of all their arcs—because I’ve only read the first novel in the trilogy.
Next, the love interest, Prince Remington of Brentano. A pretentious name, I know, but what can I say? He was raised to be a pretentious dude. To be honest, he was a little basic. An enjoyable character to read, but an overused plotline. For any of my international Disney Channel fans out there (I know, two Disney Channel references in one review, and this one is so weird), Remington is Soy Luna’s Matteo (that show is golden everyone should watch it seriously if you get past the first twenty episodes it’s so amazing especially starting at the midseason finale like there is some tea). Anyway, Remington is the thinks-he’s-a-bad-boy, is-actually-a-cinnamon-roll kind of guy. Often times the unattainable, idolized rich boy is a terrible person painted in a romantic way, but Remington is honestly a good person. It was a great move by Larson to take the path that’s not toxic masculinity, especially in 2014 when pretty much no one talked about that, compared to today. While Remington might not be the most original, unpredictable character, I still enjoyed his scenes and getting to know him.
Malora was the mean girl in Pennyroyal Academy. She disinterested me for most of the story—I knew her inside and out, it seemed: richest princess at the Academy, in love with Remington, makes Evie’s life suck just for fun. She was kind of annoying, to be honest—that is, until she had a major plot twist that straight-up blew my mind: Malora is half-witch half-princess. And the thing is, she doesn’t know. Malora was sent to the Academy by her witch mom without knowing she’s a witch. She was raised thinking that compassion and kindness are her best weapons as a Princess of the Shield trainee. It’s a little like she’s blacking out when she does or says mean things and doesn’t even realize what has happened until after the damage is done. This made her more enjoyable to read about and unpredictable. Like, she could turn completely princess until someone upsets her and--bam. Killed half an army. Malora only seems like a failed character until her full self is revealed.
I felt like Maggie and Anisette, Evie’s two girl friends, were a little bit the same person. They had differences: I’m pretty sure Anisette was Scottish (versus the rest of the British characters). They were both really sweet, slightly unimportant characters that helped Evie understand human life and were a shoulder to cry on for our heroine.
In contrast to Evie’s two bland friends, Evie’s other friend, Basil, was maybe the best character in the book. Basil’s character was the youngest in a family of all boys being sent to be a princess because his mom wanted a daughter. He was silly and funny and very Ron Weasley-esk, a very easy character to write decently, but the thing that made Basil amazing was that he wasn’t only a comic relief character. It wasn’t funny that he was a feminine guy, it was funny when he told a joke. Larson didn’t act like the curriculum is for girls and only girls can be princesses. He told the facts: princesses are mostly girls, a boy can be one of the best princesses there, gender roles are a social construct. Basil was his own, making him a standout character.
There was also this guy named Prince Forbes. Not really sure what his deal was, but the outline of his character was he’s one of the more wealthy, renowned princes who was turned into a pig by a magic painting. Somehow (literally not clear on this in the slightest) Evie made him human again—I think the nurse told Evie that something about the situation he turned back must’ve been exactly the same about the situation where he turned into a pig, and it wasn’t necessarily her. Forbes was weird because they introduced him like a threat to Evie and Remington’s relationship. When Forbes turns back into a human, he’s so happy that he kisses Evie. She’s left reeling and clams up every time she sees him after (you would, too, if you barely knew what a human was and suddenly a pig turns into one and kisses you). He’s charming (because of course) and terrified (because his dad isn’t the best) and determined (because he wants to make his dad proud). I was okay with him and only wished Larson had picked: is he important or not? I think part of that is that maybe he was developed later in the manuscript that ended up in one of the sequels and had to get squeezed into the first novel somehow. Overall, he’s a promising character that didn’t work out as well as he could have.
After that forever-long section about characters, next is plot twists. There were two major plot twists: Evie finding out she’s actually Nicola, a princess by blood, and Evie and Malora finding out Malora is a half-witch.
The Nicola plot twist could definitely be predicted by someone who is thinking about the progression of the story and actively trying to figure out how the story ends, but to the little kids reading Pennyroyal, it’s mind blowing. At least, it was for nine year old me. I don’t have much to say about this one—Malora’s witch mom is your average wicked stepmother pretending to be a good guy. She revealed Evie to the public as the stepdaughter to the now-deceased king, but Evie later found out that she is actually the birth daughter, and Malora is the stepdaughter.
The next twist was vital for the enjoyment of Pennyroyal: Malora being revealed as a witch. I already talked about this a little, so I’ll try to keep it brief, but without this complication to her character, Malora was a boring mean girl that was just in the way. With this complication, Malora blacked out and didn’t realize when she was doing something wrong until after she’d already done it, making her character more than the shell she’d previously seemed to be.
Another important aspect that I could never go without mentioning (as my regulars definitely know by now) is the love story. Larson wrote a love story that is good for kids and is still interesting and fangirlable (yes, I know that “fangirlable” isn’t a real world).
He made a love square of a sort—well, love square or love triangle, depending on whether you include Forbes, which I do because he kissed Evie. Anyway, the love square includes Evie (who likes Remington), Remington (who’s absolutely in love with Evie), Malora (she likes Remington, but only because he’s popular; she doesn’t actually like him), and Forbes (he might like Evie? I don’t know. He’s got a rivalry thing going with Remington and kissed Evie when he thought she changed him back from a pig). The clear OTP in the story, Evie and Remington (even though to be honest the more I think about it, the more I could see Forbes having this great arc and being totally worthy of Evie by the end of the trilogy, and Remington would get so jealous and just kinda freeze in his tracks, falling behind moral/development-wise and ending up with someone else, but for the sake of this review and my sanity, we’re going to assume that none of that happens), had enough time to develop that their relationship seemed important but not so much that the book became a romance. The novel was still clearly geared towards fantasy and fairytale fans without taking the romantic element out entirely, something really impressive, coming from a writer for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. (Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think none of the main ponies ever have a longer-than-one-or-two-episodes romantic relationship on that show.)
I really liked Remington and Evie’s relationship. There wasn’t really anything that was super special, stand-out for them that I can talk about, but they were adorable. I remember the first time I read it, and every time there was a scene with the two of them in it I would be literally holding my breath waiting for a cute banter moment. That’s something that Larson did well with them—banter. Something that could have been better were the fight scenes and serious moments. They didn’t get me that upset or excited, I was just sort of like, “Yeah okay, that’s cool, I guess.”
So… yeah. That’s all I’ve got to say for today. It seems a little long, looking back, but whatever. Too late now. Next time I’ll probably be back on track with my Folk of the Air reviews, but we’ll see. I like to do whatever and let the chips fall where they will, most of the time. Overall, Pennyroyal Academy was a great book that deserves more street cred. Keep reading, readers.