Hope the first week of January went by without incident for everyone. My father has recently been in the hospital. So I didn’t get a chance to catch up on as many reviews as I’d like while caring for him. I’m still reviewing for last year as well as books I’ve finished during the holidays. However I wanted to be sure and get this one out in the front of the pack. This Princess Kills Monsters is a queer, trippy, and astonishingly bright book.
Synopsis
This book re imagines several different classic Grimm’s fairy tales and twists them sideways and inside out. While the essence of the story remains everything is shaken to its core and made anew. The story is strong parts Rapunzel for our main lead. But the story also brings in lesser known favorites such as Grimm’s The Twelve Huntsmen, How Six Men Got on in This World and The Six Servants.
The focus of the story is Princess Mililot. She has spent her young adulthood being sent on dangerous and impossible quests by her domineering stepmother. Usually these quest end up causing problems and she ends up needing to be rescued by her more magical stepsisters.
Now her mother is commanding she marry a king she’s never met in a far away land. Things take a strange turn though when her carriage gets attacked by spider-wolves. Instead of her sisters rescuing her she is instead rescued by twelve eerily similar looking masked huntsmen.
There is more to the huntsman than they seem though, and Miliot will need all the help she can get. When she arrives at her soon to be husband’s castle there are near constant attempts on her life. There is also a strange talking lion who is so focused on testing the gender of the huntsman. And a king who can’t recognize his true love when she cross-dresses.
If the attempts on her life aren’t enough to deal with. She also must deal with being attracted to one of the huntsmen and her fiance’s extremely attractive sister Angelique.
Miliot must unravel the mysteries of this new kingdom to save the lives of her new friends. And to save herself from being married to someone she doesn’t love.
Review
This book started out slow for me. But I’m glad I stuck with it. It was queer and subversive and so so funny. I especially enjoyed the villain at the end and didn’t see the twist coming. I especially love the parts where the characters explain their lives by telling each other stories.
It reinforces the idea of the power of stories and fairy tales that is woven throughout the book. I encourage readers to get past the somewhat slow start because the rest of the book is so very worth your time. It is five stars for the themes it brings up and its diverse and engaging characters.
I especially enjoyed the way the author made things extra queer. Not only was the main lead bisexual. but there was also trans representation within the main cast. While the villain was also queer I didn’t have a problem with it. This was because their reason for being evil had nothing to do with their queerness instead their reason was well backed by the plot.
Check out this book when it releases on June 17th 2025. Buy a copy from Amazon or your local retailer.
Amazon: This Princess Kills Monsters
About the Author
Born in the US, Ry Herman is now a permanent Scottish resident. Their debut novel, the queer supernatural romcom Love Bites, was published by Jo Fletcher Books in July of 2020. Ry is bisexual and genderqueer.
Their next book, This Princess Kills Monsters, forthcoming from The Dial Press, is a retelling of “The Twelve Huntsmen”, one of the Grimm Brothers’ weirdest fairy tales. It takes that tale’s jilted, trouser-wearing fiancée, her eleven identical crossdressing doppelgangers, a talking lion, and of course, the princess, on an extravagant, fantastical quest to save a kingdom, subvert destiny, and fall in love with the perfectly right wrong person.
Ry has worked at a variety of jobs, including submissions editor, theatre technician, and one job best described as typing the number five all day long. Ry acts and directs, and has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Hobbies include baking bread, playing tabletop roleplaying games, and reading as many books as humanly possible.
Have you finished any good arcs recently? Let me know in the comments, and share your recent favorites.
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