The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre Review

The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine is a middle grade fantasy prequal to her Two Princesses of Bamarre and a retelling of the fairytale Rapunzel. It is about a young girl named Perry (Peregrine) the adopted daughter of a prominent Latki family with lines to the Latki throne. As a young teen about to head to the war front, a fairy appears to her and reveals that she is in fact a Bamarre (a nation of people made into the servant slaves of the Latki) and has been chosen by this fairy to aid her people to freedom.

I gave this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I really enjoyed it. The writing was easy and flowed through the story. I loved seeing elements of the other book and getting this unique perspective on what led to the events of that book. These familiar touches resonated with me. I learned so much that now gives greater depth to the following story. It did feel a little slow in the beginning, but picked up after a while and kept me interested the whole way through.

I was thrilled to discover the retelling aspect of the story and thought she did an excellent job at molding it into the overall plot. Even though I didn’t know about it going into the story, all the right elements were there to ring true to the original fairytale while seeming to fit so perfectly with Levine’s work.

I liked how the book addressed some serious issues like what is true strength and true weakness. This seems to be a theme that carries over to the next book (at least in looking at courage and cowardice). I like that it was more than just a fun story and made you think. This also made for an interesting self-discovery book. However some of the other serious issues brought up might be harder to explain and discuss if the reader is too young; issues like prejudice and slavery and war (the battles and the heartless tactic, etc.).

I’m afraid I only really liked one of the characters. Don’t get me wrong, they were well developed and interesting in their own way, but I just didn’t connect with them. Perhaps they were realistic in behavior and emotion, but it felt too harsh for an audience under 11 years old. I don’t think we should hide it all and make our stories all rosy, but a little more focus on the positive side would have been appreciated by me. I was sorry to see that we only saw hope of something more positive at the very end of the book, and even then it wasn’t very uplifting.

Overall it was a good book and I am glad that I read it, but I didn’t find it nearly as good as the other one. Perhaps my expectations were too high, and my view biased by my sentimental attachment to The Two Princesses of Bamarre. Even so, it was still a joy to read and I would recommend it to any retelling, fantasy lovers.