Rescue? Yes or no?



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Damsel by Elana K. Arnold
Copyright date: 10/2/2018
 A dark twisted fairy tale/ Speculative fiction 
This book is a dark look at the life of a prince named Emory, a damsel in need of rescuing and a dragon that must be slayed. In the land of Harding, it was the tradition that for  a prince is to become a king, he must go out and rescue a damsel from a dragon’s cave. The elements of surprise are that the damsel doesn’t even have a name so after she is rescued by Prince Emory, she has no memory of how she even ended up in the dragon’s cave. Emory ends up naming the damsel Ama. She is returned to a land of Harding in the Royal Kingdom where she is not comfortable in her new role there. She is not felt loved or supported by anyone in the castle except for Emory at times. The question lies in the story throughout the book is Emory who he says he is? What are Emory’s intentions? Does he love her? The book keeps you in suspense of speculation of the intentions behind every move that is made leading up to the wedding of the royal family’s new King and his wife to be. “What were we before we were rescued by men, from dragons” is a line in the story that lingers throughout Ama’s thoughts in this story. This story lends to a dramatic end as you read toward the end of the last twelve pages of the book. Ama’s memory comes back into what really happened in the rescuing from the dragon. She realizes she is not actually human but she is a dragon. Emory wounded her as the dragon in the flank of her side and then showed himself and his defeat by putting his private part into the dragon’s wounded side to show domination. This is where Ama becomes human and is not a dragon anymore. This leads to a transition of the story into a speculative twisted tale of a normal fairy tale that is very dark. Emory decides to fight Ama and ends up losing the battle by Ama becoming the dragon she really is and killing him and then fleeing. The Land of Harding is left to suffer in the demise of their new King and their kingdom that Ama destroys with her actions at the end. Ama saves herself from the “thing” she was not and changing back to who she really was- a dragon.

I would teach this to older youth who love mystery, fiction and fairy tales that are not so rosy. The theme of strong women come alive in this story. I thought this story was very strange but yet had some revealing parts about what society believes at times and how women are always the ones needing to be saved. I would teach this in a small group setting of boys and girls and then create a debate on how each different gender feels about this dark fairy tale. 

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