The Girl in the Tower

by Lisa Schroeder

Ever since she could remember, Violet and her mother have been locked away in a tower by the evil Queen Bogdana, who has the kingdom under her spell. The queen has everything she wants except one thing - beauty. Violet possesses this beauty. She also has a secret: though she is very small, both her spirit and her heart are mighty. But when Violet is summoned by Bogdana to start training to become a real princess, her mother is banished from the castle, and they're forbidden to see each other ever again. With everyone's lives in the balance, it's up to Violet to break the spell and reunite her family.

• ISBN10: 0805095136
• ISBN13: 9780805095135
• Publish Date: 29 March 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 July 2021
• Imprint: Henry Holt & Company
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


I started reading this book and couldn't put it down until the end. It was sweet as well as funny and Violet was endearing. I loved how she looked at the world. She was a prisoner, but she never let that fact break her spirit.

I liked her mother Nuri, and the servants George and Maggie. Queen Bogdana was evil without being scary to read about for young children. The illustrations were fun to see. The characters all looked younger than you expected, but the almost whimsical feel fit very well with the story.

It has the fairytale feel to it, without most of the darkness. The twist at the end was unexpected to me, but made total sense with the rest of the story. I liked the descriptions used in the book. Everything from the humming birds, to Violet's fantasies of being a pirate at sea. They were vivid without being overly descriptive, and helped suck you into the story.

The book is filled with hopes and dreams, good triumphing over evil. While it was written for children, all age groups will find something to like. If it isn't on your reading list yet, it needs to be.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

I love middle grade, fairy tales, and brave-hearted girls, so I really thought The Girl in the Tower was going to be right up my alley. I wanted it, needed it, stalked Netgalley for it, and was lucky enough to get it. I wish it had lived up to my expectations.

The Girl in the Tower has all the right ingredients for a blissful, charming middle grade fantasy, but they never came together in a compelling way for me. I was thrown off by the stilted prose and awkward “old-timey” dialogue (time period unspecified because people never spoke English like this) in the opening pages, and I never got on the same track as the book. Even protagonist Violet–proud, courageous, and full of imagination–could not draw me in, as she also suffered from clunky speech patterns and had a penchant for making wise pronouncements that left me unconvinced she was a ten-year-old who had spent the entirety of her life locked in a tower with only her mother for company and basically no access to books.

I also found the book overly schmaltzy, even for a children’s book based on the premise love will solve all, and I usually like schmaltz. There were just too many cheesy observations about Violet being one with hummingbirds and people needing to allow love into their hearts and letting the music guide you, etc. for me to buy into the idea that people in this kingdom both thought things like this and walked around saying them with serious expressions. I think the book was going for a deep, pensive tone that tackled all the really important things in life and showed readers that imagination and looking at the world with optimism are important, but it just came across as weird to me.

I’m usually a high rater but I talked myself into being firm about this one and following the Goodreads rating descriptions. I gave it two stars to reflect the fact that I finished reading it primarily out of a sense of obligation and secondarily due to the fact I had nothing else to read on a long train ride. I also can’t see myself recommending it, even to other readers I know who are normally charmed by middle grade. I see the book is garnering some delighted reviews, but for now I’m going to have to be the black sheep on this one.

Source: Netgalley