This Princess Kills Monsters

The Misadventures of a Fairy-Tale Stepsister: A Novel

By: Ry Herman

Narrated by: Kristen Sieh, Ry Herman

A princess with a mostly useless magical talent takes on horrible monsters, a dozen identical masked heroes, and a talking lion in a quest to save a kingdom—and herself—in this feminist fairy tale satire.

“The Princess Bride meets Shrek.”—Susie Dumond, author of Bed and Breakup

“Exactly the sort of queer fairy tale for grown-ups that I have yearned to read.”—Ryka Aoki, author of Light from Uncommon Stars

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK: Autostraddle, Fangirlish, Reactor, Book Riot, Reading Glasses Podcast, Denver Public Library

Someone wants to murder Princess Melilot. This is sadly normal.

Melilot is sick of being ordered to go on dangerous quests by her domineering stepmother. Especially since she always winds up needing to be rescued by her more magically talented stepsisters. And now, she's been commanded to marry a king she’s never met.

When hideous spider-wolves attack her on the journey to meet her husband-to-be, she is once again rescued—but this time, by twelve eerily similar-looking masked huntsmen. Soon she has to contend with near-constant attempts on her life, a talking lion that sets bewildering gender tests, and a king who can't recognize his true love when she puts on a pair of trousers. And all the while, she has to fight her growing attraction to not only one of the huntsmen, but also her fiancé’s extremely attractive sister.

If Melilot can't unravel the mysteries and rescue herself from peril, kingdoms will fall. Worse, she could end up married to someone she doesn’t love.

This was so fun

I loved this book. It was fun and silly, but still kept you guessing what was coming next.

Feminist, queer fantasy!

I loved this book! It is a brilliant combination of Grimms fairy tales and unexpected heroes.

Delightful

I loved this book. It was so much fun and funny. A really fun and engaging fairy tale retelling.

The fairy tale I always needed

This book was so witty and perfectly balanced. The narration brought it to life in a way that kept me hooked just as much as the characters and story themselves. The mix of cheeky alongside the more serious complexity of relationships and growing up was magic. A sprinkle of queer themes where the characters were just human(mostly) who's queerness was the least interesting thing about them was refreshing.

Engaging story, likeable characters, dense with fairy tail references

This book takes place in a fairy tale world, and is dense with self-aware fairy tail tropes and references. The title character is also strangely well informed in 20th century medicine and science. It isn't a recipe that would normally work for me, but in the end I was pulled into the story. The book has wry humor and some real heart.