The Princess Diaries Review

Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries entertained me with its sweet story and relatable narration. The novel was fun and easy to read.

The Princess Diaries details the life of Mia Thermopolis who lives with her mom and cat. Mia’s father lives in France, and he is a politician. Little does Mia know that his title is that of a prince! After he finds out that his testicular cancer will prevent him from having kids, Mia must take the role as heir. Now, Mia must deal with being a princess, making her friend Lilly happy, and passing algebra. Can she do it all?

The theme of The Princess Diaries embodies the question “Who am I?” Mia Thermopolis discovers that she is the heir to the throne of a small European country called Genovia. Throughout the book, she tries to come to terms with her new-found responsibilities. Mia is caught up in trying to balance school, friends, and princess lessons. Her stressful schedule causes her to toughen up a step up to the plate.

Meg Cabot used a very unique writing style in this book. The Princess Diaries is written in the form of a diary as told by Mia. This makes the book feel like Mia is talking directly to the reader. The book becomes more personal because of this.

The characters in this book are very fun to read about. Mia has insecurities just like the rest of us, so she becomes relatable. Even though readers probably will not go through Mia’s problems, how she deals with those problems sparks the reader’s mind to make connections to their own life.

The setting of this book is primarily New York City, but Mai often speaks of Genovia. The descriptions provided of scenes in the book are detailed enough for the reader to picture them clearly. Each scene provided not only location, but also people, props, and conditions of those factors.

As I stated previously, most readers will not have to govern small countries. However, they can connect to Mia’s friend problems, insecurities about her body, and fear of taking on new responsibilities. The Princess Diaries is a good, funny story that is told in a fun way. This book is a wonderful read.

283 pages