Stars: ★★★★/5
Princess Aislynn has long dreamed about attending her Introduction Ball, about dancing with the handsome suitors her adviser has chosen for her, about meeting her true love and starting her happily ever after.
When the night of the ball finally arrives and Nerine Academy is awash with roses and royalty, Aislynn wants nothing more than to dance the night away, dutifully following the Path that has been laid out for her. She does not intend to stray. But try as she might, Aislynn has never quite managed to control the magic that burns within her-magic brought on by wicked, terrible desires that threaten the Path she has vowed to take.
After all, it is wrong to want what you do not need. Isn’t it?
"Instead of fear, something else was simmering inside of her, as warm and powerful as magic, steady and absolute, almost like courage, but more reckless and wild."
I wasn’t sure what to expect with Stray. I believe somewhere it was pitched as Disney meets Margaret Atwood, which threw me for a bit of a loop. But I think it’s fair to say it sits somewhere between Cruel Beauty and Ella Enchanted in tone.
I wasn’t particularly excited to pick up Stray, but I’m glad I did. It really offers something not a lot of other YA fantasy novels do, and I can see where the comparison to Margaret Atwood comes from. First and foremost, Stray is about Aislynn. There’s a love interest and friendship and family, but Stray is largely Aislynn’s journey in defying her fate and creating her own circumstances. She’s a heroine I can get behind, even when she’s not a likable one.
One of the most enjoyable things about Stray was the attention given to the relationship between Aislynn and her parents. It’s a rare thing to find in fantasy books, and I was so on board with its inclusion. I love what Sussman did here, because there are so few fantasy books that even bother, but she did. And even though the relationship between Aislynn and her mother and father is not a perfect one, it was believable. Her parents don’t always stand up for her, but they always do what they think is best for her -- and in doing so make some big mistakes. They aren’t always fair to Aislynn and she isn’t always fair to them. Their relationship was important to the book, and Aislynn’s parents have as much place in her story as her love interest, Thackery. So much yes.
So. Much. Yes.
On that note, one of the smaller issues I had with Stray was actually Thackery. He’s a good, decent, respectable love interest, but he was honestly a little boring. It’s not that he can’t be a really nice guy and interesting, it’s that he was basically oatmeal for me. He wasn’t memorable. Like Kiggs in Seraphina, Po from Graceling and Char from Ella Enchanted, a love interest can be respectful and lovely and all that while still being interesting. He didn’t play a huge part in the story, but he did manage to weigh down the romance aspect of it. And that’s always a bummer.
Stray, as I said, strikes an interesting balance. It’s 100% on board with being a fairy tale book, but it also dares to be a little different. With subtle references here and there to classic fairy tales, Stray also gives us a heroine who is a little bit wicked. Aislynn’s complicated; really, everyone’s complicated, and that was really what won me over. I have such a fondness for stories like Ella Enchanted, where a spunky and well-intending heroine leads us on a charming, magical journey of ups and downs and gives us a happy ending. I also really adore fairy tale-inspired books that are not afraid to gives us a dark story and dark characters that defy the good-triumphs-over-evil charm of a happily ever after. Stray has set up camp on middle ground, which I think mostly worked for me. It would have been better a little closer to the tone of Cruel Beauty, but it’s really a preference thing.
Stray is really an interesting read, one that I didn’t quite expect. It defies so many of the traits of an iconic fairy tale while still feeling like it belonged in a Grimm world. It straddles the line, and while I wish it had been a little more complex and not quite so neat, I’m definitely interested in the following books. What kind of fairy tale you love best will determine how you feel about Stray, but I think we can all get behind a princess-turned-fairy-god-mother-turned-rebel on a quest to overthrow an evil queen.
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