Book Review: Princess Ugg vol #1

Book: Princess Ugg volume #1 written and illustrated by Ted Naifeh with color and letters by Warren Wucinich

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: November 26, 2014

Description:

A new series from Courtney Crumrin creator and New York Times Best Seller, Ted Naifeh!

Princess Ülga isn't your standard princess, but her royal lineage goes back for generations.

At her mother's bequest, Ülga travels to the city-state of Atraeska, where the prestigious Princess Academy lies, so that she can learn about things like diplomacy — hopefully for the benefit of her rough and tumble people.

But Ülga will learn that she's more behind in her studies than she realized, and that when you're a princess, you're bound to have a few enemies.


Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Review:

I hope the Princess Ugg series will be a huge success. This series feels like Thor meets Mean Girls meets Sophia the First with Princess Ulga on the advice from her dying mother takes off on a journey to find a way to bring peace between her people and the giants. Her journey takes her to the Princess Academy where of course she doesn't fit in with the other Princesses.

Everyday is a struggle for Ulga who is constantly teased and treated as if she doesn't belong there not only by the students but also by many of the faculty. After one trying day, Ulga decided she was going to give up and go back home, that is until she talked things over with one of her teachers who after finding out her reasons for being there, decided to help her.

One of the first things he told her that she needed to do was to find a way to get along with her snooty roommate Princess Julifer. And Ulga did just that by trying to help Julifer deal with her unicorn. But Ulga soon found that both Julifer and the unicorn were harder to deal with than she thought.

For me, diplomacy should not equal being a doormat and that's what made me mad about this story when Princess Ulga followed her professor's advice to practice diplomacy with her roommate Princess Julifer. I felt like Ulga turned into Julifer's little hand maiden and I kept waiting for her to finally stand up and say she's not going to keep doing all the work. She had Ulga doing all the menial chores in regards to that unicorn and without any thanks.

Aside from that I did really enjoy reading this first volume and look forward to reading more. It was fun and interesting. A nice take on the whole Princess themed books that are so popular.