Literature like any good art form can serve two purposes, to have something to say and to reflect the era that it was released in. Now you can choose either to read into the message that an author may not have meant or you can live by prescribed line of thinking. That art can and should be political.
Why am I bringing this up in an introduction for a Tangled Novel? Well, in part because it's actually quite hard to ignore. This book may be called Rapunzel and the Vanishing Village but another apt title for this book would be Rapunzel Fights Fascism. Yeah, we will get into this as we discuss the plot but it's actually rather eerie how apt that felt.
Cover
Like the previous Tangled Novel by Leila Howland, this book features a fantastic cover that depicts the three main characters of the story.
Both of these covers feel like something that one would see in Rapunzel's Journal. And that makes this book all the more delightful.
Characters/Narrators
Doing something a little different here as Howland writes her Tangled books using an alternating first-person POV and that is interesting in Lost Lagoon, she alternated between Rapunzel & Cassandra. Here, however, it alternates between Rapunzel, Cassandra, & Eugene. Which serves to make the story more character-driven and allows for more insight into how they're feeling.
Rapunzel
Through Rapunzel's narration, you get the idea that she has lost her confidence in her voice and her art in this new locale But she is willing to remain determined even as her thoughts start to take her away and realizes that she can use her art to save these new people that she has met in the town of Harmony Glen.
Cassandra
Cassandra's narration is gruff and has the warrior mindset that Cass carries throughout the series and how she wants to handle the situation.
Eugene
Eugene's narration is aloof and is almost a form of unreliable narration until the end of the book as for a good while, Eugene is enamored with Harmony Glen as it is home to The Author of the Flynn Rider stories that he read in the orphanage. Eugene had even been tapped to play his hero in a play for the Flynn Rider Festival but it's a ruse by the book's villain.
Now, there are other side characters but they're not worth discussing.
The Plot
This book is set before the events of season two as our crew had only been out a week traveling beyond the Corona Walls. When suddenly, they come across Harmony Glen, and Eugene and his buddy Lance are excited to go there. Even though the town does not appear on any maps. At first, the town seems idyllic but its true nature reveals itself as the characters spend more time there. For Bronies and Pegasisters, this is akin to The Cutie Map
Now I said art can reflect the era that it is released in and where that does come into play? With the book's villain, Joaquin. You see Joaquin is the town-leader and he has all but brainwashed the citizens of Harmony Glen into following his lead even if it goes against what would be best for them. and controls them with a chart system where they're awarded stars for good behavior and have stars removed if they act out of line or rather Joaquin's line. In essence, he uses one of these for a whole town.
Fitting as he belittles the townspeople like their toddlers. Granted, the stars took my mind elsewhere and I dare not post here to be respectful. There's one particular moment where Rapunzel is trying to get an art class that she is teaching to paint self-portraits of how they see themselves and Joaquin sees this and reprimands the class for not painting pictures of the character of Flynn Rider as he wanted self-portraits of Flynn Rider for the town mural. Go figure! Oh, that's but one way. If someone dares speak out against Joaquin, they are sent across a border wall and separated from their loved ones. Yeah, the book did that and it's not hard to think about everything going on in the news right now. However, there's a very powerful moment where Cassandra after being taken out of Harmony Glen leads the townspeople that had been kicked out and they sing one of the old songs of the town as they go back to reveal the truth. This also ties into how Joaquin attempted to erase the town's history by hiding The Author's works to better fit his narrative. Yep, he's getting rid of art and to me, that's one of the most dangerous things that someone could do as art can give the voiceless, a voice and we should never silence those that wish to speak up. And why is he doing this, because he is trying to rid the town of its main resource, a magic blue moss that helps keep the town safe and gives it a wonderful ecosystem. Oh, on that note, I forgot to mention that Joaquin had gated off Harmony Glen from the rest of society.
Villain
Joaquin
The thing that makes Joaquin so dangerous is that he's so suave and such a charmer. It's scary to see how easily people could fall for his ploys and decide that he would be a good leader as they're only looking at charisma and not what he can do to help them. And up until the point, Rapunzel and her friends showed up, the townspeople were voiceless against Joaquin and didn't know what to stop him. These outsiders showed various ways to fight people such as him. And it was so rewarding to see as he was such an evil dictator that never lost his cool. Which makes him extra scary and had the entire town in his grasp for quite some time.
My Final Thoughts
Please, if you have any young relatives, give them this book. The message in this book is too important to ignore. It shows that no matter how young or naive as Rapunzel might speak of herself, you can make a difference and that everyone deserves to have their voice heard. No matter they be, a princess or a commoner. In Rapunzel's world, both princesses and commoners are allowed to speak their minds and we need to show that no matter what position someone holds in the real world, their voice matters and bullies like the Joaquin's of the world may do whatever they can to silence that one voice but to quote Newsies,
When you got a hundred voices singin'/who can hear a lousy whistle blow?/And the world will know!
This is a message that Leila Howland sends across loud and clear in her second Tangled Novel. Again, as I said up-top, I could be looking too much into how this reflects our current real world but the parallels were there and could not be ignored and I would be doing this review a grave disservice if I did not mention them. I know I normally don't get political but I had to do that with this review as it was so important to me to highlight why the voiceless need a voice. I promise that the next Tangled review will be more lighthearted as the last two times, I've talked about this franchise, things have been rather heavy but I cannot stress how good this book was and how important I feel it is. Peace!
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