This book was a little different than some of the futuristic books I've read lately, but I think that's what sucked me in. The concept threw me off a little at first. So, it's the 22 century and this is based in Versailles, France at the palace. Inside the palace everyone is made to dress as if it were 18th century France during the Sun King's reign. The only difference between the two eras would be the bots that serve and the mainframe named M.A.R.I.E. Otherwise, the dress and mannerisms of the court are similar to that of 18th century France.
Another marked difference is the way everything is run. The "King" isn't truly a king at all. The palace runs like a corporation with shareholders and partners and a CEO. In truth, the King is the CEO of the company and he is the reason behind the plot of this story.
Danica is the main character and she come from nothing really. Her mother grooms her to be this outstanding lady to marry into what is considered a "noble" family. They end up in Versailles and Danica witnesses the king commit a crime that changes her life in ways that she hates. She tries to escape, but she is unable to because of who she has become in the public eye. The man she goes to for help wants more money than she has, so she comes up with a plan to make more money and things don't go as she hopes.
From the very start of this book the reader can see that Danica is desperate to get out of the situation she has gotten into. She is also extremely loyal to her friends and her father and she really does not like her mother at all. Her mother is the reason she is in the situation in the first place and keeps pushing for Danica to have the life that she couldn't have. That's a theme that many teen books have had and the end result is the main character doing something quite drastic. In Danica's case, she becomes a drug dealer.
The drug is called Glitter. It is highly addictive and Danica uses that to her advantage. She also uses the vanity of the court to drive the sales of her new products. She uses the drug to mix in makeup products to sell to the court. As she comes up with her plans to do this, the reader gets a sense of who Danica was before court life. She was adept in science and math and enjoyed learning. She used the skills she had learned in school to make up products she was then able to sell. Her skills with numbers allowed her to come up with a sum so she made a profit and could save money to get herself out of the palace and away from her marriage to the king.
There was another more subtle aspect of this book that I found quite interesting. As was popular in 18th century France, the women of the court all wore corsets. Corsets in those days were usually made of whale bone or other materials that were just as tough and they were used to give women the coveted hourglass shape. In their minds, the small the waist the better. Danica uses her corset in a different way and it shows her insecurities. She's told her whole life that she is too big and too tall. That she isn't what women should be. So, she uses her corset as a means of self mutilation. In many scenes throughout the book as she gets ready for the day, she talks about how she cinches her corset and how tightly she does it. Each time the reader is with her in the dressing room, she is pulling her corset tighter to the point of pain. She admits to using it as a coping mechanism for what she deals with as the king's fiance and as the drug dealer she has become. The only time she is relaxed and not trying to hurt herself is when Saber, another person working toward freedom, loosens the strings for her and consoles her. She then describes the bruises and damage she has inflicted on herself.
So, let's talk about Saber for a minute, because he seems to be one of the few people who sees the relaxed side of Danica in the book. Even her closest friends still seem to get a more guarded version of her. Saber and Danica do not like each other at the beginning of the book. You could almost say they hate each other. Saber views what Danica is doing to the people in the palace as despicable and while his views don't change as the book progresses, his feeling for her do. The relationship that develops romantically is almost text book where young adult novels is concerned. They are in close proximity to each other for a long time and through a mutual hatred of the system they find common ground, blah, blah, blah. That's not what fascinates me about Saber, though. His character pulled me in because of what he admits to Danica. He is a slave. He traded his freedom for the freedom of his parents and his four siblings. He does the things he himself calls disgusting and heinous because he has to in order to ensure the safety and freedom of his family. The fact that he has a chip in his head that could kill him if he doesn't comply with his master may also be a driving motivation as well, but he sacrificed himself for his family. Next to him, Danica really does seem like the selfish little girl he thought she was in the first place.
What started out as a book I thought was going to be light and a quick read turned out to be a little more than I expected. I love it when books surprise me with a depth of character and more facets to a plot than originally expected. i look forward to reading and reviewing book two in this series.
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