Today’s review is about Maggie Stiefvater’s “Bravely,’’ which is a retelling of Pixar’s “Brave.” According to Stiefvater’s author’s note as well as her own website, Stiefvater grew up in Virginia and still lives there today, with a family that was a melting pot of both Irish and Scottish cultures.
She went to University of Mary Washington to study medieval history, and as such combined the two experiences into this book.
Stiefvater was trying to make it as accurate as possible with the two gods mentioned in this story, as well as the food, struggles, real historical figures, and so on. She is known most for her two young adult series, “The Raven Cycle” and the “Shiver” trilogy, but she has written many more. It seems that once Stiefvater started writing, she simply couldn’t stop. At the age of sixteen, Stievater was already sending off manuscripts to publishers, then by college she had already written thirty books.
That being said, her first book, “Lament,” was published in 2008. Stiefvater’s third book, “Shiver,” followed a year later and proceeded to stay at the top of The New York Times Best Sellers List for forty weeks. In 2011, she released a stand alone novel titled “The Scorpio Races,” which received a Michael L. Printz honor award.
Before Stiefvater was a full time author, she was a professional portrait artist, creating her own tarot deck for one of her book series. She also liked to race cars, completing a stunt driving class, and worked as an automotive journalist. She would often spray paint her car, and let fans do the same to promote her new book releases. In 2015, she raced John Green
and their Princeton Speedway, ending with both of their cars catching fire–and did it all before the age of 40.
In 2019, she was diagnosed with Addison’s disease. Now, she talks about what she is dealing with in order to raise awareness about the disease. In her book “Bravely,” it features scene on Christmas Eve, where Merida of DunBroch heard three knocks while she was eating bread in the kitchen. Little did she know, this night would change her life forever.
Merida spotted something strange along the forest edge; chasing it, the strange entity kept changing shape: a rabbit, a wolf, a deer and so on. When she finally caught it, the final shape was a man. Merida had just chased a god.
She found out that this god is drawn to stagnation; when things don’t change to the point where they harm the land around them, Feradach is charged with demolishing in order to let the land flourish in the future. DunBroch, a once fierce and strong kingdom, began to wilt over time.
Due to their age, the king and queen were much more forgiving, and refused to face their problems. With the help of the Cailleach, an ancient goddess of nature, Merida is given a year to change every one of her family members. If not, then DunBroch will fall.
Later the following day, someone known as “The MadMan,” or Dásachtach, demands that unless DunBroch wants to send their sons off to war or marry Merida off, they must show that they are trying their best to strengthen their bonds with other neighboring kingdoms.
Two bargains, one year, and three voyages to three separatekingdoms. All the while, Merida can’t say anything about the first magical bargain.
OP-ED: I loved this book! It was so fun and yet so surreal because of how accurate the second bargain is to medieval history. I also really enjoyed this book because it’s all about change, and how change is good and not always bad. As someone who struggles dealing with change, who loves routine and honestly stagnation, this book was a real eye opener. I could relate to almost every single one of the characters in this book.
All of them are flawed, and that makes them all feel entirely real, which is something not everyone can write about and do it well. Stiefvater does this incredibly well, and all in all, I would recommend this book to anyone, especially those who are like me that struggle with change. In the end, change is expected, and it shouldn’t be feared, even if at the moment the change is terrifying, it allows room to grow and thrive later on the other side.