Fairy tale re-tellings were popular when I was growing up and continue to be popular today – a testament to the enduring quality of the original stories. For me, the standard-bearer for these books has always been Ella Enchanted. It’s the best one I’ve ever read, and it continues to be terrific upon re-reads. This is also partially a bad thing, since nothing can measure up to it.

After droves of re-tellings of more popular stories (Cinderella is the perennial favorite), authors are digging deep to locate the tales that haven’t been so oft told. Shannon Hale did an admirable job with The Goose Girl in 2003, and she followed it up with Book of a Thousand Days (based on an even more obscure fairy tale) in 2007. East of the Sun, West of the Moon has also had its heyday, with Sarah Beth Durst, Edith Pattou, and Jessica Day George all trying their hand at it.

More recently, it seems that The Twelve Dancing Princesses has become the new “it” fairy tale. My first foray into The Twelve Dancing Princesses was Jessica Day George’s Princess of the Midnight Ball in 2009 – a story I enjoyed but didn’t connect with much. Then came Heather Dixon with her own take on the story in Entwined, another enjoyable and competently written tale that also didn’t truly speak to me.

Now Merrie Haskell has taken the story and made it her own, in perhaps the most unique way of the three writers. In The Princess Curse, thirteen year old Reveka is an apprentice to the local herbalist in an Eastern European-type kingdom. The prince has twelve daughters who wake up each morning tired, their shoes falling apart. It’s obvious they’ve been dancing somewhere, but they haven’t even left their room.

The prince has offered a sizeable reward to anyone who can figure out where the princesses go each night and break the curse that causes the dancing. Unfortunately, anyone who tries to spend the night in the same room as the princesses in order observe them falls asleep – and never wakes. This is where Reveka comes in. As the herbalist’s apprentice, she believes she can find some combination of herbs that will allow her to remain awake, follow the princesses, and break the curse.

Reveka is indeed able to follow the princesses one night – right into an underground kingdom ruled by a rather fearsome dragon-type creature called a zmeu. The zmeu, who goes by the name Lord Dragos, has put the curse on the princesses which causes them to dance every night. You know how it goes.

Or you think you do. One of the things that sets this re-telling apart from the others is that Lord Dragos is surprisingly sympathetic. He and Reveka develop a very slight Hades/Persephone relationship, although it’s not quite romantic and certainly very PG. The presence of Lord Dragos and his underground kingdom – which has other pretty spooky elements – gives the book a darker tone. Lord Dragos’ kingdom feels like the underworld in many ways.

Haskell throws in some other subplots so the reader’s attention is not focused entirely on the dancing princesses storyline. Reveka has a strained relationship with her father, and she doesn’t know what to make of a sort of stupid (she believes) boy who won’t leave her alone. Reveka is also trying to save the sleepers, who are dying off without ever waking. Reveka’s voice is a real highlight here. She’s funny, sometimes snarky, often wise but just as often naïve. She’s believable as a thirteen year old girl, although perhaps more capable in dealing with a zmeu than you would have expected.

This is Haskell’s first book, and it shows. There are some pretty major pacing problems – long sections where the book drags and nothing is really accomplished – and a silly loose end inserted abruptly at the end that irritated me intensely. Overall, though, this is a solid debut that should appeal to girls who enjoyed Ella Enchanted. (Though it’s certainly no Ella Enchanted.)

Unfortunately, like the other two re-tellings of this story I have read, I wasn’t able to really connect with The Princess Curse. While the book had weaknesses of its own unconnected with its status as a re-tooling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, it’s also become apparent to me that this is just not my fairy tale. Dancing has never really held much appeal for me, and reading about dancing is a little boring. The stakes never seem especially high (You’ll ruin your shoes? Well isn’t that a terrible fate.), even though the authors imbue plenty of danger into the story. And I think I would enjoy the story a lot more if it were the Two Dancing Princesses, or maybe just The Dancing Princess. Twelve is simply too many.

So with that in mind, I can tentatively recommend this one for middle-grade readers who like their fairy tales with a darker twist. Me, though? I think I’ll stay away from this fairy tale from now on.

Review copy provided by the publisher. The Princess Curse is on shelves now.