What would I like for my 15th birthday, by Mia Thermopolis:

• End to world hunger

• New cat brush for Fat Louie

• Lana Weinberger's head on a silver platter

• Michael Moscovitz to ask me to the Senior Prom

Bowling??? My Boyfriend would rather go bowling on his prom night than go to the prom!!! Does he not have a romantic bone in his body?

It's nearly Mia's fifteenth birthday. A time when a princess should be looking forward to total self-actualization. And getting ready for the biggest night of her life - the Senior Prom, escorted by her ultra-hottie boyfriend, Michael. After all, it's not long before Mia will lose her one true love to all those big-busted college girls!

But nothing's going according to plan. It's bad enough that Mia's facing a summer of sceptre-wielding in Genovia. Even worse is the fact that the man of her dreams has neglected to invite her to the prom at all. Hello, what exactly is going ON there?

Just as Mia cooks up a plan to change Michael's mind, disaster strikes. The kind of disaster that only a miracle can overcome. A miracle called Grandmere...

 
The fifth book to date in the Princess Diaries series. I'm hoping the books will mature along with the characters, and by the end of the series I'll be reading less bratishness and more interesting problems teens have in their lives.

 

 
August 1st 2004
The End

I really disliked this book, in so many ways! When I first bought it I had hoped that Mia would grow out of some of her brattishness by this point and begin to become the responsible adult she often believes herself to be. Instead she has regressed far beyond anything I could have imagined. The only person with less integrity is her so-called best-friend Lily, who has been an unpleasant character from the start and in this book proves herself cruel and thoughtless to boot.

Mia wants to go to the prom. Michael couldn't care less. But what Mia wants, Mia gets, after all she's a princess now. This book focuses on all the schemes and tricks Mia plays on the boy she claims to love in order to get him to take her to a dance he would rather skip, so that she can show off and wear a pretty dress. Throughout the whole book I want to shake her and scream BE HONEST!!! Meanwhile her Grandmere contravenes restaurant health codes and takes her horrible yappy dog to dinner and when he escapes and causes chaos, she blames a waiter which sparks a state-wide strike. Lily, the militant campaigner, turns against her friend (AGAIN! Why Mia doesn't dump her sorry ass I don't know!) and supports the striking service industry...and in particular one hunky waiter. It would be fine, if she didn't already have a devoted boyfriend, Boris, who she humiliates at Mia's birthday party.

I can't honestly decide whether I like the Princess Diaries, but they're easily readable and entertaining. I don't like the underlying messages that people can be as obnoxious as they like, and still get everything their own way. I hate that! Mia's been manipulative and obnoxious, but the author seems to think she's a perfect heroine and that we should feel sympathy for her even when she behaves appallingly. I can't do that. When people, however flawed they are, treat their friends and loved ones with contempt they should be seen to fall down at the end. Mia seems to do nothing but lie and obfuscate the truth and then expect them to trust her. It sucks. Having said that the books are silly and entertaining, and for the most part enjoyable. I just wish there was a little more justice.