Book Review: The Prince and the Dressmaker – Jen Wang

“Do you…”
“I know everything about the prince. It is none of my business.” (92)

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang
Rating: 5 Stars

Quick, adorable, emotional, charming — this was such an easy-to-rate 5 stars. Graphic novels aren’t my typical book format, but this one is yet another reminder that I really should read these more often. Frances is a lowly seamstress at a small shop when her daring dress design for a client catches the eye of Sebastian, the Crown Prince of Belgium. Offered a position as Sebastian’s personal seamstress, Frances discovers she’s actually been employed to design dresses for Sebastian’s covert night escapades as Lady Crystallia.

I love the innocence of Frances and Sebastian as they discover who they are and what they want in life. It amazes me the amount of complexity and emotion that was fit into such a relatively short story. Each character had a distinctive personality, from the strong, powerful King to the calm, assessing Frances, and this story’s series of events and its associated rise-and-fall in suspense were perfectly paced over the course of the novel. I also loved the general tone surrounding Prince Sebastian’s secret; there wasn’t nastiness or evil, just misconception and confusion as to the situation.

The artwork for this novel was beautiful. From the dress designs to the people to the settings, everything was done to an incredible level of detail, such that I found myself spending probably an excessive amount of time examining Sebastian’s dressing room and noting the music hall dancers’ muscle tone. I loved how the panels varied from looking down at the scene from above to close-ups on the characters’ facial expressions to a more standard side view. It helped move the story along, but also forced the reader to pause when something particularly emotional was taking place.

The ending got me in all the feels and I wanted to hug everyone in the story. This is an easy recommendation for anyone who wants a pure, emotional story of finding oneself in the world.