Miyara is a princess. Notably, she's a princess in among a gaggle of other princesses, all of whom are smart or athletic or political or responsible or some combination of all of the above. Miyara doesn't know what she is, exactly. But she's trying to figure it out. And the pressure from her family, to fit into their own expectations of who they think she is or could be, is, well, rather intense. In the end, Miyara decides that whoever she is, she isn't Princess Miyara. And disappears, to go find herself, doing, well, something else. The story follows her struggles as she tries to figure out what that Something Else actually is, partially through the medium of tea; the centre of the narrative is Miyara's struggle for personhood outside of the institution formed around her like a shell. Smart, thoughtful, kind, anxious and a little sharp, Miyara is someone whose head it's a pleasure to spend time in - which is just as well, because she does have a penchant for analysing how she's feeling in real time. As our view into the world, her exisitng privilege is helpful - becausue she's as confused as we are about why people are doing things the way they are, how society is set up, how the less fortunate live, how the more fortunate live rather well, how magic and power and social privilege intertwine, etc. Her insulation from the Real World (tm) lets us lift our ignorance of the world along with her, which makes for a decent read.
And what a world it is; one part steampunk insanity, with cooking appliances powered by magic and wizard-enforcement, and one part just people going about their day, going to cafe's and trying to pay the rent, and complaining about the fact that paying the rent keeps on getting harder. There's a contemporary strand running through this universe of wonder, a strand that worries about people getting priced out of neighbourhoods, worries about the cost of groceries, worries about friends and relatives and how theyre making ends meet. There's a thread that wants to attack power and systemic repression and bigotry in there too, and a thread that looks at economics and power and what the cost of doing business means on the ground. It's a vibrant, colourful world, filled with quirks, and, yes, filled with magic. But it also looks quite a lot like our own, in ways that matter - a tale that resonates is built from a world whose details feel real, feel like they matter, feel genuine and true. And Blair builds that world for us through Miyaras's eyes, leaving behind a living tapestry of joy and sorrow, and...again...tea,
The story...well, it starts fast, then gives you a view into the quieter universe that Miyara can use to build herself up, and find her own truth. But it doesn't flinch away from high stakes. It wants to use fantasy to talk about big issues, and it achieves that, in a gentle way that seeps off the page and into your bones. It's a story that I found myself unwilling to stop readiong, because I wanted to see how it would play out. Whether Miyara would find a version of herself she wanted to be, whether a Princess could become a Tea Master. Not whether the world could be saved or not, but if a person could be, if a neighbourhood could be, and how that could happen.
In short, it's a good time - a warm, emotional book that serves as a paean for empathy and kindess, families (found and otherwise), and more than a splash of magic. Give it a whirl, possibly with a blanket and a cup of tea of your own!
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