Part-Time Princesses

by Monica Gallagher

Working as costumed princesses at the local amusement park is a nice gig, but it’s not what Courtney, Amber, Tiffany, and Michelle want to do with their lives. These queens of high school have their own plans for life post-graduation, and they do not involve fixed games and fried pickles.

But when all their plans fall apart, what are the girls to do? Left with no other options, they decide to keep their part-time jobs as princesses–for the moment. But even that plan is threatening to fall apart, thanks to the sudden and increasing muggings plaguing the park and chasing away customers.

With their back-up jobs in peril, the girls have no choice but to take matters into their own hands and fight back. But the more they work to save the park, the more their part-time jobs become full-time, and the more their carefully-planned futures get pushed to the wayside. Will these princesses ever get their lives back on track?

Will they even want to?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Young Adult, Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, LGBT, Teen

165 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2015

About the author

Monica Gallagher is an indie creator with over fifteen years experience making comics and illustrations with a positive, feminist spin. She has worked for Oni Press, Vertigo, Papercutz, and Valiant, and as well as self-published several of her own mini-comics and books. Her current webcomics are Assassin Roommate and BOO! It's Sex!, updated weekly on Webtoons. Monica recently finished her first scripted podcast with Alex Segura, Lethal Lit, (mentioned by the New York Times as “A Great Podcast of 2018”!) for iHeart Radio.

Reviews

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an odd little graphic novel. It stars four very unlikeable, snotty teenage girls whose life plans suddenly go arwy. Instead of fleeing their home town for modelling/acting/cheerleading/university, they are stuck working at a local amusement park and trying to save it from destruction. This could have worked well as a story, but the author made a lot of weird/unfortunate choices that resulted in a very unsatisfying book.

First of all, the characters were not very pleasant. The four girls were the popular, mean girls of their high school. They looked down on everyone else, and this really didn't change much throughout the book. They were snobby and conceited, yet faced few direct consequences for their self-absorbtion. I just didn't enjoy reading about them, and I found it had to believe that they could have been so self-deluded.

The plot was also strange and not very developed. The four girls all try really hard to follow their dreams, but none succeed. However, we never really learn why for most of them. One is supposed in trouble from her parents for not trying harder so... she stops trying? The "smart" one gets rejected from EVERY university on her list. Did she only apply to Ivy League schools? Was she really not a great student? Who knows! The model and cheerleader both have one audition, but neither work. Thus, LIFE IS OVER. I know rejections suck, particularly when you are young, but it seems silly that this group barely tried! Perhaps this was not the author's intent, but it would have been best to show readers a bit more about how these girls prepared in order to really show how devastating this blow was.

Furthermore, the fact that they became interested in other things and talents was a good path to follow, but we didn't get enough development of this part of the plot. They decide to protect the park from an evil scheme of the mayor's (because he's... evil? Or something?), and they learn a lot as they try to upgrade infrastructure and make the park a better place to be. However, the whole problem just seems so silly (hoodied gang members attack attendees!), and in a black and white comic, it's hard to actually see the improvements that were made.

In the end, there's conflict over whether the girls should actually be working harder towards their original goals, with the smart one feeling upset that only she seems to be trying again. Perhaps this is the hook for a second book as she gets into university and seems torn between whether she should go off and capture her dreams or stick with her friends. In any case, at the end, the girls all seem to be sorta-friends with the other park kids, but they are still snobby, I have no idea if they still want to really follow their dreams or now have new dreams, and why the hell was the mayor trying to underhandedly destroy the park? Weren't there legitimate means of doing so?

Part-time Princesses definitely needed some editing, and colour would have made a lot of the plot much more apparent. However, props for the queer relationship that was normalised!

[Miranda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh no, teenage girls who are *GASP* UNLIKEABLE! Say it ain't so!

Whatever, I liked this a lot.

[Peter Derk · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, a little Scooby-Doo-y. There's a derelict amusement park and a shadowy figure who is being bothered by these damn meddling teens. But overall I kinda liked it.

What I liked about it is that the characters are a bit unlikable. Which is to say, they are flawed, jerkass people. Which is to say, in Tina Fey parlance, they are Mean Girls.

But in the end, they totally change! 15%. Maybe 10%. Okay, they don't totally change. They make a slight improvement to being less jerkassy jerks.

What I like about this, it's something I don't see as often in books, especially books that seem targeted towards teens. I think so many of us are so afraid to hand this kind of book to teens because it's like, "No! Bad! There's someone drinking beer in here! And smoking! And one of our protagonists calls people nerds!? They don't respect their peers! They're self-absorbed! One of them sleeps with multiple partners, and though I'm totally okay with people expressing their sexuality and whatnot, and though I would never slut shame, it seems best to just avoid even implied sexuality. What kind of example are these characters setting?"

I feel like there are two possible missteps in that line of thinking, or two areas where I have a difference of opinion.

Number one, I feel like giving teens only the most positive of characters, only telling stories about role models, is something we do because we're afraid that teens will emulate the bad behavior. I think teenagers deserve a little more credit than that. I honestly don't believe that we can attribute, say, the consumption of a beer in this book to teen alcoholism. That's Seduction of the Innocent horseshit. That's saying Superman shouldn't exist because one time a kid jumped out a window. That's saying Beavis and Butthead shouldn't exist because one time a kid burned down his house and killed his younger sister. That's saying certain types of music need to be labeled and potentially banned because of the content of the lyrics. Look, Catcher in the Rye has a weird history with this stuff, John Hinckley, Mark David Chapman, possibly Lee Harvey Oswald, ALL alleged fans of the book, all assassins. So how can we possibly still teach it in schools? Because 250,000 copies of that book are sold every year. Well over 65 million total copies have been sold. Is three people who committed a violent act statistically significant and loved this book statistically significant? No. It's a much stronger case for the book NOT being a problem, that of 65 million copies, 3 have sparked something. Even if it were true that the book caused something to happen, those numbers don't really tell us much of anything.

Short version, I don't really think teens are going to become assholes because they read a book about assholes, especially when, like this one, the assholery is not shown as being awesome. It is what it is.

Number two, I feel that reading about characters who you don't particularly like is a great way to develop empathy. We ALL went to high school with some assholes. Or we say, "Everyone pretty much got along when I was in school" which probably means you were the assholes. This might be a rebellious, un-internet thing to say, but I think that assholes...also deserve empathy. I'm not really with this trend where, if someone acts like an asshole, it's game on and we just light into them. And maybe they work for some, but I don't feel that the stories where none of the main characters are assholes feel very real. That's just me, but I suspect others feel very much the same way. I can't say I entirely "get" stories where everyone is so nice and perfect because that's not how I think things are. I suppose it could be escapism, and that's legit, but I feel that escapism is one reason readers read, but it's not why everyone reads.

Anyway, I think it's a good read for people who have read some teen-centric comics and are looking for something with main characters who can be willfully problematic.

[LibraryDanielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

the artwork was good, the story ok, but the princesses sucked.

[Newly Wardell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four popular losers save an amusement park so they can have jobs. Seriously that's the plot. Four truly crappy girls get summer jobs as princesses at a theme park and for some reason this empowers them to be vile. I have never been so happy that at characters not getting what they want. I hope they work at that park forever. There's a lesbian experimentation, a training montage, and a conspiracy and it doesn't make this help this story. The illustration style is the sole reason for the second star.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Kind of Scooby Doo meets Mean Girls. Stereotypical, mean popular girls get a bit of a taste of reality when their lives don't go according to plan and they have to work as princesses at a failing amusement park. I really wish the art had been full-color, but I liked the bit of LGBT plot addition, and there's some good stuff.

[Emily Luebke · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this one up randomly from my library, as y'do. It looked like it was trying to be a "girl graphic novel" what with the glitter title and it being about princesses, so I was curious what that might look like. I find that I usually enjoy contemporary, slice of life type GNs. Well, as you can tell by my star rating, I was not impressed. Even a little. This demeans us all.

The characters are all popular hot girls who treat everyone else like trash. 'Okay', I thought to myself, 'they'll probably learn and grow through the story.' NOPE. They learn to tolerate the "geeks", but never see them as actual human people. They have absolutely no affection for anyone other than their friend group, and with how disgustingly bitchy these girls are I wonder how they stay friends with one another. All the side characters are pushed aside for the reader as well, barely getting names, always looking less classically attractive than the lead girls, never getting subplots or focus of their own. Now some people will defend this saying "It's more realistic because some girls are like that." Okay, but usually when girls are like that in a story it is so they can learn not to be so shitty. Not to continue being shitty and still win.

The progression of the story is also terrible. The girls' life dreams get ruined so they are forced back to their summer job as princesses in a small amusement park. Bad things start happening because of a COMICALLY terrible villain. Seriously, when I found out what was going on I laughed out loud. Saturday morning cartoons are looking at this "evil plot" and shaking their heads.

The girls decide to foil this...nefarious idiocy, so they montage their way to fighting skills, construction skills, general badassery. Then they talk about how much they are getting to like these new things they learned which we barely see them use as they take over the park, cut the owner out of the loop because fuck adults I guess, and "save the day". It doesn't flow. It doesn't make sense. It is clunky, choppy, and poorly executed.

The art is lazy. I'm fine with black and white drawings, but there was no detail. Backgrounds were blank half the time, or very lazily drawn with no personality or detail. The characters frequently went off model, to the point where I sometimes wasn't sure who I was looking it. Scenes were sloppily set up and drawn at odd angles so I had to look for a long time to understand what was happening.

I only kept reading this steaming pile because I wanted to review it and also kept up a morbid hope that it might get better. It didn't.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Four best friends, high school seniors whose dreams for post-graduation aren't panning out - college, modeling, etc. This ends up being good for them, though, as they find out they're interested in more than they realized. The cheerleader likes engineering. The avid actor enjoys architectural set design. Bonuses: a romance develops between two of the girls. And a few different shapes/sizes are represented. Will appeal to princess lovers, while showing them they can like and be more than hyper feminine. But the snobbery though... This book was too Mean Girls for me. The attitude all four girls hold that they are above everyone persists for the entire book. There is maybe an insightful moment of insecurity here and there. They are good friends to each other but treat everyone else poorly. 2.5.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story was ok, but the characters started out insufferable and only some of them changed that at all. I think they will continue to learn and grow past the end of the story (and goodness knows we're basically all idiots in high school), but their snobbiness didn't really change and that was the part that bothered me the most.

The art is fun and suits the story nicely. I think if there were more volumes I would keep going to see how the characters do now that they've discovered some new things about themselves.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

*2.5 Stars* I really enjoy black and whites but for this one I really wish it was in color. The story was not what I expected it to be at all. I feel more could have been done. The girls in this were super stereotypical.

[Melodie Roschman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Scattered plot, unlikable characters, and I was 2/3 of the way through before I was able to tell the girls apart. It gets some points for featuring a queer relationship and diverse body types though.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art was good, the story was kind of slow, and I wasn't really invested in any of the characters. I usually like unlikeable characters, especially girls, but not this time.

[Geno · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ★
---
"Part-Time Princesses" es una novela gráfica con una buena premisa y una pobre ejecución.

Nos presenta cuatro amigas populares y bastante mala gente, que de pronto descubren que sus futuros soñados no son posibles y deciden ocultar su fracaso trabajando como princesas en un parque de diversiones en decadencia.

Empezando por lo mejor del libro, se puede mencionar el arte. Es un estilo muy limpio y claro que va bien con la trama más “liviana”, a pesar de eso, algunos diseños de personajes son muy similares.

Mi principal queja es trata de abarcar muchos temas en pocas páginas y no termina profundizando en nada.

Las protagonistas son personajes horrendos, sí, la idea es que sean “mean girls” pero no crecen ni mejoran, terminan en el mismo lugar que empezaron, solo que unos meses después. Que hayan “fracasado” al comienzo del libro es la excusa para tener la subtrama del parque, pero tampoco se desarrolla, hay un villano que quiere el terreno y eso es todo. Nada tiene motivación.

Es una idea entretenida, que tal vez necesitaba más páginas para desarrollarse o menos personajes.
Probablemente un público adolescente disfrute del libro.

---

"Part-Time Princesses" is a graphic novel with a good premise and poor execution.

It introduces us to four popular but unlikeable teenage girls, who suddenly discover that their dreams are not possible and decide to work as princesses in a local amusement park.

The best part of the book is the artwork, simple and clear. It goes well with the “lighter” tone of the plot, even if some character designs are very similar.

My main complaint with the story is that it tries to cover a lot of topics at surface level.

The protagonists are horrible characters, they are “mean girls” but they don't grow, and they end up in the same place. That they "failed" at the beginning of the book is the excuse to have the park subplot. Another thing that is not developed either.

It's an entertaining idea, which perhaps needed more pages to develop or fewer characters to work with to give them more space to grow.
A teenage audience will probably enjoy this book better.

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars rounded down.

4 high school popular girls who work as princesses in an amusement park decide they're SO much better than the amusement park and are just absolutely mean to the owner and other workers. Then their after-high school plans fall apart (for some unknown reasons for some of them). So they come back (still mean, non-humbled) and try to save the amusement park from some random mugging that seem to be happening by a group of like 20 hooded figures throughout the spring? We never really see anyone take the blame for the muggings and the plot overall seems unfinished.

The characters were unlikable (think Mean Girls) with maybe 10% character development by the end. They were snotty and even after all the "we worked together" and "we need help" they still thought themselves above all their peers. The only redeeming quality is that they're a pretty solid friend group. 2 girls were brunettes and 2 were blonde but honestly I couldn't tell them apart with the art style. Some color in the comics would have helped the overall story (it's in an amusement park and there's even a scene complaining about the drab colors...in black and white) as well as to help tell the girls apart. The ending was pretty unsatisfactory to the point where I finished it and then looked at the last 2 pages in confusion, flipping them back and forth trying to find the real ending...or some comment about a sequel...or something.

[Christina Getrost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting graphic novel about four graduating senior girls who, when their life plans for college or dance team auditions or modeling tours in Europe fall through, decide to stick with their summer jobs of portraying Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel and the Little Mermaid in a Disney-knockoff local amusement park. But the park has become rundown and has a bad reputation for muggings and gang activity, and no matter how much the girls try their hand at improving the park--cleaning, painting, fixing, teaching themselves how to be handy with tools--the crowds still aren't coming. So they decide to get really serious: take self-defense classes and take on the gang members physically! Along the way they also learn a little humility--they were the "popular" girls and treated the male employees as beneath them--and teamwork. I liked the story idea, and there's some humor, but the art is so-so; I sometimes had trouble differentiating the two blondes and two brunettes from each other. But a cute twist on princess stories.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this enough, I thought the story itself was good, but it was definitely lacking. I wasn't a big fan of the main characters, they were the typical "mean girls:" the popular girls who think they're better than everyone, and treat those "below" them terribly. So it wasn't fun to read about these spoiled and entitled girls. (Though I did like their friendship.)

I think the art would have benefited from colour, it was nice enough in black and white, but I think a comic about princesses and a theme park deserves some colour. It would have been easier to kind of follow along, I thought the story was a little disjointed-seeming as it was.

The two stars don't mean that this was a bad read, I plowed through it. Just that there was potential for so much more.

[Arminzerella · Rating 2 out of 5]

Four high school divas work summers at an amusement park (Enchanted Park) as princesses, but each has plans for their futures - college, modeling, cheer squad + a scholarship, the stage. When these dreams are temporarily thwarted, the girls sign up for another summer at the park. But something is amiss. Bad publicity and a series of muggings have given the park a reputation that's keeping everyone away. The girls throw themselves into a new project - saving Enchanted Park. They'll have to learn all kinds of new things about how to run an amusement park (stuff they never cared about before), and will need to put on their detective hats to figure out who's behind the smear campaign and the crimes. The "princesses" redeem themselves by the end, but they're not terribly likable initially.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is essentially a bunch of whiny teen girls "bitching" about how hard their job is and how self-centered they are and how that creates issues within their personal lives.
I wanted to like it for the theme park tie-in (considering my personal background in theme park entertainment), but it was, at least in my opinion, a poorly written and cheaply/poorly illustrated graphic novel.

Others may like it, but I didn't enjoy it at all. While a lot of the moments that occur are "factual" regarding certain teen attitudes, the book felt a lot like Bella's complaints throughout New Moon (4 whole chapters of angsty teen complaining)…..

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

What made me decide to pick up this book out of the clearance section at the comic book store was the title. Well, after reading this graphic novel, I should have saved my money. The story lacked substance and plot development. The characters lacked personality, and the conflict of the story was just okay. I liked the idea that these teenagers wanted to save the dying amusement park, but it was poorly executed. I feel the lack of color didn't help the story as well especially when the character had dialogue that discussed tacky 80s colors on the walls, and the panels for that page were black and white. Overall, it was a miss for me.

[寿理 宮本 · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story about dealing with disappointment and trying (struggling!) to make the best of it, especially after finding out the reason for a lot of their failure is something unexpected.

That probably sounds WAY vague, but I don't know what else to say that still avoids spoilers.

The art is a bit rough, and the ending is a little weird, but worth a read. I definitely wouldn't have tried what they did, had I been in any of their positions, but then I also wouldn't get a public-facing job (especially while still in high school!).

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wavered back and forth on how to rate this story. The four leads all were stuck-up, snotty, and self-obsessed. To have them all lose out on their bright futures and turn that into a passion for saving a failing theme park seemed to big of a stretch. I needed a little bit more empathy or humanity for any of the four to invest in the characters and their overall arc.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was...okay. I like some of it and I liked that most of them kinda grew up and changed, but they were all really cruel and treated everyone terribly. I do like how they all joined together to save the park.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little Scooby Doo-ish, "those meddling kids!"
However, 4 main characters were totally unlikeable teenage girls whose plans on getting out of town after graduation for bigger things fall through made me feel "meh" about the book over all.

[Squiddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical unlikable seniors of the sort you can't wait to see picked off one-by-one in a horror movie. Regardless, I really liked it. It picked up as it went along and got better and better. I didn't expect to end up liking it or even finishing. I'll be keeping an eye out for more of this.

[Kat Ice · Rating 5 out of 5]

super cute graphic novel!! loved the artistry and plot. Of course I also loved it because it was Disney princesses! it flowed really well and was great showing real life problems.

[Sara Houser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the Disney princess undertone. Graphics and the story line great. A+

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightful and fun short graphic novel. I love the characters

[nidah05 (SleepDreamWrite) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay volume.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one and although it was an alright story it didn't really end well. It kind of lost its way.

[Lizzy Seitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0 out of 5 stars

Cute take on girls being kick ass, college not being necessary, and featuring a wlw relationship