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The Rabbit Princess: The Path
Four 2019 Purple Dragonfly Book First Place - Young Adult Fiction, First Place - Chapter Book, Honorable Mention - Middle Grade Fiction, Honorable Mention - Science Fiction/Fantasy
Award-Winning Finalist in the Children's Fiction category of the 2019 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest
2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) - Bronze Medal
“We all need more than ourselves in this world.” Princess Annie and the Crown Prince Pika, unwittingly, set in motion a rebellion that brings down their kingdom and gets them magically turned into rabbits on a forbidden mountain. Trying to stay alive and find a way back to the human world, they search for the legendary unicorn spirit, Qilin, with the hopes she can reverse the magic spell. But soon, they are pulled into a perilous war between ferocious animals and spirits where their dreams, loyalties and courage are tested, and they must discover who they really are. Now it's up to Annie and Pika to save another kingdom from falling before they run out of time.
The Rabbit Princess is an incredible adventure of a brother and sister finding their own paths through life, in a world where hope is a stronger potion than magic, and one’s own will to dream can transform one into a hero.
Award-Winning Finalist in the Children's Fiction category of the 2019 Best Book Awards sponsored by American Book Fest
2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) - Bronze Medal
“We all need more than ourselves in this world.” Princess Annie and the Crown Prince Pika, unwittingly, set in motion a rebellion that brings down their kingdom and gets them magically turned into rabbits on a forbidden mountain. Trying to stay alive and find a way back to the human world, they search for the legendary unicorn spirit, Qilin, with the hopes she can reverse the magic spell. But soon, they are pulled into a perilous war between ferocious animals and spirits where their dreams, loyalties and courage are tested, and they must discover who they really are. Now it's up to Annie and Pika to save another kingdom from falling before they run out of time.
The Rabbit Princess is an incredible adventure of a brother and sister finding their own paths through life, in a world where hope is a stronger potion than magic, and one’s own will to dream can transform one into a hero.
166 pages, Paperback
Published January 2, 2019
61 people are currently reading
423 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
July 21, 2019
super cute, but the ending was so open, i wish for a sequel! update: i just discovered there IS going to be a sequel, so i’m bumping up to 5 stars! so excited for it!
September 26, 2019
3.5 stars.
August 23, 2019
If I could have six-starred this one, I would have. I cannot wait to read this one to my children!
April 17, 2023
Hello, This is Lauren Brantley Books and I’m here today with my review of The Rabbit Princess by R. Chen. The rabbit princess begins with a princess named Annie and her brother the Crown Prince Pika. They are the two spoiled children of the Emperor who rules over his country with an iron fist. Annie especially is a spoiled brat and prone to fits of rage. Already at age twelve she had gone mad with her power. She has thrown countless people in the imperial dungeons, runs the castle staff ragged with her petty demands, and throws a fit if something doesn't go her way. One example early on we see of her immaturity is that the princess demands cake for every meal. She won’t accept anything but a special dragonfruit cake that the chef has to make for her daily. One day the chef can’t get all the ingredients for her cake and has to substitute. When the princess finds out about this, she absolutely flips out. She throws a hissy fit and has the chef thrown in the dungeon, just as she has done to so many other people.
Now the princess clearly gets her bad attitude from her father. It turns out her mother was actually a very sweet woman, who was forced to marry the emperor. They had anything but a happy marriage, and eventually the mother took ill and died leaving the children with only their father the emperor. Annie idolizes her tyrant father and wants to be just like him. Pika on the other hand, seems almost reluctant to be the next in line for the thrown and takes more after his mother. He’s still a spoiled brat, but much less so than his sister Annie.
The plot gets started when one day the princess and her brother ride into town for some good old fashioned kowtowing from the peasants. The princess absolutely laps up the attention she is getting from the kowtowing peasants, but things go awry when one the peasants- an old woman- forgets to come out to kowtow her. The woman’s young son yells at the princess and insults her, and the princess takes such offense that she has the boy arrested despite the old woman’s pleas to leave him be. This turns out to be a giant mistake for Annie and Pika. The old woman whose son they took turned out to be a witch, and the townsfolk seeing the princess arrest the boy was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The old woman organizes a rebellion against the monarchy and the peasants march up to the castle to kill the emperor. They actually succeed. The emperor is captured and killed, and despite his best attempts to save his children, they are betrayed by someone who was meant to protect them, and turned over the peasants. The two children are brought before the witch Annie crossed, and instead of kill them, she decides to curse them. She turns them into rabbits and dumps them in a faraway forest where there’s nothing to keep them company but wild animals.
After Annie and Pika get into a fight their first night, Pika runs off, but he returns the next day with a new friend, a jerboa named Naso. Naso is actually the narrator of the entire story, and the story starts with Naso telling her granddaughter Osani the story of the rabbit princess. It was a bit jarring sometimes when Naso’s commentary would interrupt the story, but overall having Naso as the narrator worked just fine. Naso helps Annie and Pika survive their first couple of nights in the wild and she takes them to a temple where animals live under the protection of the panda spirit named Leuca. In this world, spirits are animals who have ascended and become like living gods. They guard the animals of the world, and there’s a catch where only another spirit can kill a spirit. In this story, there are three main spirits- a crane spirit named Onensis, a panda spirit named Leuca, and a tiger spirit named Moyen. Moyen is the antagonist of the story and Moyen has ambitions to rule over all the animals in the world. He just wants power for the sake of power and wants to start by taking over the animals who are ruled by Leuca. There's a threat of war between Leuca and Moyen’s forces, and Annie and Pika quickly become wrapped up in the drama.
One thing that was confusing about this novel was the descriptions of the animals and how they lived. It’s unclear if the animals are supposed to be anthropomorphic or not, but there are several occasions in the book where it seems so. Animals are described as living in houses, using weapons, farming, sewing, and doing all sorts of things that would require hands and two legs. At the same time, these animals still hunt one another like normal animals do. So there’s some carnivore confusion going on. I wish the descriptions of the animals had been more clear as to whether they are supposed to be anthropomorphic or not. As it is, only Annie herself is confirmed to be anthropomorphic, and that’s because of the circumstances of their curse. We get several illustrations of characters in this book and they are never depicted as anthropomorphic. If they are not supposed to be anthropomorphic then it makes no sense that these animals can fight wars with swords, or farm rice, or build treehouses and temples. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book that much, personally I decided that these animals must be anthropomorphic to some degree for the story to work. The story itself does read a bit like a fairy tale, so it makes sense that some background elements are unexplained.
The other major complaint I have with this story is that for about 3/4 of it, it’s not really Annie’s story like the title and cover would have you believe. Instead the story overwhelmingly focuses of Annie’s brother Pika. Pika is a good, well-rounded character who goes through a nice arc during the story. I liked seeing him grow from a self-centered prince to a hardened warrior willing to fight on the battlefield to defeat Moyen’s army. I don’t see why this book wasn’t just called the rabbit prince instead. It would have been a more accurate title, considering about three quarters of the story focuses on Pika. My only guess is that they wanted to appeal to a female demographic more, so they made Annie the focus of the title and cover. Pika is a well-rounded character, and I did enjoy his arc. I just don’t see why so much of the focus of the story was on his journey as opposed to his sister’s if this book is called the rabbit princess.
The last quarter or so of this book quite abruptly switches to focus on Annie’s journey instead of Pika’s journey. We are told, not shown, most of her character development. There’s about two pages where Annie is said to have suddenly become a dependable friend to the other animals and martial arts expert. We are never shown any scene of her working alongside the animals and gaining their trust. Nor are we given any scenes where Annie trains hard to become a martial arts master. We are just told in a manner of paragraphs that she is now a badass warrior and rebel. This is a huge disservice to the story. It felt extremely rushed and half-assed. Like why show so much of Pika’s development, if Annie's just going to get rushed like this. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have taken the same amount of time we gave Pika to Annie’s character development. With good character development, it is so important to show, not tell. We need to see how every character beat further adds to the character's journey and development. There’s no shortcut to showing character development, and summarizing the character’s growth into a few paragraphs is just a huge disservice. I understand that there is a sequel to the rabbit princess, and hopefully we’ll get to see more of Annie’s character development play out in that. But as a stand alone book, the rabbit princess really has a bad case of showing not telling when it comes to the main character’s development.
Overall, I will recommend the rabbit princess. It’s an Asian-inspirited fairy tale with a broad appeal. You just have to be aware going in that the main character is pretty passive for most of the story, and it’s not until the last quarter where her agency really ramps up. The rabbit princess is also a fairy short read at only about 150 pages, so it’s easy to get through. I’d say definitely check this out if you are into fairy tales. This is Lauren Brantley Books and thank you for reading my review of The Rabbit Princess by R.Chen. If you have any suggestions for what I should review next, please let me know in the comment below.
Now the princess clearly gets her bad attitude from her father. It turns out her mother was actually a very sweet woman, who was forced to marry the emperor. They had anything but a happy marriage, and eventually the mother took ill and died leaving the children with only their father the emperor. Annie idolizes her tyrant father and wants to be just like him. Pika on the other hand, seems almost reluctant to be the next in line for the thrown and takes more after his mother. He’s still a spoiled brat, but much less so than his sister Annie.
The plot gets started when one day the princess and her brother ride into town for some good old fashioned kowtowing from the peasants. The princess absolutely laps up the attention she is getting from the kowtowing peasants, but things go awry when one the peasants- an old woman- forgets to come out to kowtow her. The woman’s young son yells at the princess and insults her, and the princess takes such offense that she has the boy arrested despite the old woman’s pleas to leave him be. This turns out to be a giant mistake for Annie and Pika. The old woman whose son they took turned out to be a witch, and the townsfolk seeing the princess arrest the boy was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The old woman organizes a rebellion against the monarchy and the peasants march up to the castle to kill the emperor. They actually succeed. The emperor is captured and killed, and despite his best attempts to save his children, they are betrayed by someone who was meant to protect them, and turned over the peasants. The two children are brought before the witch Annie crossed, and instead of kill them, she decides to curse them. She turns them into rabbits and dumps them in a faraway forest where there’s nothing to keep them company but wild animals.
After Annie and Pika get into a fight their first night, Pika runs off, but he returns the next day with a new friend, a jerboa named Naso. Naso is actually the narrator of the entire story, and the story starts with Naso telling her granddaughter Osani the story of the rabbit princess. It was a bit jarring sometimes when Naso’s commentary would interrupt the story, but overall having Naso as the narrator worked just fine. Naso helps Annie and Pika survive their first couple of nights in the wild and she takes them to a temple where animals live under the protection of the panda spirit named Leuca. In this world, spirits are animals who have ascended and become like living gods. They guard the animals of the world, and there’s a catch where only another spirit can kill a spirit. In this story, there are three main spirits- a crane spirit named Onensis, a panda spirit named Leuca, and a tiger spirit named Moyen. Moyen is the antagonist of the story and Moyen has ambitions to rule over all the animals in the world. He just wants power for the sake of power and wants to start by taking over the animals who are ruled by Leuca. There's a threat of war between Leuca and Moyen’s forces, and Annie and Pika quickly become wrapped up in the drama.
One thing that was confusing about this novel was the descriptions of the animals and how they lived. It’s unclear if the animals are supposed to be anthropomorphic or not, but there are several occasions in the book where it seems so. Animals are described as living in houses, using weapons, farming, sewing, and doing all sorts of things that would require hands and two legs. At the same time, these animals still hunt one another like normal animals do. So there’s some carnivore confusion going on. I wish the descriptions of the animals had been more clear as to whether they are supposed to be anthropomorphic or not. As it is, only Annie herself is confirmed to be anthropomorphic, and that’s because of the circumstances of their curse. We get several illustrations of characters in this book and they are never depicted as anthropomorphic. If they are not supposed to be anthropomorphic then it makes no sense that these animals can fight wars with swords, or farm rice, or build treehouses and temples. It didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the book that much, personally I decided that these animals must be anthropomorphic to some degree for the story to work. The story itself does read a bit like a fairy tale, so it makes sense that some background elements are unexplained.
The other major complaint I have with this story is that for about 3/4 of it, it’s not really Annie’s story like the title and cover would have you believe. Instead the story overwhelmingly focuses of Annie’s brother Pika. Pika is a good, well-rounded character who goes through a nice arc during the story. I liked seeing him grow from a self-centered prince to a hardened warrior willing to fight on the battlefield to defeat Moyen’s army. I don’t see why this book wasn’t just called the rabbit prince instead. It would have been a more accurate title, considering about three quarters of the story focuses on Pika. My only guess is that they wanted to appeal to a female demographic more, so they made Annie the focus of the title and cover. Pika is a well-rounded character, and I did enjoy his arc. I just don’t see why so much of the focus of the story was on his journey as opposed to his sister’s if this book is called the rabbit princess.
The last quarter or so of this book quite abruptly switches to focus on Annie’s journey instead of Pika’s journey. We are told, not shown, most of her character development. There’s about two pages where Annie is said to have suddenly become a dependable friend to the other animals and martial arts expert. We are never shown any scene of her working alongside the animals and gaining their trust. Nor are we given any scenes where Annie trains hard to become a martial arts master. We are just told in a manner of paragraphs that she is now a badass warrior and rebel. This is a huge disservice to the story. It felt extremely rushed and half-assed. Like why show so much of Pika’s development, if Annie's just going to get rushed like this. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have taken the same amount of time we gave Pika to Annie’s character development. With good character development, it is so important to show, not tell. We need to see how every character beat further adds to the character's journey and development. There’s no shortcut to showing character development, and summarizing the character’s growth into a few paragraphs is just a huge disservice. I understand that there is a sequel to the rabbit princess, and hopefully we’ll get to see more of Annie’s character development play out in that. But as a stand alone book, the rabbit princess really has a bad case of showing not telling when it comes to the main character’s development.
Overall, I will recommend the rabbit princess. It’s an Asian-inspirited fairy tale with a broad appeal. You just have to be aware going in that the main character is pretty passive for most of the story, and it’s not until the last quarter where her agency really ramps up. The rabbit princess is also a fairy short read at only about 150 pages, so it’s easy to get through. I’d say definitely check this out if you are into fairy tales. This is Lauren Brantley Books and thank you for reading my review of The Rabbit Princess by R.Chen. If you have any suggestions for what I should review next, please let me know in the comment below.
March 24, 2023
What an amazing tale! It had everything! Cute animals! Gore! A life lesson! Two very spoiled rich siblings live in this kingdom with their barbaric father. One day, they cause a ruckus while visiting the towns people and make trouble for their kingdom. By evening, the towns people decide to overthrow the King and get rid of the children. They kill their father and a shaman turns the children into rabbits and banishes them into the Forrest. The children know they must change their ways if they want to survive. With the help of their new animal friends they are able to find a place to stay and get their bearings. They soon find out there was so much more going on in the world. The animals are preparing for war with each other and the children must decide which side to help. Months go by with much blood, sweat and tears shedding. The two spoiled children have now evolved into brave and faithful warriors and go through great lengths to help their new family stay alive and hold onto hope.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2019
My kids (ages 7-9) like fantastical stories that involve animals, especially books that have nice cliff hangers between chapters and books. This one was not that book. The language, while I felt the vocabulary was excellent, the sentences were often difficult to read. Sometimes it felt like a computer was translating. It was clunky. The story - especially for kids - lacked a consistent point of view. I had to stop to explain way too many times. The characters were not given enough substance for anyone to remember or to hang onto - because ....who got killed? which one was that? was he the pheasant or the tiger? For such a short book it just lacked clarity.
August 12, 2020
It started out a little show, and I wasn't sure how I felt about the narrative style (it's first person, but something felt "off" about it initially). That said, after a little while, everything dropped into place.
The story is written simply and beautifully. The author didn't use pages of description to set the scene, but instead keeps things very concise, allowing the reader to use their imagination to picture what's happening. I really enjoyed that.
This is a story of growth and about learning to be kind and courageous. I enjoyed it, and I believe you will, too. My son is all grown up now, but this is one I'd definitely have read to him when he was little.
The story is written simply and beautifully. The author didn't use pages of description to set the scene, but instead keeps things very concise, allowing the reader to use their imagination to picture what's happening. I really enjoyed that.
This is a story of growth and about learning to be kind and courageous. I enjoyed it, and I believe you will, too. My son is all grown up now, but this is one I'd definitely have read to him when he was little.
December 22, 2020
I was back and forth a bit about this book, but after sleeping on it I think four stars.
It was a little intense in parts for my six-year-old, but that's on me for not reading it before we read it together. I just edited some of the deaths to be less bloody as I read.
Some of the writing could have used some better editing for clarity, but the sparse descriptive language worked for the story.
I think we'll read the next one if it's printed. I would like to find out what happens to Annie to achieve the result discussed in the frame narrative.
It was a little intense in parts for my six-year-old, but that's on me for not reading it before we read it together. I just edited some of the deaths to be less bloody as I read.
Some of the writing could have used some better editing for clarity, but the sparse descriptive language worked for the story.
I think we'll read the next one if it's printed. I would like to find out what happens to Annie to achieve the result discussed in the frame narrative.
January 30, 2024
Been some years since I read this but I remember thinking that, while the premise was really intriguing, the writing itself was sloppy and in need of a good edit. It wasn't always easy to track who was talking when, the first person narrator was kind of annoying, and the pace lagged a bit. Thematically speaking it was probably also a bit heavy for its target audience. I do hope the author is able to edit the work and republish it because there's definitely the makings of something special in here but it needs some fine tuning.
September 28, 2024
This is a very odd book. It has a moderately interesting story but is written quite badly. Mostly I didn't mind the style (there were a fair few typos and just weird grammar) but parts of the story were also a bit confusing. It was pretty easy to just let that wash over you though. There were some illustrations at the starts of chapters, some of which were ok and some were pretty awful. I thought Annie's character redemption was a bit rushed/patchy and it was surprisingly gory. I may or may not read the next two. I actually wouldn't care if I didn't find out what happened next.
January 14, 2021
I don’t read a ton of middle grade books, so I don’t know if it’s maybe that I’m just not used to the reading level, or it’s due to a more limited vocabulary at that level, but I had a hard time getting past the almost choppy writing style and English/grammar in this book. However, the story itself is exquisite and was what kept me reading the book. There are definitely some gems in the author’s visual descriptions too. I just think it would benefit from maybe a more polished editorial pass.
February 18, 2020
I enjoyed this little book. Sometimes the writing was a bit stiff and I feel like there is some background knowledge I needed (regarding spirits particularly) but overall I really liked it. A good journey from spoiled, ruthless princess to true leader and open, inquisitive person.
September 10, 2020
This book was great. I read this to my 10 year old daughter and she loved it. I am hoping there is a sequel based on the ending. I really enjoyed how this story was told and how there are moral lessons subtly, or not so subtly, mixed in the plot.
March 17, 2025
It's ok and I like the premise but it either needs a lot more detail to turn it into more of an adult novel or needs majorly simplifying to hit the target audience. Not one I would read again I'm afraid
January 2, 2020
Lovely
This is a very lovely story of self discovery, growing up, understanding your place in the world and, realizing we can always make better choices.
This is a very lovely story of self discovery, growing up, understanding your place in the world and, realizing we can always make better choices.
February 20, 2020
What a great tail (pun intended)!
This is a great modern day fairy tale and was a fast read. it went by too fast and I hope for a sequel.
This is a great modern day fairy tale and was a fast read. it went by too fast and I hope for a sequel.
February 28, 2020
Interesting, not my typical read, but easy story from another country.
February 6, 2021
I read this with my daughter. She liked it.
December 11, 2021
A fun journey from spoiled children to solid leaders. Quite a lovely, easy to read story.
July 4, 2023
This was a DNF for me. Maybe for a middle reader, but even so, I couldn’t get into it.
January 23, 2023
Completed this book and enjoyed it. Rabbit Princess definitely ebbs and flows. I found the characters very difficult to sympathize or empathize with. They were all varying degrees of unattractive. But other than that, I liked the writing style, fantasy, and speed of tale.
Definitely wouldn’t be a story for younger children as it deals with some heavy themes.
(3.5 out of 5)
Definitely wouldn’t be a story for younger children as it deals with some heavy themes.
(3.5 out of 5)
January 13, 2022
This book started off so strong. I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into it. Yet as the chapters progressed, it felt like work. There wasn't anything to really keep me invested. Naso seemed interesting in the opening, but I didn't feel attached enough to her to want to get through the Princess' story.
I could tell the author built a rich world, with many nuances. It's what kept me going for a while. However, the story didn't show me enough to keep me engaged. It's pretty much telling. I think the author realizes this on some level, since at one point, Naso (gerboa character) tells her granddaughter that she's old and will tell things how she can (I'm paraphrasing).
I so desperately wanted to like this book. The theme is right up my alley! I hope the author releases another edition in which the writing is more engaging. As it is, I'm afraid finishing it would be a chore. Sadly, I'm going to set it in the DNF pile.
Still, best wishes to the author's writing journey.
Edit: I did eventually finish it because of nothing else better to due during covid lockdown. My opinions remain the same.
I could tell the author built a rich world, with many nuances. It's what kept me going for a while. However, the story didn't show me enough to keep me engaged. It's pretty much telling. I think the author realizes this on some level, since at one point, Naso (gerboa character) tells her granddaughter that she's old and will tell things how she can (I'm paraphrasing).
I so desperately wanted to like this book. The theme is right up my alley! I hope the author releases another edition in which the writing is more engaging. As it is, I'm afraid finishing it would be a chore. Sadly, I'm going to set it in the DNF pile.
Still, best wishes to the author's writing journey.
Edit: I did eventually finish it because of nothing else better to due during covid lockdown. My opinions remain the same.
March 2, 2021
I found the writing a little hard to understand at times. The story lacked clarity at some points. But the overall tale kept me interested, and I liked the growth of the main character. Pika and Annie were sweet once they came into themselves. I think with more experience, this author could impress.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews