If there’s one thing I can say about Lucy Tempest’s Thief of Cahraman, it’s that she inspired me to go wild. At age 14, I wrote a fantasy novel about differing territories working together. But all the cultures were the same. Setting it aside to “marinate,” I continued reading and learning.
Then I ran across the Fairytales of Folkshore collection. Looking back, the cultures are heavy exposition that don’t do much for the story, but in the moment, I was inspired. To think traded goods and table manners could add such life to characters and their dialogue! When it comes to relating to others, culture can be the great unifier or detrimental divide.
While it doesn’t play a huge part in the story, I’d rather you experience the clashing cultures for yourself. Besides, the intersecting tidbits are in the generalities.
Painting Perception Amongst Princesses
Adelaide walks into a royal hornet’s nest of who’s who and who you wear (literally; as a thief, she wants to be inconspicuous but walks in dressed in the bridal wedding colors of Cahraman). After being thrown into a culture she doesn’t know, she realizes she’s not the only one. Like The Bachelor, a chorus of royals and ladies have been gathered to fight for the hand of the crown prince. And each looks a little different.
You’ve got princesses in gorgeous ballgowns, the daughters of nobles in elegant petticoats, and small town ladies dressed in whatever they could scrounge up. As the story progresses, you see their demeanors. The smalltown girls tend to not care what others say while the princesses give the appearance of stoicism. The material one dresses in, how they do their hair. The makeup, the jewels. The higher the social ladder, the more they care about outer appearance.
And look down upon others. Perhaps it’s some mean girl syndrome, but the more well-dressed and financed the girl, the more she complains about the “common folk.” But are they the better match when the makeup comes off?
Testing Know-How in Cahraman
What irks me about The Bachelor and The Selection is how frivolous is. Everyone sleeps around and plays with emotions for a relationship that statistically doesn’t last. Tempest solves the problem with an easy fix: tests.
We’re fighting for the hand of a prince, the contenders have to run a kingdom effectively. And here’s where we see the differences in leadership and structure. Some have an army of servants that they command with a flick of the wrist. They don’t do heavy lifting or thinking, just point and done. Others give more catered commands, leading the charge with strategy. The ones without servants fall in two categories: hopeless or hands-on. The hopeless flounder for a while, dropped outside their comfort zone. The hands-on simply go for it.
Each response is different, and none are necessarily wrong. Even the characters you dislike because of their prissy nature, you can’t argue with their effectiveness to make decisions and lead. Part of it is education, some more well-versed in foreign affairs and law. Another part is experience, some of the girls working to understand production and economics. Every upbringing produces a different result, and that’s due to how much coddling the parents provided.
It’s All in the Idiosyncracies
Last thing I’ll mention is what drew me in to the importance of culture. A lot of the main details come from exposition, but the primary difference is seen in how each interacts with the world.
I think about my friends from Texas and Minnesota and how we spent a few hours saying different words that meant the same thing. Soda, pop, coke. Sneakers, gym shoes, running shoes. Even what you eat with a fork and knife versus your hands. It’s these details where Adelaide, our main character, learns how each possible suittress” was raised. Do you finish the plate in 1 minute flat or cut all your food before starting? Who they pray to, how they walk, when they speak.
Subconscious mannerisms and prejudices speak volumes about how one views class, manners, and morality. Lucy Tempest takes her time building the small moments to show what they’re bigger decisions may look like.