I didn't finish this book and I don't want to. There is not enough narrative push or compensating interest to bother. However, I didn't exactly hate it. While it doesn't hold together, the individual sections have a sort of fascination as do the main characters: the wanderer Jordan and his gigantic and lonely mother.

I picked this up for the story of the twelve dancing princesses, my second favorite fairy tale after Cinderella. In his pursuit of the twelfth princess, Jordan meets the eleven others. Each princess has her own story, but all the stories are what you'd expect from a lesbian feminist author - a little disappointing. There is magic in this story, but it is to be found elsewhere.