Leia Spoiler Policy

This is a spoiler-free review. The plot summary here is an introduction to the characters and the scene and no further. If you choose to read, the outcome full of its twists and turns is all there for you to explore, spoiler-free.

Introduction

Leia is a Star Wars book written by Claudia Gray. A novel about a young Princess Leia growing up, we watch her get a feel for politics and make realizations about the world around her. It’s a medium-sized easy read that gets interesting, even if it is a bit shallow. Especially for younger or learning readers, Leia is a book worth reading.

Characters and Plot

The main character is the 14-year-old Princess Leia of Alderaan. She is growing up and coming to terms with being a future queen and the responsibilities in tow. She has to prove her worth by handling the three customary Alderaanian trials but gets burdened by family issues behind the scenes, making her once-perfect life harder than ever. Her parents Breha and Bail Organa, have been more detached than ever. They have been her only companionship for years, but now they always have something else to work on that they can’t tell Leia about. Her feeling of lostness compounds when she becomes a part of the apprentice legislature and starts to feel like a small cog in a broken machine. The apprentice legislature is a place where the next generation learn their way through politics, but it quickly dons on Leia that all of it’s a sham and that they are essentially puppets for the tyrant Emporer Palpatine. Her legislative partner and soon-to-be lover, Kier, feels the same way. Leia’s eyes are opening to the ruthless world of politics, and when it seems like she can never make a correct decision, she realizes politics is not as she once thought.

With all of the strife in her life, she needed someone to lean on, but Breha and Bail were distant. They were keeping secrets from Leia and creating a rift between the family with their arguments. All is an enigma until Leia goes on an unsanctioned “fact-finding” mission to see what her parents are hiding and gets results she never could’ve imagined. Her parents are part of a group standing up against the Empire. However, being in on the secret doesn’t solve the problem. Her parents still don’t trust her, a fourteen-year-old, with responsibility, even though she’s desperate to contribute. Holding in secrets that put her entire planet at stake, she needs to find solace, which comes in the form of Kier. However, Kier has a different perspective than Leia, which makes even the slightest slip of her tongue all the more dangerous.

She wants to stand up against the cruel fear-mongering Emporer Palpatine, and the Senate has proven to be a puppet show, so she wants to get further involved much to the chagrin of her parents. She wants to get treated like an adult and take on a noble task, but is she ready? Are her parents ready? She has to prove herself worthy, and that is a monumental task.

Review

Leia is a princess trying to find her way in a strange world, and she has to grow up on her own. She has to learn how to make personal relationships while navigating the senate and her family during an unstable time. It’s a challenging task, especially as we start to see the political climate shift around her. Leia gives us more than we’ve ever seen before about the beginning of the Rebel Alliance. We know from Rogue One that the coalition is disorganized, but here is where we learn why. We learn a lot about the Star Wars universe from Leia, but it does have a couple of shortcomings. First, it seems like her lover Kier exists as an idea but not a character. He feels shoehorned in to act as Leia’s foil without much thought, which is disappointing. Another thing the novel lacks in my mind is relatability. I had a tough time getting into Leia’s shoes and feeling empathetic for her. Maybe it was because her upbringing was so different than mine, but it feels like she can do whatever she wants and is predestined for greatness, which just doesn’t exist in our world. She feels like a princess and not an average human, which makes fostering a connection with her difficult. A character I really liked in the story was Amilyn Holdo. She ties into the sequel movie trilogy, and her personality adds a lot to the story that would otherwise be gloomy and bland. She is the spice and the breath of fresh air the novel needed.

Final Statement and Further Reading

Final Opinion: It’s decent, but it’s nothing special. It’s worth reading because it is a Star Wars book, but there are many better Star Wars novels available.

Similar Books: I highly recommend reading Bloodline by Claudia Gray. It is about Leia slightly after Return of the Jedi and is a much more interesting story with more takeaways.