Did You Notice?
Much as I love The Princess Diaries books, I have to admit that there are plenty of inconsistencies between the different books. But since these books (in my opinion) are so great to begin with, this really doesn’t take away from the reading. Some of these I might try to provide an explanation for, but the best response to all of these is that Meg Cabot has admitted that she writes by the ‘seat of her pants’ most of the time. Also, how boring would it be if she just repeated herself in all the books? Instead of this section where I point out the differences in the books, I’d have a section bemoaning the number of times Mia repeats herself!
~In Princess in the Spotlight, Mia says that she wants to work hard in Algebra because she will need it to do useful stuff like balance the Genovian budget (p. 30), but in The Princess Diaries, she says that she won’t need Algebra to be a princess (p. 62).
~In Princess in the Spotlight, Mia says that her mother claimed she never got married to Mia’s father because she “didn’t believe in the male hierarchy and was against the subjugation of women and obfuscation of the female identity that marriage necessarily entails” (p. 32). But in The Princess Diaries, Mia says her mother claimed she never got married to Mia’s father because “she rejected the bourgeois mores of a society that didn’t even accept women as equals to men and refused to recognize her right as an individual” (p. 27-28). These two reasons are very similar, however, so it is very possible that Mia’s mom said both on the subject.
~At the end of The Princess Diaries, Mia clearly states “I think Michael Moscovitz might like me!” (p. 273). In Princess in the Spotlight, however, Mia says that Michael only sees her as “just his kid sister’s best friend, that’s all” (p. 16). And to top it off, the first diary entry I mentioned is dated October 19, the next one is dated October 20! So in the space of one day, Mia goes from thinking that Michael might be interested in her romantically, to thinking that he only seeing her only as his sister’s friends. That’s a pretty quick turnaround. Don’t get me wrong, I can totally see Mia second-guessing herself, but she does so really fast here.
~Is it just me, or does Mia’s “Baywatch” watching pop up really suddenly in Princess in the Spotlight? I don’t recall her mentioning it at all in The Princess Diaries.
~On page 59 of Princess in the Spotlight, Mia’s algebra notes at the bottom of the page say: “The 3rd power of x is called cube of x. The 2nd power of x is squared.” It’s interesting that in The Princess Diaries, on page 30, Mia has a very similar algebra note – “The third power of x is called cube of x – negative numbers have no sq. root.” Is it possible that Mr. Gianini taught the same lesson a month later?
~At one point in Princess in the Spotlight, Mia says “”I read that when Prince William gets interviewed, he gets the questions about a week before, so he has time to think up really smart and incisive answers” (p. 70). Is it just me, or is this a jibe at Prince William, saying he can’t think up smart answers to questions unless he knows the questions in advance?
~In Princess in the Spotlight, Mia says about Josh’s kiss at the Cultural Diversity Dance, “Yeah, there was some tongue action, but believe me, I kept my lips way closed” (p. 78). But in The Princess Diaries, Mia says that during Josh’s kiss, she was thinking, “What am I going to do if he tries to stick his tongue in there…I can’t let Teen People take a picture of me with some guy’s tongue in my mouth” (p. 265) and the next second, Josh breaks off the kiss. So in the first book, Mia leads us to believe that Josh didn’t even try to French her, but in the second book, she says he did. Which version is correct?
~On page 127 of Princess in the Spotlight, when Principle Gupta tries to convince Mia to join the track team, Mia acts like it’s the first time that anyone has tried to get her to join the team, saying, “Me? Track? I can barely walk without tripping over my gargantuan feet.” But in The Princess Diaries, Mia says “I can run pretty fast if I want to. Mr. Wheeton is always trying to get me to go out for track, but that’s like such a joke, because I hate running for no reason” (46).
~On page 134 of Princess in the Spotlight, Mia says that she completely forgot about how Grandmère was planning the wedding for her mother. But on page 133 (the same day as the entry on page 134), Mia tells Kenny that she might be able to see Rocky Horror if she can get out of a “family engagement.” And what is this family engagement? The wedding Grandmère is planning!
~Abbey has pointed out that in the first book, Mia describes Boris as having braces. But in the second book, Mia says he has a retainer that he takes out when Lilly kisses him. And in the third book, he's back to having braces. Which is it?
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