Customer Reviews

The Jaguar Princess

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I first read this book when I was nine years old, and even nine years later I hace never forgotten the gripping emotions I feel when reading it. I am quite an avid reader, usually going through as many as ten books in a week. Naturally, I have come across many different types of books ranging from horrid to wonderful. This story not only managed to enthrall me, it drew me into the story and made me feel like I was there with Mixcatl all throughout the story. I am currently reading it to my eleven-year-old and eight-year-old brothers, and they love it almost as much as I do! This is a fantastic story that every fantasy fan should not be without!

I picked this up at a used book store (the original paperback printing) for a dollar because the cover attracted me. And it turned out to be one of the best shapeshifter novels I have ever read! I am delighted to see it re-released in a beautiful new trade edition.

The Jaguar Princess melds shapeshifter fantasy with historical fiction set during the Aztec Empire. Mixcatl is a young girl stolen from her jungle village to become a slave in the capital city. Her artistic talents soon come to light and she becomes a scribe. But, she has another talent even more rare. She is one of the jaguar people; descended from ancient rulers of this land. Will she be the one to free her people from the cruel Aztec king whose sacrifices grow more and more demanding?

I enjoyed the story so much because I immediately identified with the protagonist. She is spirited, intelligent and curious. One of my favorite scenes is at the beginning when, upon arriving in the city, she hears the rumor that if a slave touches the walls of the palace, they are freed. Naturally, she makes a run for it! She doesn't succeed, yet after she becomes a scribe she doesn't try again. The author shows that a person can change as they grow. Mixcatl has been indoctrinated to her new society - readying her to remain here and fulfill her destiny.

An exciting adventure, a great heroine and even a love story all work to make this a fantastic novel. There is a lot of humor, and very good character development. Though the actual shapeshifting doesn't occur until the end, the book is a real page turner. I'm so glad to see it back in print!!

Although meant for young adults, this book is certainly one that any adult could enjoy.
For starters, I don't believe there are many fictional books which are incorporated with information regarding the ancient Olmecs and Aztecs. Bell's book is the first I've come across that provides the reader with more than just a brief insight into those ancient cultures. Further, Bell takes her time in developing the plot, prolongs it as much as she can without boring the reader (but who could get bored with anything dealing with wondrous ancient civilizations anyway?), and leads us to a climatic ending. The combination of non-fictional history and a fictional storyline that is absolutely enthralling not only makes the reader not want to put the book down for a minute, but makes the reader feel one with the protagonist and leaves him craving for more. This book has fanned the flames of my love of the history of ancient civilizations. Anyone who enjoys anything to do with ancient history should read this book.

This story's ability to to draw the reader in is remarkable. I picked up this book because I was familiar with the author and because of the good reviews. When I finally got the book in the mail I said to myself "what was I thinking!!?"(since the cover art is cheesy, and there was no cover art to look at when I ordered this book... I know... never judge a book by its cover) but I picked it up anyways and started reading... I kid you not, I was held from page one!

Without giving the entire story away, I will summarize briefly here: Set in a time that is pre-european in Mexico during the time of the Aztecs, this story is about a woman named Mixcatl whom we watch grow from tender childhood ages into adulthood. She knows from the start that she is simply different from everyone around her and many instances, some even near fatal, proves her own self suspicions to be true. When she is just a child, she is taken away from her home, which she can barely remember, and sold into slavery. From there she goes on to find her true talent and release in artwork. As she meets new people and struggles to understand what and who she really is and where she comes from, many strange and twisting series and events put her dead in the middle of a conflict and a struggle to save her own life and accept her destiny, even though it has caused her pain, or take the easy road and let all of that go and submit to the will of a bloodthirsty god and that of a whole society of people.

I never thought that Clare Bell would be successful in this story of a big cat after reading another of her books previously, centered around the same type of theme... big cats. (That book is called "Tomorrow's Sphinx" by the way) I expected a somewhat regurgitated and similar story, however I was wrong on both counts and pleasently surprised.

This book is not just for young adults in their late teens, but for adults that enjoy some fantasy and imagination from the stories that they read as well.
And As one who can easily become bored with books that seem to give "history" and tend to overly describe details, this book contained neither nuisance, but left pleasent descriptions about this society that made me forget several times that I was reading a book and not there myself.
Clare Bell, nicely done.

This book is excellent. I read it in 6th grade and loved it. It's length daunted me at first but the content makes it a breeze. It's rich and detailed. You can at time almost believe you could be a were-jaquar as well. It is a rich tapestry. I recommend it to everyone. I was so upset when I found it was out of print.

Intrigue, romance, and best of all, cats.. this book did the job well. I simply couldn't put it down after reading the first chapter or so. The characters are very well developed, and the imagery is wonderful, it truly takes you back to the age of the Aztecs. This book is *highly* reccomended to anybody who likes cats, or has ever wondered what it might have been like to live in the Aztec Empire.

The most noticeable thing about this book is the complete lack of copyediting; or rather, the impression that it was sabotaged by an evil copyeditor. It is chock-full of misspellings, miscapitalizations, mispunctuations, typos, random paragraph breaks in the middle of sentences, no paragraph breaks when we switch POV characters and skip two years, sentences that are just plain gibberish.... it's a mess. I was only able to get through about 40 pages of it, and we're talking several mistakes per page. Incredibly unprofessional.

The previous reviewers all appear to have read earlier editions of the book (not the e-reads version), which might be all right--I didn't see anything to impress in the bit that I read, but was obviously distracted by the blatant unreadability of the text. Still, I have little confidence in an author who cares so little about her own work that she would publish this travesty (and overcharge for it to boot). Whatever you do, don't buy the e-reads edition; there's a reason the author won't let you preview it on Amazon!

this book is a good book i have it already but i wanted to by another one i juat wanted to say this is a great book and i highly recomended it