A couple months ago, I listened to an audiobook of a bunch of Grimms fairy tales (as written by Philip Pullman as closely to the originasl as possible). What struck me most listening to these tales I hadn’t read since high school (for most of them) was how incredibly bad they were. I love fairy tale retellings so much that I’d forgotten how grim most of the actual tales are, with their simplistic and problematic morals. Valiant takes a lesser-used fairy tale, genderflips it, and punches sexism in the face.

Valiant takes as foundation the tale of the tailor who outwits giants and earns the hand of a princess, because, if fairy tales are to be believed, kings will marry their daughters off to absolutely anybody. In this case, that tailor is secretly a girl. Saville has been genderbending in order to earn money tailoring to the king, since her father had some sort of fit and can no longer move. Sav outwits giants in order to save a friend and finds herself expected to marry the princess and be champion to the kingdom. She’s less than thrilled.

Of course, there’s also the handsome cousin/advisor to the king, Galen, to help her out with the complex court dynamics. This ship is pretty damn cute. My favorite thing about it is that Galen admires and respects Sav. He trusts her to take care of herself and others, and he doesn’t do that macho grandstanding bullshit. They’re a great team. And the ending is pretty cute, especially since it shows how little game Galen really has.

Along the way to saving the day, Sav fights sexism, racism (I mean, it’s giants but come on), and makes friends out of basically everyone. It’s a book that shows that strength comes in many forms and packages. Sav’s a brilliant strategist, for example, and the king, for all of his apparent weakness, does his part too. It’s a really sweet and inspiring little tale.

I didn’t get massive feels out of Valiant but it’s precious and does what it’s doing quite well. I very much appreciate that McGuire did something aside from the typical Cinderella or Twelve Dancing Princesses retellings.