Prince

[Horrorchick]

I finished this book two days ago and it left me confused why Prince's past was included in the book. I didn't see how learning about his past was going to change anything in the book or how Jessie was going to get free. Can someone please explain this to me?

[Pucker]

Well, Prince is a character in the book. It only stands to reason that we might want to know a little bit about him. In point of fact, Prince is a much more interactive character in the story than Joubert -- and we certainly learned more about him than anyone should want to know. Backstory doesn't necessarily always push the narrative or help to clear the resolution (or lack thereof, in some cases). Sometimes it's just scenery, and in the case of Prince, I think being arbitrarily abandoned the way he was makes him a bit more sympathetic while he's snacking on dear old Gerald.

[GNTLGNT]

Righto, KID-oh...

[smunchkin]

The outcome of the story may not have changed but i most definitely would have felt very different about it without poor prince's story added. The story of prince was one of the pivotal parts of the book for me, and it definitely convinced me not to put it down and make the journey.

[SCano]

I was hoping she was going to keep him as her pet once she was free ; )

[Evil Queen]

i definitely sympathized w/ the former Prince...even while he was tearing apart Gerald, i don't think i would've if there was no background on him, so it was relevant to the story. i also thought maybe Jessie might adopt him afterwards, but then decided against it...after all, he DID eat her husband, i don't think she could look at the former Prince with anything but disgust afterwards.....

[Wanderer From Ys]

The backstory is there for character development. If there were no background on him, we would've assumed him, or rabid, or aggressive. A stray dog wandering into a house and eating a corpse right in front of another human, sounds like the dog would have to be rabid. But the backstory makes him much more sympathetic.

By the same logic we could say why waste half the book talking about Jessies past, if we just stuck to her getting out of the cuffs, it would've been over like 50 pages. But without the backstory we would've have felt as attached to Jessie.

[JellybeanJay]

I think that if there was no back story on Prince I probably wouldn't have given him a second thought after he munched on Gerald.

[Ering]

Well I think the backstory was good to know because it explains why a dog would eat a human. Plus I think it just shows the change a being can go through due to harsh circumstances.