“The Golden Braid” by Melanie Dickerson is a medieval retelling of the classic story “Rapunzel,” which takes place in 1413 in the germanic Holy Roman Empire, near Hagenheim.
Dickerson’s Rapunzel is kind and beautiful — both inside and out — and filled with many different skills, like singing and knife throwing and painting. But Rapunzel has two wishes: to marry and to learn to read and write. However, every time a man starts to show an interest in Rapunzel, her mother, Gothel, quickly moves them to a new village. And she has no desire for her daughter to learn to read.
During one such escape, the two women are accosted by two thugs — and rescued by the heroic and dashing Gerek, a knight in the service of Hagenheim’s Duke Wilhelm. As the story unfolds, Rapunzel must learn what true love means — from both man and God — and the meaning of her true identity.
What follows is a lovely and exciting tale, filled with adventure, romance, mistaken and hidden identities, compassion, hatred, murder, kidnapping, forgiveness and love.
But “The Golden Braid” is so much more. It is a story of God and His great love for us. It reveals how God is both a loving father and a righteous savior; that we can lean on Him and not on ourselves (“But [Gerek] had been leaning on his own understanding. He had not trusted in the Lord with all his heart or submitted his ways to God. He’d been wise in his own eyes, thinking he knew what was best.”); God’s divine intervention; and that we can only find perfect love and satisfaction from Him alone. It is also touches on the themes of truth versus lies, fear versus safety and trust, and hope versus despair.
With many unexpected plot twists, “The Golden Braid” is a really great take on the classic Rapunzel story, but still contains many of the tale’s well-known components — her long hair and beauty, a vindictive mother, a dashing knight and a hidden tower.
Five stars out of five.
Thomas Nelson provided this complimentary copy for my honest, unbiased review.