Phoenix Dance suffers from a bizarre affliction which often makes her life unbearable. Sometimes, she’s manic, filled with energy and prone to fanciful ideas, her thoughts churning around too quickly for her to grab hold of them. As this state increases, her ability to cope with sensory information around her decreases, until she finally crashes, plunging into a state of bleak depression, where lethargy and morbid thoughts overtake her. Sound familiar? She suffers from what we’d call Bipolar II Disorder, and in the fantasy kingdom of Windward, almost nothing is known about her problem. However, she doesn’t let this get in the way of her ambition: to become apprentice to the shoemaker for the Royal Household, despite the disapproval of her street performer aunts, who have higher ambitions for her. As an apprentice, Phoenix finds new purpose, especially when the opportunity to design new shoes for the twelve princesses of Windward arises, and she can finally put the ideas in her head to good use. This, however, leads to another problem. Even as her disease begins to spiral out of control, sending her further into her manic state, something has taken hold of the princesses also: somehow they wear out their shoes at night, and have no energy at all during the day, despite appearing to have been asleep all night. Ultimately, it’ll be Phoenix who tries to solve the mystery and break the spell which holds the twelve princesses trapped in a condition similar to her own. But can she control her own problem long enough to remain functional?

The Phoenix Dance mixes a real world medical condition with a much-beloved fairy tale to produce a story both comfortably familiar and intriguingly new. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever read a fantasy story where the main character suffered from Bipolar Disorder (something she shares with the author, it so happens) and the way it’s depicted is both fascinating, and rather chilling. Calhoun paints a dark portrait of what it’s like to lose control and be overwhelmed by the world. Teaming this aspect up with the story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses is a logical touch, and telling it all from the viewpoint of the poor shoemaker who had to supply the shoes in the first place, that’s just another nice twist. Toss in some political unrest, and cameos by characters from earlier books set in the same kingdom, and you have an excellent story with some worthwhile twists and angles. I highly recommend this book as something out of the ordinary, worth looking at.