Bravely takes place several years after the Pixar movie Brave. You don’t really need to see the movie to understand the book (and perhaps it’s better if you haven’t seen the movie). This book was hard to rate. There are a variety of reasons I wasn’t thrilled with with book, however, the way it discusses change will stay with me for a long time…
Book: Bravely
Author: Maggie Stiefvater
Description: Taking place several years after the events of the movie Brave, this book follows Merida as she strives to save her kingdom from ruin.
Myrmigrade: 
Overview
So I’m going to have to give you a little backstory for my overview to make sense. It’s all in the intro, so I don’t feel too bad doing it.
The god of ruin – Feradach – comes to places and people who are stagnant in their ways and unable to change. He brings ruin and (sometimes) death. Then, the goddess of renewal – the Cailleach – starts the regrowth process. The Cailleach, however, doesn’t want things to be ruined, so she will often trick Feradach out of ruining things.
Through a trick of the Cailleach, Merida interrupts Feradach as he’s about to bring destruction to her home of DunBroch. She strikes a deal with him and the Cailleach: if she can bring change to DunBroch by changing people’s hearts, then Feradach will not bring change by destroying her kingdom. She has a year to do this, and Feradach and Merida have to check in with each other to see the other’s progress.
I won’t go into Merida’s progress, as that would ruin the story. But the ruin Feradach shows Merida is very interesting. He doesn’t always kill, although that can happen. Often, he destroys what’s taking away the balance in a person’s life. I won’t give examples from the book, but a modern example would be that if someone is consumed by their work, they might lose their job – in order to realize they are meant to be doing something else in the first place. It is ruin for the sake of rebuilding life, so people can be whole. Change for the purpose of new growth.
Why the Rating?
So why is it only a 3.5? For 2.5 reasons.
First, it is all telling, with very little showing. Because of that, I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters, nor did I feel that their emotions were authentic. This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine, as it really detracts from the story and the characters.
Second, the ending is off-putting. It’s as if Ms. Stiefvater was setting it up for a sequel; but no sequel is advertised, which just leaves lots of questions needing answers. I like closure, and this book didn’t provide it.
And finally, there are some inconsistencies between the book and the movie. This isn’t a huge deal per say, but it made the characters’ world feel disjoined. Ms. Stiefvater paints DunBroch as literally falling apart, the family as purposefully ignoring responsibilities, and the kingdom as a backwater fiefdom of no real importance and few friends. In the movie, you get the impression that they are valued leaders in society, and have several alliances – even if chaotic violence does erupt from time to time. Again, it’s not incredibly important, it’s just inconsistent…and it did bother me.
Seeking God: Change
I really like the theme of change throughout the book. Merida knows it’s harder to change hearts than it is to cause ruin – but it’s also more worthwhile.
Interestingly, the Bible shows that people getting stuck and needing to change has always been a theme of our world history. God does use ruin to create renewal in Israel, time and again. But not before he implores them to change their hearts.
What’s more, God promises to be the catalyst for their (and our) change: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).
Changing hearts has always been God’s mission, and it should be ours, too. But as Merida learned, it’s hard. It takes time and patience and – most importantly – listening. And if we don’t do those things, we end up being “storms that move no roofs.”
Seeking God: “a storm that moves no roofs”
Feradach accuses Merida of being a “storm that moves no roofs.” It is brought up time and again, and eventually we realize that it means Merida can cause a big “storm” by blustering and shouting…and yet she makes no lasting change. This is contrasted to her mother, who moves entire countries toward peace.
It reminds me a great deal of our present culture. Everyone is yelling and screaming and arguing…but what real change is being made? We are all simply storms that move no roofs right now.
So what does it take to make change? The verse following Ezekiel 36:26 speaks to this: “And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ez. 36:27).
The Spirit of the Lord is what moves roofs. Why? Because it convicts His followers to follow His laws. And when we do follow His laws – not just the laws of holiness, but also the laws of love – then we can make real, lasting change.
Why? Because people will realize we care about their hearts.
I will say, I’ve seen a lot of “holiness” being shouted about; I haven’t seen a lot of love. My prayer is that Christians will continue in holiness, but not “neglect justice and the love of God.” Jesus made it clear both are necessary. (Luke 11:42)
Be a storm that moves roofs: change hearts with the love of God. It seems just as vital to our present culture as it was to Merida’s kingdom.
