Literature / The Eyes of My Princess

A Deconstructed Love Story

The Eyes of My Princess (Los ojos de mi princesa) is a 2004-novel by the Mexican author of self-help books Carlos Cuauhtemoc Sanchez. Originally published in 1996 with the name of Sheccid's Strength (La fuerza de Sheccid), the novel is dedicated to young readers and deals with the themes of First Love, drugs and sex, while promoting the more conservative values on those topics.

During The '70s, Nice Guy Jose Carlos is a shy fifteen-year-old who has fallen in love with the School Idol and New Transfer Student. He associates her with Sheccid, the tale of an Arabian princess who redeemed a vengeful prisoner. After an incident with a porn producer who tried to abduct him and another friend, he decides to talk with the new girl and confesses his love. However, things go wrong when Ariadne (her best friend) tells Sheccid he is related to the porn producer who tried to abduct her as well. Carlos does not give up and, moved by the love he feels, has to overcome his feelings.

A sequel was written in 2012. Now located in The '80s, Jose Carlos has already forgotten about what happened in his teenage years, but after having Recurring Dreams, he soughts to look after Sheccid again. In the path, there are dangers, returning characters and an Awful Truth.

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The Eyes of My Princess

• Accidental Pervert: Poor Jose Carlos is labelled as a pervert for a long time by Ariadne and Sheccid during the first chapters, just because he happened to be in the porn producer's car.
• Aerith and Bob: Seriously, in how many schools can there be an Ariadne, a Gabino and a Justina alongside a Jose Carlos, a Joaquin and a Mario?
• After-School Cleaning Duty: It was on a cleaning duty when Jose Carlos befriended Ariadne by giving her a lens for the microscope her classmates broke and pinned the blame on her.

• All of the Other Reindeer: Jose Carlos, when he was young, because he was smarter and had nerdy looks. The sequel reveals that Jerkass Mario was his Only Friend in his childhood, but he distanced from him after they entered elementary school and Jose Carlos started being bullied.

• Anguished Declaration of Love: Jose Carlos will usually do this for any girl he likes (he's just that kind of guy), but more unusual is when a girl does it for him, such as Ariadne.
• Asshole Victim:
  • Mario, after he is abducted and becomes involved in sex ad drugs.
  • Also, Adolfo really had it coming when Jose Carlos's classmates stood up for him and fought against Adolfo's gang. In the end, Adolfo wants to pick another fight when Jose Carlos is alone, but by now his gang has lost all respect for him.

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Jerk Jock Adolfo pretends to be a nice and corteous guy towards his female classmates.
• Book Dumb: Hector, the big guy from Cuba. He compensates it with being so nice that all his classmates help him with his exams.

• Death by Adaptation: Jose Carlos Carlos does this to Sheccid, in the What If? book he writes.
• Despair Event Horizon: Poor Jose Carlos sinks back into depression after he realizes Sheccid’s true personality. The sequel fixes this after it is revealed that it was not her, just an identical cousin.
• Disappeared Dad: Wile most of the characters have more of less doting parents, Mario's father is deceased. While it's very implied that Mario still holds him dear, his mother has since been soldiering on by herself. But Mario is badly shaken after he discovers his mother is dating other men, and this is what causes him to be willingly abducted by the porn producer.

• Downer Ending: The original ending. During the party, Jose Carlos realizes that Sheccid is actually a stoner who Really Gets Around and not the beautiful girl he idealized in his dreams. He gets so broken that he writes a book based on the plot story, but he changes the part of the party, and portrays Sheccid as a terminally ill girl who ends up with him but dies later, due to an unknown illness. He is satisfied with the story, believing it to be the real thing; but by now Jose Carlos is broken and has distanced himself from everyone. The adaptation makes a Distant Finale, in which after years he publishes the book, an adult Ariadne confronts him and forces him to accept the Awful Truth.
• Drugs Are Bad: And so do porn. Justified, since it’s The '70s.

• Friendless Background: Sheccid, because of her parents moving from time to time.

• Gondor Calls for Aid: When Adolfo and his gang try to pick up a fight with Jose Carlos, his clasmates go and help him, no matter how much Sheccid, the parents and the adults tries to stop it.
• Good Samaritan: As shown in the first chapter, Ariadne is very willing to help strangers.

• Innocence Lost: At first, Jose Carlos often thinks the harsh world works like it does in romantic fairytales. Ouch. Needless to say, certain events change that.

• No Social Skills: Jose Carlos, at first. He gets better with The Power of Love. However, after the Awful Truth, he retreats and becomes a reclusive.

• Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Jose Carlos's main flaw, except for his tendency to look down on others in his monologues, is that he is very, very naive.

• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Ariadne and Sheccid, respectively.

• Took a Level in Badass: Jose Carlos (yes, his friends and classmates helped him, but still) during the fight with Adolfo and his gang.

• Unreliable Narrator: In the end, the readers are led to believe that Sheccid eventually ended up with Jose Carlos, but died from an illness shortly after. But then in The Stinger we find out that that wasn't real. Jose Carlos wrote fake entries into his diary, because he was disappointed about Sheccid's real personality.
• Villainous Breakdown: Adolfo, after the fight scene. He tries to tell Jose Carlos that Sheccid is not the girl he thinks she is; but he gets too carried away with the insults and gets punched.
• We Used to Be Friends: Jose Carlos and Mario. The sequel reveals they are indeed childhood friends.
• What If?: The ending, in which Jose Carlos, refusing to accept that his beloved Sheccid is actually a promiscuous stoner, he writes a Lighter and Softer book in which Jose Carlos and Sheccid end up together as a couple but later dies due to an illness. He is satisfied with it, thought, at least until The Stinger.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Ariadne has this reaction when she realizes that Carlos wrote a book with a What If?, refusing to accept the fact that Sheccid is a stoner.

• Youthful Freckles: Ariadne has this. Even Jose Carlos calls her "Freckles" from time to time.

The Eyes of My Princess 2

• Alas, Poor Villain: Despite Lorenna's justified hatred towards Justine, after her Cruel and Unusual Death, she states that she did not deserve to die like that.

• Bittersweet Ending: Jose Carlos finally finds Sheccid again (whose real name is Lorenna). It turns out that she loved Jose Carlos all along and the stoner girl from the previous book was a cousin who happens to look like her. Because of his disseaperance and Heroic BSoD, she now resents him, causing him to Took a Level in Jerkass. Ariadne doesn't hang out with Jose Carlos anymore while Mario is slowly dying from AIDS and escapes to another town. And Jose Carlos goes through a Last Minute Hook Up with a girl called Ivonne, who fills his idealistic expectatives.

• Broken Pedestal: Jose Carlos towards Mariscal Adalid, after finding out that his motivational speeches to him were taken from a satanic Bible.

• Did Not Get the Girl: No matter how you see it, Jose Carlos and Sheccid just aren't meant for each other.
• The Disease That Shall Not Be Named: In the end it is implied that Mario is dying of AIDS. Since it is in The '80s, Mario has no idea about it.
• I Have No Son!: Mario's mother. Seems that after the first book she got tired of crying and waiting for her boy to come back home.

• Jade-Colored Glasses: After the events of the first book, Jose Carlos comes to view the world in a cynical light, leading him to trust almost no one.
• Last Minute Hook Up: Jose Carlos ends up with a girl called Ivonne, who happens to fill his expectations and becomes his new Sheccid.
• Loving a Shadow: The main theme of this book. Jose Carlos only loved Sheccid (real name Lorenna) because she happened to have the same beautiful eyes the princess from the fairytale had and she never truly loved Lorenna for who she was. After a new girl called Ivonne turns out to fill more similarities with the princess from the fairytale, he quickly forgets Lorenna and goes after Ivonne.
• Married to the Job: Mariscal Adalid prefers to work as a motivational speaker rather than spending time with his family.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After Jose Carlos decides to become more like Mariscal Adalid, he meets Mario again, who is planning to escape to another town for returning Jose Carlos's documents. He gives him some cash and waves him goodbye coldly, much to Mario's surprise. Jose Carlos inmediately regrets it and runs across the sreet to find him, but by now Mario is gone. And Jose Carlos is conscious that Mario will either die from the AIDS or if his Bad Boss finds him. Poor Jose Carlos is left with regrets about it by it during the rest of the book.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It is revealed that Lorenna, with the help of Miss Jennifer, were the one who called the cops in the middle of the Wild Teen Party (of the first book) in order to arrest them all. It ended up badly, since Lorenna's mother dies shortly after and her father and even her protective big brother Joaquin distance from her. And Miss Jennifer gets fired from the school for her trouble.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Poor Miss Jennifer got fired because of meddling too much into her students' lives.

• Rebellious Spirit: Justine, Lorenna's identical cousin. She had Abusive Parents until Sheccid's ( Lorenna) father decided to gave her a place to live. Unfortunately the damage was done and she was a rebellious drug addict that transformed Sheccid's family into a Big, Screwed-Up Family for shits and giggles. No wonder why Lorenna hates her so much.
• Redemption Equals Death: Possibly the fate of poor Mario. After Jose Carlos meets him in a dangerous red zone in order to search for Sheccid, Mario starts loosening up a bit and confesses that he has come to hate the lifestyle he came to love in the first book. But it's not after Mario passes out and is taken to the hospital (where the doctors find out he is dying of AIDS) and Jose Carlos is the only one to visit him, he decides to Took a Level in Kindness, steals Jose Carlos's documents from the Bad Boss that previously stole it and escapes to another town forever after making amends with his Only Friend. Not to mention he is slowly succumbing to the AIDS. Yes, he was an asshole in the books, but it's hard not to feel sorry for the poor guy in the end.

• Tragic Keepsake: Mario's mother, while claiming that I Have No Son!, still keeps his favorite gun toy.

The Eyes of My Princess 3

• Alliterative Name: William Williams, who is Lorenna's husband.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: The story is told from Lorenna's point of view. It retells events from the previous books.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: After all the hell most characters went through, in the end they earned their happy ending.
  • Lorenna's father remarries and is happy about starting a new life. He also reconciles with Joaquin and moves from his first wife and Justine's deaths.
  • After Justine's death, Joaquin returns to the Deghemteri household and reforms his bad habits.
  • Ariadne gets over Jose Carlos and finds a stable boyfriend.
  • Mario was either killed by the pimps or died from AIDS. But he reconciled with Jose Carlos before leaving and Died As Himself.
  • Lorenna and Jose Carlos are Happily Married to Willian and Yvonne respectively. They meet again in 2014 and Lorenna finally confesses that Jose Carlos was her Living Emotional Crutch and loved him all along. Even so, they're aware that it's part of the past and are happy with their current family. Jose Carlos never sees her again afterwards, but he acknowledges it's for the best.
• My Greatest Failure: A recurrent theme.
  • Lorenna blames herself for not telling Jose Carlos her feelings before his mental breakdown and seclusion.
  • Her father blames himself for not being able to reform Justine in the end.
  • Mario is this to Jose Carlos in a nutshell. He blames himself for Mario's abduction, Heel–Face Turn and death.
• Irony: When Lorenna sees Justine making out with a pimp, she tries to warn her that those kind of men are dangerous. Justine brushes her off, saying that she'll never let a man hit her in her life. We all know that Justine died after the same pimp beat her to death.