My thoughts: Let me tell you something I've never really considered before when reading a novelization of a fairy tale. It completely changes how I feel about the events of the plot when they're happing to a character instead of a construct. When you read an old-style fairy tale like the Goose Girl, there aren't really characters. There are roles. You have Fairy Queen, Brave Princess, Trusty Knight, Evil Handmaiden, and so on. These constructs aren't characterized to the point where they feel like real people. Terrible things happen to people in fairy tales and you (or at least I) don't really feel that badly for them. But Ani is a real person, and you know bad things are about to happen to her! It's TERRIBLE! And it's wonderful too. I was completely pulled into this story, and I love the characters. It really was a book I was sorry to see end.

I loved the way Shannon Hale managed to preserve the events of the original story, while giving it her own unique meaning and spin. Before regaining her rightful place in the world, Ani has to define herself in her own terms. And by becoming one of the lowest people in the kingdom, she finally learns how to be who she was born to be. ( )

This book was great, it has all the elements of a wonderful story. It has evil and good. The people closest to Princess Ani, turn against her and steal her place as the true princess. The story is the adventure in Ani's struggle in telling the truth of the deceit from her lady in waiting, and her falling in love with her betrothed, Geric. She took a place as a goose girl in the palace in order to be close to the palace to try and hide and device a place to enter the castle to tell her story of her true identity. It's a gloomy story, however ends happy. ( )

There is nothing particularly wrong with this, but ultimately I felt like I was watching it all through glass. Pretty but it left me unmoved. ( )

As Crown Princess of Kildenree, Ani grows up in the lap of luxury as she is groomed to become the future queen. But Ani has always been uncomfortable in her role and can't manage to act appropriately regal. To solve the dilemma, her pragmatic mother contracts a marriage for her with the prince of the neighboring kingdom of Bayern. Along the way, a conflict among her guards forces her to run for her life, and she finds herself in a strange place with no way of claiming her true identity. She finds work as a goose girl and makes friends among the Bayern villagers and Forest folk; but the time eventually comes when Ani must reclaim her rightful place and fight to save her country.

I love fairy tale retellings, and even though I don't know the original story of the goose girl, I thought this book was extremely good. Hale does a good job of evoking a fairy-tale world, and I loved Ani and the other characters, particularly Enna (who gets her own story in the companion novel, Enna Burning). I also enjoyed the mix of coming-of-age story, adventure, and romance, with a little magic thrown in. The prose does get a bit overly flowery at times, which isn't surprising since it's Hale's first published novel, but I definitely look forward to reading more by her.

http://amiralace.blogspot.com/2009/01... ( )