The Goose Girl

I'm not the ideal audience for this book, but I love fairy tale retellings. Really I'd give this a 2.5. The story is entertaining but incredibly predictable. I read Thorn awhile back and thought it was a much better retelling. This was just too far fetched for me. I know it's a retelling of the Goose Girl tale but there are ways to improve upon a story and ways to just rewrite it.

If you love books with cheesy plotlines, and predictable endings this book is for you. I consider myself a realist (then why do I read fairy tales? I love the deeper message behind them). I didn't take away much of anything from this except the whole story is impossible. Thorn was about learning to trust people, and overcoming violence. I felt like it was a book about a girl finding herself, standing up for herself, learning to love and live. The Goose Girl just felt like it was fluffed with all too familiar plots. I can't say i took anything away from it. Parts of it were entertaining, but it just felt wrong. Everything seemed too forced, and the ending made me wish I spent my time reading something else.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

As the oldest child of the King and Queen, Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee (Ani) is being groomed for the throne of Kildenree. Much to her mother???s disappointment, though, Ani doesn???t seem to be leadership material. She doesn???t have the ability to persuade and motivate people like her mother does and, oddly, she seems to communicate better with animals than people.

Nonetheless, Ani is shocked when her mother declares her little brother to be heir and sends Ani off as a bride to the prince of Bayern, an aggressive neighboring kingdom. She feels betrayed by her family and things only get worse when she encounters more deceit and betrayal on the way to Bayern. Because she has a difficult time standing up for herself, Princess Ani is soon usurped and tending geese instead of taking her rightful place beside the Prince of Bayern. But this goose girl is determined to get her name back.

Based on the Grimm fairytale ???The Goose Girl,??? this book is the first in a series of companion novels by Shannon Hale (The Bayern Books). Whether you???re familiar with the fairytale or not, you???ll be pretty sure how the story ends ??? it???s unlikely to surprise you. But perhaps what will surprise you is how exciting the story is anyway. It???s fast-paced, beautifully written, emotional, and satisfying. Even though I was often frustrated with Ani???s forbearance and lack of confidence, I was enchanted by her story anyway.

According to Amazon, The Goose Girl is marketed to children ages 9-12, but there is enough violence and murder (and even scary things that happen to animals) that I think it???s better suited for the YA crowd. I listened to, and enjoyed, the Full Cast Audio production and recommend this version. The Goose Girl is a sweet and irresistible story for teens, adults, and the bravest little girls and boys.

I quite enjoyed Shannon Hale's Goose Girl. I was expecting a sweet story, but it isn't really, though it does get sweet in places. And in fact, as you might expect as it is based on (or at least inspired by) a Brothers Grimm story, it gets quite grim in places. There is treachery, violence, murder, and other nastiness aplenty. To balance that, there is also courage, friendship, steadfastness, and kindness. The main character, Ani, has to deal with tough times and grow up fast. Hale crafted a plot which twists and turns and several times went where I did not expect (which I like).
To sum up – good story, well told.