The Goose Girl

A friend recently lent me a book based on a popular Grimm's fairy-tale, called The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale. I really wasn't expecting much at first from the title (I mean really, goose girl?), but as I read on, I became pleasantly surprised by the quality and suspense within the pages.
It starts out with the birth of Crown Princess Anidori-Kildara Talianna Isilee of Kildenree. While she grows up, it is evident that she has special gifts of conversing with nature. As time goes on, she is promised in marriage to the prince of a neighboring country called Bayern. When the time comes, to travel to Bayern for the marriage, Ani (as she was called) was devastated to learn that she would no longer be queen of Kildenree, as she had been training to become all her life. She, her lady-in-waiting, and her escort of forty guards set off to meet the prince in a three month journey towards Bayern. Long story short, Ani is betrayed by her lady-in-waiting as she pretends to take Ani's position, and then poor Ani is reduced to the status of a goose girl. While working with the palace animals, Ani becomes friends with many of the other workers in the fields. After a while, Ani's story comes out, and her friends, coupled with Ani's nature speaking gift, set out to reclaim Ani's title


What I really enjoyed about this story was that the main character (Ani) was one I could relate to. Unlike most stories with females as main characters, Ani was not strong and brilliant and wonderful at first. She was just a normal teenage girl with an extraordinary title; going through adolescence and trying her best to be what everyone expected from a crown princess. As the story went on, I was astounded by the character growth of her person! She became a little stronger, a little wiser, and much more comfortable with herself. And also (though I didn't mention it), this story is a romance. I liked the romance because the story line wasn't totally and completely consumed by it. It wasn't heavy, ( i.e., going into much more detail than I care to read), and this romance wasn't inappropriate at all. I found it very sweet.

The few draw-backs from this tale are really nothing dramatic; A few times, certain antagonists imply things I don't wish to repeat. There is war starting, and towards the conclusion of the tale, a small battle breaks out between the protagonists and the antagonists; thus there is much killing and describing of the scene. (I.e:... "and so he swung his sword around and chopped of his opponent's head, blood dripping from his sword..." not directly from the book, but same idea).

Overall, I thought it was a wonderful book; The characters were easy to relate to as well as strong, and the moral is quite clear. I highly recommend reading this for anyone with a taste for adventure and fantasy.