Book Review: The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

Series: Books of Bayern Book #1 

Format: Audio book

Pages: 383

Rating: 4 Stars-book/5 stars-audio book

How I Got It: Christmas gift/Library (for the audio book)

Genre: Young adult, fantasy

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Synopsis courtesy of Goodreads

Anidora-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree spent the first years of her life listening to her aunt's incredible stories, and learning the language of the birds. Little knowing how valuable her aunt's strange knowledge would prove to be when she grew older. From the Grimm's fairy tale of the princess who became a goose girl before she could become a queen, Shannon Hale has woven an incredible, original and magical tale of a girl who must understand her own incredible talents before she can overcome those who wish her harm.

Review

This was a re-read, but this time I listened to the audio book. It's a full cast production and just perfection. I could not stop listening. There was just an extra dose of magic with the audio book. I want to re-read this whole series and plan on getting the full cast recordings for all of those as well.

Goose Girl feels different from other YA Fantasy. It's hard for me to explain. There are high stakes and tension, but it feels more peaceful than other fantasy books I've read. You get to savor the characters instead of crazy plot point after crazy plot point.

And the characters are great. Ani is something I love in a heroine: she's strong and kind. She's very Cinderella-have courage and be kind. In the last few years there's been a lot of heroines who are assassins and physically strong. There is a place for those types of characters, but I love that Ani is brave without physical strength to back her up.

The magic is interesting and well down. Ms. Hale had to really build this out from the source material and did an excellent job. And I loved that there were limitations to the magic. Often I feel that is overlooked in fantasy.

If you couldn't tell already, I loved this story. And I absolutely loved having it read to me/performed for me. If I have kids this will definitely be a book I want to read to them. 

I can't wait to read the next book. I remember Enna's book being my favorite.

Thanks for reading!

Holly