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FAIREST
By Gail Carson Levine
Fairest is a tale about a girl called Aza who was abandoned at birth in the Featherbed Inn. She was brought up by the innkeepers at the Featherbed. Everyone shuns her and looks down their noses at her for one reason. That reason is that she’s ugly. The only people who like her are her family (the innkeepers); the gnome, ZhamM; and the Duchess. Ayorthaia, the land she lives in is a land of singers. Ayorthaians appreciate beauty in any form. The only beautiful thing they think about her is that she has the most amazing voice ever. One day Aza is cleaning a room when she discovers a certain talent that only she can do. She can make her voice come from any direction that she chooses. She is an amazing mimic and she adds that to the skill too. She calls this illusing. Her family tries but they do not succeed. The King of Ayorthaia, Oscaro, marries a peasant from Kyrria. The Duchess goes to the wedding and needs a companion. She chooses Aza. When Aza goes there her talent is discovered by the new queen, Ivi, and is forced to work for Ivi. Ivi is amazingly, heart – breakingly beautiful, but cannot sing at all. She forces Aza to illuse for her. Oscaro goes into a coma when he saves Ivi from a speeding metal ring to the head, by taking the blow upon his own head. Ivi takes control and gradually turns the whole land against her. Meanwhile Oscaro’s nephew, Ijori, becomes friends with Aza and Aza falls in love with him. Ijori falls in love with her, but this is stopped when the Imperial Choirmaster finds out about Aza’s illusing and is convinced she is an ogre. Aza finds out that Ivi’s beauty is created by a magical potion given to her by the fairy Lucinda. Aza takes this potion and is then made beautiful. She flees for her life to the Gnome Caverns and takes shelter with ZhamM. I shall not say anymore because I do not wish to spoil it for you as I advise you that you read this amazingly descriptive about magic and beauty. Aza and Ijori would have to be my favourite characters. My absolute favourite scene is the scene when Aza gets new dresses, but the tailor has made them all wrong to humiliate Aza and to laugh at her. Aza then goes off crying and bumps into Ijori. Ijori notices this and starts to comfort her. Soppy I know, but this is very sweet and beautiful because Aza has been unloved by almost everyone she meets. He then kisses her and she goes back to the tailors and demands that the tailor get the dresses ready on time. She stands up for herself for once and tells him that it isn’t right for her to get treated differently because she’s not the same as them. This scene sends shivers down my spine whenever I read it. Ivi is a curious character. She is so shallow and cruel that I truly despise her in certain parts, where she is completely ghastly to Aza. But then again you do feel the need to pity her because she has such low self esteem and believes that no one will ever want her – even though Oscaro gave up his life for her. Ijori though does not stay in my good books for one part of the tale. When Aza is proclaimed an ogre he does not stand by her – even though he declared his love to her a couple of days ago. But he does try so hard to find her and is distraught when he hears the news of Aza’s “death”, which was faked to keep people off the scent. Aza though after saying that she had no feeling left for him, lets him a little too quickly back into her life I believe and this aggravates me a bit. But I have never been in love so I wouldn’t know how she would feel. The character I loathe would absolutely, definitely have to be Skulni – the ruler of the potions. Imagining his whiny scratchy voice singing or his grossly large torso and tiny spindly arms and legs makes me thing of a horde of spiders crawling up and down my throat. Disgusting! Though I do adore the way Gail Carson Levine uses brilliant adjectives to describe everything. The Inn, the Palace, Gnome Caverns – everything! It makes you feel like you are actually there - tasting the piping! hot ostumo or singing in the Sings held at the palace. Or eating carrot cake while diamonds sparkle in the rocks above you. If you are a fan of songs, romance, magic, potions – all set in a fantasy world – then this is the book for you! Even if you do not like this sort of material I advise that you give it a go and see if you may enjoy it more than you think you will.
