Review Detail

Reader reviewed by Stephanie

When we think of fairy tale heroines, we usually imagine a beautiful, graceful young woman with massive amounts of hair down to there and angel eyes. Aza is none of the above. Tall, wide, and pasty, Aza was abandoned at an inn when she was only a few days old. The innkeepers family adopted her and she has lived and worked with them ever since. The inns guests are rarely kind with their comments about her looks, but even after 15 years of hearing them, Aza is still uncomfortable with her looks.

However, Aza has a special gift: her voice. She is an amazing singer, even by Ayorthaian standards, and secretly she masters the art of illusing, or what we refer to as ventriloquism, or throwing ones voice. She journeys to the kings castle to witness the marriage of King Ascaro to Queen Ivi, a foreigner. There, her voice captures Ivis attention. Ivi is determined to remain the fairest in all the land, and blackmails Aza into becoming her lady-in-waiting so she can illuse over her own weak voice.

Aza is unhappy at the castle, where her only source of happiness is the prince Ijori. Ivi owns a magic handheld mirror named Skulni which can make gazers look beautiful, and Aza is obsessed with becoming beautiful through any means, including spells and potions. When her life is in danger due to Ivis manic selfishness, Aza flees to Gnome Caverns where she learns the truth about herself and must grow to accept her looks and gain self-confidence.

FAIREST is a good story, notwithstanding certain things I would have liked better explained, such as Skulni. While its a retelling of Snow White, Gail Carson Levine makes it clear that the moral is that no one should judge their worth by their looks.