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    Fairest
    Fairest
    Fairest
    Audiobook8 hours

    Fairest

    Written by Gail Carson Levine

    Narrated by Soneela Nankani

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to be pretty . . . Aza's singing is the fairest in all the land, and the most unusual. She can "throw" her voice so it seems to come from anywhere. But singing is only one of the two qualities prized in the Kingdom of Ayortha. Aza doesn't possess the other: beauty. Not even close. She's hidden in the shadows in her parents' inn, but when she becomes lady-in-waiting to the new queen, she has to step into the light--especially when the queen demands a dangerous favor. A magic mirror, a charming prince, a jealous queen, palace intrigue, and an injured king twine into a maze that Aza must penetrate to save herself and her beloved kingdom. "A song-filled, fast-paced fairy tale."--Kirkus Reviews Inventive and original --KLIATT Readers will instantly fall in love with the heroine, whose heart proves to be as warm as her voice. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) [Readers will] sink into the fairy-tale romance, the remarkable characters, and the wild, magical adventures. --ALA Booklist
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateDec 18, 2015
    ISBN9781490683980
    Author

    Gail Carson Levine

    Gail Carson Levine's first book for children, Ella Enchanted, was a Newbery Honor Book. Levine's other books include Ever, a New York Times bestseller; Fairest, a Best Book of the Year for Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and a New York Times bestseller; Dave at Night, an ALA Notable Book and Best Book for Young Adults; The Wish; The Two Princesses of Bamarre; A Tale of Two Castles; Stolen Magic; The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre; Ogre Enchanted; and the six Princess Tales books. She is also the author of the nonfiction books Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly and Writer to Writer: From Think to Ink, as well as the picture books Betsy Who Cried Wolf and Betsy Red Hoodie. Gail Carson Levine and her husband, David, live in a two-centuries-old farmhouse in the Hudson Valley of New York State.

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    Reviews for Fairest

    3.5/5

    1,077 ratings68 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Beautiful and very creative story. Easy to picture and hear in the mind's senses. The names are a bit strange and difficult to pronounce, but who's reading out loud, right?
    • 2/5
      Not sure if it was me or the book (since I did enjoy Ella enchanted), but I couldn't click with the protagonist throughou, the way she was very "not like other girls."
      Also, the fact that everyone would just burst into song and the song would be a single "hello," just did not do it for me.

      A comparison between her and Ivy annoyed me to no end (about ancestry and its implications).
    • 4/5
      I kind of love this, and I think it's crazy amusing that while a friend of mine has been trying to get me to read Ella Enchanted I somehow randomly stumbled into reading the sequel, but it was nice. I loved the focus on music so much. So much. So much singing and poetry in this story made my heart sing.


      Not to be out done, by just how much I love the actions of the King, toward Ivy, by the end. And how myths and stories and wishes are played with.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The main weakness of this book is that despite covering that different species have different conceptions of beauty, and despite that the love interest (being a worthy romance hero) naturally thinks she's beautiful just the way she is, there's little questioning otherwise of the human conception of beauty and ugliness. And it's unclear whether she's large as in big, or "large" as in fat; a lot of her narration certainly comes across as internalised fatphobia and it doesn't feel like this is sufficiently neutralised by the end of the book.It's otherwise an enjoyable story of someone getting what seems like a dreamjob which rapidly turns into a nightmare of blackmail and scapegoating while everything goes to wrack and ruin. The Snow White storyline becomes clearer further into the book and is never too closely adhered to: it's more a framework for a story that owes more to the unique world it's set in.The singing is the best. Poetry and lyrics in books is often risky because novelists aren't always good poets. Some of the songs here are silly things, but that's when they're meant to be; some of them are deeply moving and would stand alone in their own right (though of course standing best in the context of the story).
    • 4/5
      I really like this author and I've read a lot of her work. I'm not sure how I felt about them always singing. It got kinda annoying. But it was a very nice, relateable story about looks not being everything. I liked Ivi and how she was very child like, and needed approval and admiration.
    • 5/5
      My daughter (who is 9 yrs old) read this book from her school library and absolutely loved it. At her prompting, I also read it. I found it completely enthralling.I loved the writing and the storytelling (I read this in one day - could not put it down). I loved the suspense and action. I loved the characters and the twist on the fairytale genre. But most of all, I loved the message it's leaving the girls who read it.For once, we have a kind, good, strong heroine who doesn't just imagine she's not pretty - she actually isn't - at least, according to the world's standards. But unlike other stories with a less attractive lead female, the answer isn't ultimately to "fix" her, nor to see she's "pretty on the inside". (Hate that concept - what is pretty on the inside, anyway??). Instead, it deals with this issue - knowing you don't measure up to society's standard of beauty - with an authentic voice and beautiful truths (without giving too much away, things like your looks don't have to define you, and that there are worse things to be than unpretty and that people love all sorts of looks).I adore the way this story ended, and it's no wonder it is now one of my daughter's favourites. I'd highly recommend it to girls and women alike. An entirely delightful read.
    • 4/5
      So how much does beauty matter? How much does it matter to sing beautifully in a land in which singing is a major part of the culture and almost as important as talking? Can anyone really fit in when they're markedly different and what would they do to fit in? In this retelling of Snow White we have a girl who isn't especially beautiful and who doesn't like apples, but who catches the eye of a queen who wants to fit in as much as she does and is being mislead by a magic mirror.
    • 4/5
      Aza might have the most unusual and loveliest voice in all of Ayortha, a kingdom of singers. But because so many people--including Aza herself--consider her to be ugly, she'll go to foolish lengths in her attempts to magically become pretty in Fairest, a novel by Gail Carson Levine.Oh, fairy tales aren't my go-to type of reading, and I don't reach for many middle grade books to read either. But I once saw and enjoyed the movie Ella Enchanted, based (loosely?) on the Newbery Honor book by the same author. As I used to read more fantasy as a child, it's been my plan for some time to dip back into fantasy fiction of the mythical and magical variety. So, when I happened to come across this novel, I figured, "Hey. Why not?"This fantastical tale turned out to be quite engaging with excellent drops of genius along the way. There's blackmail, betrayal, and some violence, but also endearing kindness and romance in the story, along with Aza's down-to-earth lesson that young people (and, I daresay, grown folks as well) can learn from. The novel didn't leave me with a Chronicles-of-Narnia kind of "wooow," but still, every minute of it was worthwhile to me.So, I'll say this book is my small, happy step back into the mythical and magical side of things.
    • 1/5
      Not me favorite by far. Boring, and drab!
    • 3/5
      A country girl moves to the city and is befriended by the prince and the queen, one of whom isn't what they seem. Fairy tale bits mixed in.I wanted to like this more than I did. But between the constant emphasis on looks and the silly way that people would sing instead of speaking, I had trouble even finishing it. I like musicals, but it just doesn't have the same effect on paper.I did like the original world Levine created (singing aside), and I was especially interested in some of the nonhuman characters. It might have been more interesting if it had been used with its own story instead of trying to twist it to fit the fairy tale retelling.
    • 4/5
      I would recommend this book for folks under 16 (after all it is a young adult type of novel) and not for anyone who has read a lot of great literature. But not because of the content.

      I usually think of young adult novels/teen fic novels as classified that way because of content and not because of writing. My recommendation is because of the writing. The style really grated on me. It was choppy. And while I love the idea of a “singing” kingdom. And I love the idea of singing what you are saying, even if it isn’t lyrical, it makes for some hard reading. Contrast the difficulty reading the song content with the almost too facile style of the rest of the novel.

      Besides the writing itself, the plot moved along in fits and spurts. Levine succeeds in having the “aha” of the story elude you. Generally, this is a good thing. But here it was more because there were too many twists and turns to follow–a wee bit on the overly contrived side of plotting.

      The reason why I think it’s worth recommending to younger folk is that the message is very clear: beauty has nothing to do with what you look like or how great your talents are. I like that and for that reason alone, I'm giving it 4 stars. Our society puts a ridiculous amount of pressure on girls, at younger ages than ever before, to be beautiful and supremely talented. I like that in this tale, the girl is ugly and has immense talent, and even that can’t make everything right for her. It’s only once she starts to understand herself, be comfortable in her own skin, that things seem to fall into place. And that is a true life message.

      If I read anything else from this author, I am reasonably certain it will only be as a “mommy preview” before my daughter reads it. There are too many great reads out there to bother with mediocre writing.

      (Unless, of course, I’m feeling brain dead and want some low-class chick lit–I’m not very demanding about much with that style of .)
    • 4/5
      3.5-4

      It was definitely not of the same calliber as Ella Enchanted, which is one of a kind. But I liked the not so subtle message, and the realness of the problems and feelings. Overall, a good children's book.
    • 4/5
      This is a wonderful audiobook production, full cast with all original music. This is important to note because Aza and the everyone in the kingdom of Ayortha are all singers, and singing is a major form of communicating there. This is a creative and completely different retelling of Snow White, and it was just a delightful experience all around.
    • 4/5
      A new spin on Snow White in which the heroine, Aza, has unique talents with her voice, but is considered ugly by almost everyone she meets. In order to make money for her family's inn, she becomes a lady-in-waiting to the queen, where she becomes tangled in magic and palace intrigue.This is set in the same world and time as Levine's Ella Enchanted, one of my old favorites, and contains some references to characters from that. Aza's home country of Ayortha is famous for its singing culture, and everyone, from king to peasant, often breaks into song to express their feelings. I really enjoyed how Levine explores this country-wide love of music and how it would affect the people's everyday lives and customs. Aza's insecurity about her looks and how it drives her actions makes her a good foil for the beautiful Queen Ivy, but her inner monologues about this dragged a bit for me. The ending/epilogue seemed a little longer than necessary too. Still, fans of Ella Enchanted should definitely check it out!
    • 5/5
      Thoroughly enjoyable book! Aza considers herself ugly, but she can sing beautifully. Because of her singing (and a trick she calls illusing), she finds herself (a commoner, the daughter of an innkeeper) a lady-in-waiting to the new queen of Ayortha.

      I don't want to give anything else away, so I'll stop there. Loved the book!
    • 4/5
      In the spirit of Ella Enchanted, a more thorough version of the story of Snow White. Delightful and fun to read.
    • 5/5
      Fairest is a new spin on Snow White done by Gail Carson Levine (author of Ella Enchanted). It takes place in a country where singing is a major part of the customs. The protagonist, Aza, is a remarkable singer, but is deemed ugly by society and herself. I've read bad reviews on this book, and many of them I believe are not accurate in how they viewed the book. This book is directed to middle school aged kids. It is a fairy tale, I.e. a place where people can fall in love quickly, people can sing as much as they want, etc. Certain aspects may not seem realistic because this is not a realistic fiction novel. Having said that, I loved this book. I first read it when I was in 6th or 7th grade and adored it. I had already read Ella Enchanted, an I was ecstatic to find another book set in the same world. Aza is a very easy character to relate to. Everyone has worried at some point about fitting in, being proclaimed a beauty by society, considered a love life impossible, etc. Yet, even with all the odds against her, Aza remains a pure hearted, caring person. Her relationship with the prince is adorable and sweet. They truly seem to bring out the best in each other. For all of those reasons and more, I have gone back to Fairest again and again throughout the years, and it has a spot on my shelf of books never to get rid of.
    • 3/5
      I really liked the first half of this book. Then it got weird and rushed and ...weird. I think it was trying too hard to be Ella Enchanted, which is unfortunate, because this story had so many good ideas of its own.
    • 3/5
      Aza is not pretty, but she has a great singing voice and a kind heart. She is invited to the castle to witness the king's wedding, but he is injured shortly after the ceremony. Now Aza must navigate castle intrigue from the new queen, build her relationship with the crown prince, and try to heal the king.
    • 4/5
      Bear with me if this ends up being a somewhat rambling review. I both read and listened to Fairest by Gail Carson Levine over the course of a weekend car trip.Fairest is a tween fantasy inspired by Snow White but that connection only becomes obvious in the final third of the story. Aza is a foundling, raised by innkeepers of the Feather Bed. In the kingdom of Ayortha, beauty in voice and body are prized above all else. While Aza can sing better than anyone she knows, she is too tall, too wide, too plain of face and too clumsy. As she hones her singing skills, she learns how to throw her voice, or as she calls it, illuse.Aza's self-esteem therefore isn't great. It gets put the ultimate test, though, when circumstances beyond her control take her to castle for a royal wedding. When the king is injured, leaving his new queen in charge, Aza finds her stay extended for the foreseeable future.Queen Ivi, the young commoner with unusual beauty but a terrible singing voice, stands in for the wicked stepmother queen. Aza with her hair too black, her skin to pale and her lips too red, stands in for Snow White. Ivi's, though, isn't driven by an insane desire to be the "fairest one of all" even if that's what's expected of her. Her actions are driven more by her immaturity and homesickness, making her both a more interesting and more dangerous character.As Ayortha prizes singing, there's frequent mention of singing, including characters randomly breaking out in song mid sentence when the mood strikes. In the print form, these moments of song are rendered as short lines of poetry — the longest one taking maybe three quarters of a page. In the Full Cast Audio version, these songs can add upwards of five minutes to a page that would otherwise take a minute or two to read. As I was reading it on my own at night and listening to it in the car, these inflated areas were more noticeable than they would otherwise be.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyable book. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fairy tale retellings.
    • 3/5
      Not quite as good as Ella Enchanted, but still a quick, enjoyable JF fairy tale story.
    • 2/5
      Poorly done. I struggled to finish it. A great disappointment compared to Ella Enchanted and some of her other books. I did like the gnome, widyeH zhamM.
    • 3/5
      Summary: Aza, adopted daughter of an innkeeper, was never a pretty child. Too tall, too large, and too plain, but there was one thing about her that was beautiful: her voice. Not only can she sing beautifully - a boon in the country of Ayortha, where music is such an important part of a life - but she can also throw her voice with perfect mimicry. When she is taken to the capital to attend the King's wedding, she is taken up as a lady-in-waiting to the new Queen, on one condition: that she use her talents to help the Queen pretend to sing, for although she is young and beautiful, she has a weak voice. Aza has no choice but to accept, but when the King is injured, the Queen's true colors begin to show: vain and impetuous, headstrong and with a jealous temper. Aza must do something to help save her kingdom, but if she speaks up, her part in the deception will be revealed... putting herself and everyone she loves in danger.Review: I love retellings of fairy tales, and as the rash of recent movies might suggest, Snow White offers a plethora of source material. I appreciated a lot of the things that Fairest did with the original - the contrast between physical and vocal beauty, especially - but in the final analysis, I like my retellings darker than this. Obviously, given the age level of this book (mid-grade to very early YA, I'd say), it was never going to be as dark as Tender Morsels, for example, and that's fine. But although it's well-written, and held my attention well enough, the whole thing was just a little juvenile for my tastes. The writing was a little too simplistic for me, the constant breaking in to song got on my nerves (a good thing I didn't listen to the audiobook version, I think!), the romance storyline felt perfunctory and didn't really grab me, and the end was very much "everyone lived happily ever after," but not in a satisfying way. The one thing I really, really did like was the one note that seemed more mature than its surroundings, and that was the treatment of Aza's appearance. For all that most of the ending was overly facile, Aza does not a) instantly become beautiful as a reward for a job well done, or b) have a moment of realization that she's beautiful on the inside and that's all that matters. Instead, Levine opts for a more subtle message of self-acceptance and self-confidence, and one that I think was very well done. I just wish the rest of the book had had some of that same level of maturity. 3 out of 5 stars.Recommendation: This one would be good for pre-teen girls who like fairy tales, or older readers who want something light and easy, but for those who want their retellings with an edge to them, better to look elsewhere.
    • 2/5
      My Kindle freezes = I read an actual book. I have a small mountain of Read-Soon books by my bed, so when communication failed with my device I pulled this off the stack. Aza, the first-person character, is different from everyone around her. As an infant she was abandoned in an inn, and adopted by the innkeepers who have loved her as their own. But there is no getting around the fact that she is ugly in a land that prizes beauty only slightly less than they value song. Song Aza has – her voice is the loveliest in her village. Beauty she does not, to the extent that strangers stare at her and whisper to each other behind their hands: she is too wide, and too tall, and too large overall, and her coloring is wrong, and so on; whether a disinterested party would see her as outright ugly or merely different from those around her is a question that crossed my mind. I love fairy tale adaptations and fairy tale-esque stories. While this has assorted elements of classic tales – the magic mirror, the handsome prince and the good king with the wicked queen, the common girl raised to great heights, etc. – it is itself, unique. With she added a little later strong overtones of Snow White. Which apparently this really is an adaptation of. Despite the book title and the mirror, I didn't see it till three-quarters of the way in. It took a minute to get used to the singing; for everyone to sing random sentences, all the time, was just too odd at first. But, as with a good musical, after a little while it began to seem a shame that everyone doesn't sing more often. It's notable that the only person up to no good in this book is the one who doesn't sing. The names and created language of the book took more getting used to: vowel sound-consonant-vowel sound, rinse and repeat for additional syllables, from the prince's dog to the main character; it added up to something I found to more resemble baby talk than a language, but I'm hardly an expert. And then, smack in the middle of it all, the castle cook: Frying Pan. (Who irritatingly always spoke of herself in the third person.) That was bizarre. Overall, it was sweet and insubstantial but a little off somehow. Aza seems to drift along with events like a wood chip in the current, easily led and not prone to doing much to make her life or her position better until it's almost too late. The king is a nice fellow, and beloved – that's pleasant. Ivi, his queen, is not nice; she starts out vain and stupid and utterly self-centered, and never changes. Prince Izori must be a nice fellow – he has a dog who loves him – and Aza falls thoroughly in love with him in record time. That little romance (it's surely not a spoiler to say there's a bit of romance there?) is not entirely believable; Levine just doesn't sell it. Or I wasn't buying. I liked Aza's family more than I did her, and I liked djaaM the gnome as well. The gnomes were a bit of all right. I did like that one of the reasons the ogres were as dangerous as they were was their skill as sirens. I loved some of the songs – but I hated the ones in the invented language. I wish there had been more to love; I had expected there to be. But ... the cover is utterly lovely.
    • 4/5
      Really enjoyed this book. I read a lot of juvenile fiction, especially fantasy type novels, and this was definitely one of the better ones. The story line flowed, the characters kept my interest and the tale was well rounded.
    • 5/5
      It´s amazing how the author manages to surprise the reader telling such a known story. Like classic tales it even achieves the task of teaching the reader-young adult positive values. It´s worth the reading, an easy and nice one.
    • 3/5
      Since Ella Enchanted is one of my favorite children’s books of all time, I had high hopes for this companion novel. Unfortunately, Fairest was a bit of a let down. The main character, Aza, is obsessed with becoming beautiful. I can understand and sympathize with her feelings, but it seems like beauty is all Aza thinks about 24/7, and it gets a bit annoying. Also, Aza doesn’t possess the kind of inner strength that I tend to associate with Levine’s heroines. Perhaps I am being too harsh because Ella of Ella Enchanted exhibits the perfect mix of strength and vulnerability, but I would have liked to see Aza stand up for herself and what’s right more often than she does. In addition, the romance happened so quickly that it felt forced. But, despite all the ways in which Fairest fell short of my expectations, I still enjoyed the magical, fairytale setting, lyrical prose, and underlying themes of the importance of inner beauty and the fickleness of popularity. Overall, it was a good story, but definitely not Levine’s best. For a wonderful novel set in the same world as Fairest, read Ella Enchanted; it’s ten times better.
    • 5/5
      i love this book!!!!favorite author too!
    • 5/5
      Aza has a beautiful singing voice but, because she looks different to everyone else, is considered ugly. Aza ends up at the court and is persuaded to to help Queen Ivi against her better judgement.This is a retelling of Snow White.