Thorn – A Fairy Tale Re-telling

Title: Thorn
Author: Intisar Khanani
Source: from author for review
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: This book was darker and more violent than I expected from the pretty cover, but I was pleasantly surprised when the main character turned out to be a strong heroine you could really root for.

As I mentioned in my previous review of a Goose Girl retelling, the basic gist of both this book and the original fairy tale is as follows. A princess is sent to marry a prince in a foreign land and on the journey, her maid uses some form of magic to take on the princess’s identity. Once they reach the foreign capital, the princess becomes a goose girl and must decide if and how she wants to regain her place as a princess.

Bookends About The Goose Girl

Title: The Goose Girl
Author: Shannon Hale
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: I really liked how true this book was to the style of a fairy tale and how well it fleshed out the original story.

I picked up this version of The Goose Girl planning on using it as an original to read before another re-telling. Further research suggests you’d need a children’s book (or the wikipedia page) to get the most original story, since the original is far too short for a book. The basic gist of both this book and the original fairy tale is as follows. A princess is sent to marry a prince in a foreign land and on the journey, her maid uses some form of magic to take on the princess’s identity. Once they reach the foreign capital, the princess becomes a goose girl and must decide if and how she wants to regain her place as a princess.

Project: Fairy Tale – The Outlaws of Sherwood Forest

Title: The Outlaws of Sherwood
Author: Robin McKinley
Source: library
Rating: ★★★★☆
Review Summary: My favorite re-telling, with relatable characters and much adventure.

As part of Alison at The Cheap Reader’s Project: Fairy Tale, I decided to review one original and three re-tellings of Robin Hood in February. Obviously this post is a little late, but here’s the last re-telling I picked up. It was also by far my favorite, which probably shouldn’t surprise me since I almost always love books by Robin McKinley. As with most of the other re-tellings, the story hardly needs a synopsis, but I would like to mention that in this version we actually start shortly before Robin becomes an outlaw…