Fairest (Ella Enchanted #2)

Author: Gail Carson Levine

Rating: 2/5

In the kingdom of Ayortha, Aza is fully convinced she’s ugly. However, she has a captivating voice. When she gets the opportunity to travel to the palace, Aza’s talent attracts the attention of the new queen and the crown prince.

Spoilers ahead.

Detailed Summary

Aza is the adopted daughter of innkeepers in Ayortha. She hates her appearance (blood-red lips, black hair, white skin, big size) and gets lots of rude comments from guests. Aza is a talented singer and can “illuse” which is like ventriloquism. A gnome named zhamM tells her they’ll meet and that she’s got beautiful hair. A duchess takes a liking to her and takes her to the palace for the king’s wedding to Ivi. Ivi discovers Aza’s ability and hires her as her lady-in-waiting, threatening to close down her parents’ inn if she doesn’t illuse for her. King Oscaro is wounded. Crown Prince Ijori and Aza fall in love. Ivi shakes things up in the kingdom, getting rid of the council and birds and stuff. Aza is accused by Ivi. She drinks a beauty potion created by Skulni, a creature living in a magic mirror which was given to Ivi by Lucinda. Aza becomes beautiful and is named an ogress. She’s imprisoned but escapes with Ivi’s guard. She goes to the Gnome Caverns and meets zhamM. zhamM thinks Aza is part-gnome, rather than -ogre. Ivi, disguised as a gnome, gives Aza an apple. Aza’s spirit is trapped in the mirror with Skulni. Skulni wanted a vacation which he would only get if Ivi died. Aza destroys the mirror inside out and tells Ivi about Skulni’s plan. She wakes in the Gnome Caverns. Ijori is there and apologises for not believing her. Aza marries Ijori, King Oscaro recovers and Ivi becomes a good person. The king decides to abdicate the throne so Ijori can be crowned because he doesn’t want Ivi to have access to power. Aza has three children who look like Ijori with her htun hair and illusing abilities (ugh, perfect combination) and zhamM finds that Aza is indeed part-gnome.

Plot and Pacing

I was so excited to read this book. I adored Ella Enchanted when I was younger than I am now and I had no idea Gail Carson Levine had written a whole SERIES set in the same universe. While I have very vague memories of Ella Enchanted, I’m fairly certain it wasn’t as rushed as Fairest was.

This book was meant to explore a young woman’s path to self-acceptance. Aza is by no means conventionally attractive. She’s big in all the wrong places and her features just don’t sit well on her body.  In other words, she was someone I could relate to. I was hoping I’d learn something that I could use to shift my own body image issues. However, the execution of the plot and character development was rushed and lacked depth. If I hadn’t been reading this for r/fantasy’s bingo challenge, I would have DNF’d it.

All the events in the book happened far too quickly. Ijori falls for Aza in a matter of seconds. Sure, he was meant to show how beauty is skin deep and doesn’t determine your relationships whether they’re platonic or romantic. But he barely had time to learn more about Aza! It was just, like, one page of interactions and bam, they kissed. And the wedding at the end? Ijori surprised Aza with a wedding! That’s not romantic, it’s anxiety-inducing!

The whole gnome subplot was also unnecessary. I would have much preferred if there wasn’t a reason for Aza looking different. Sometimes, genetics just want to fuck with you and that’s IT. You don’t have to be a hybrid to look strange!

I was really hoping I’d enjoy this book. I understand the message Levine intended to convey and I’m glad she wrote a children’s book about it. I just wish the delivery had been better.

Characters

I could relate a lot to Aza (minus the beautiful singing voice). I could relate to feeling disproportionate. Aza’s self-esteem is directly tied to her appearance for the majority of the novel, rather than her talent. Once she destroys the mirror and realises how much she’s capable of despite being “ugly,” she became more confident in herself. I loved that. It was just too fast. The events in the book didn’t exactly lend themselves to the arc. I would have loved to see more instances of Aza being subtly discriminated against for looking different. Things like being passed over for your better-looking friend, not being asked to dance at a ball or the aggressive comments people say unintentionally about being larger than average. That’s why I like the tailor scene where they all commented loudly on how they could possibly make flattering clothes for someone as ugly as Aza. More scenes like that would have better highlighted Aza’s growth into a woman who felt comfortable in her skin.

Ivi annoyed the hell out of me. Ijori barely had any characterisation. All I know about him is he’s tall and handsome with a tenor voice. So, that’s lovely. I didn’t understand Skulni’s plot completely and I’m not going to try to understand.

Writing Style

I think my main problem with this book was the sheer amount of telling. This book was written in first-person so a fair amount of telling is expected but I would have liked more descriptions of the palace and events. I would have liked more dialogue conveying information rather than Aza saying things like, “Ivi had become queen!”

This wasn’t how I imagined Aza to look while reading the book.