Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

" Voices and faces aren't manifestations of good or bad. " - Fairest

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine is set in the fictional Kingdom of Ayortha. In Ayortha a person is judged on their appearance and their voice, it is considered normal for one to just break into a song in the middle of conversations. The main girl, Ava, has a beautiful voice however she is not so lucky with her looks. Ava always feels embarrassed and is very harsh on herself, all she longs for is to be beautiful. When she gets the opportunity to travel to the castle the Queen grows fond of her however but for the wrong reasons. The Queen quickly learns of Ava's secret ability and uses it for her own benefit. Ava also finds out the Queen's secrets and she too uses it for her own good. Both will learn that with any action, potion and spells comes great consequences. 

I read this book in under 3 hours. The plot was simple and the language was very easy and simple. By this description I do not mean to say the book was bad or even boring but I am stating these facts so that you can decide if you would like to read the book. I personally like reading these books when I don't want to spend too much of my time reading or when I want a cheesy, cute book just to pass my time.

A while ago I posted about a very similar book to this - also by Gail Carson Levine - called Ever. Although they are not part of a series their covers were very similar (covers have many variations but from the ones I read had similar covers) and most of all they had a very similar style. It was clear that they were written by the same author and targeted at the same group. Basically what I will write in this review will be a near copy of my blog post on Ever.

Although I enjoyed the book I don't think the character description were very good. Ava was supposed to be bulky and ugly however when I first read her description she seemed quite beautiful. Ava has really pale skin, jet black hair and bright red lips this description seems more like Snow White than a girl that is so ugly she is compared to an ogre. I mean the story is a twist on Snow White and being the fairest of them all, including the magic mirror but I find it hard to imagine someone so ugly through such a pretty description. 

There is not much I can say about the book. Whoever does read this shouldn't except it to be one of those 'I love it' but it is still a little cute, fantasy books. It does seem more appropriate for 9-12.