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The Goose Girl is an adaptation of the Grimm fairy tale by the same name � which I had never heard of before reading this book. I guess if Disney hasn’t already adapted it, I’m more or less clueless when it comes to fairy tales. ;-)

That comes in handy, though, when reading a new story � I figured that Princess Anidori-Kiladra (a.k.a. Ani; a.k.a. Isi, the Goose Girl; a.k.a. the Yellow Lady � there’s a lot about disguise and identity in this story, if you can’t tell) would live happily ever after � the heroines always do in fairy tales. Still, I flew through the pages to see what would happen in the meantime. (In a non-spoiler summary, she’s not spared from sorrow, but things still work out for the best.)

Hale’s prose is terrific � poetic and lyrical, easily creating a world where it’s entirely believable that strange and almost-magical things could happen. I loved one of the major themes of the book: that Ani’s unique talents (or even Ani’s so-called “weaknesses,� for she didn’t have the talents which seemed natural to a princess) could be a boon once they were developed. It sounded a lot like a Young Women’s lesson (which probably isn’t too far off, really, as some research revealed that the author is LDS).

Great read.