Mirror, Mirror in My Hand, Who Sings the Fairest in the Land?
Written: May 01 '08
Product Rating:
Pros: Aza, singing, tone and presentation of Ayorthia
Cons: inconsistencies with Ella Enchanted, ending, romance doesn't work, moves away from fairest singer concept
The Bottom Line: I think this book could have been fantastic as just Aza the Ayorthaian's story, a tale set in the same universe as Ella Enchanted but not directly connected to it.
quasar's Full Review: Gail Carson Levine, Sarah Naughten, Sarah Naughton...
Like most Ayorthaians, Aza sings her way through life. When she needs to clean and dust a guest room at her parent's inn, she makes it go faster by singing along. When she wants to express an opinion or ask a question or impart knowledge, she sings it. She just happens to sing it in a more beautiful voice than most.
Unlike most Ayorthaians, Aza is large and stout and fair. By local standards she's downright ugly and there are many around who won't let her forget it. Some guests at the inn won't eat food she serves or stay in rooms she cleans. She works primarily behind the scenes so she doesn't hurt business.
One of the society guests takes a liking to Aza, though, and when her companion is unable to accompany her to the king's wedding, the Duchess of Olixo asks Aza to come instead. There she finds herself embroiled in court intrigue. She's befriended and blackmailed by the vain, demanding, sly, but sometimes sweet queen. She's infatuated with Prince Ijori, the king's nephew and heir, almost immediately despite the towering difference in their social standing. She's overwhelmed by the grandeur and the spectacle but reminded that her new set of acquaintances and friends are just Ayorthaians like everyone else by the way they sing and the role song plays in their lives.
All is not sweetness and light, though, as Aza finds herself taking the brunt of the people's anger at their new queen, anger she mostly shares. Queen Ivi is jealous of Aza's voice but willing to accept her anyway because she's plain and because she has talents the queen can use for her own purposes. Then it all changes as Aza uses a potion she finds in a magic hand mirror inhabited by a creature named Skulni to make herself beautiful. At nearly the same time, the queen's plans unravel and Aza's role as blackmailed assistant makes her the perfect scapegoat.
Aza survives only because the courtier who aids her escape refuses to kill her as ordered. She starts a new life in the underground world of the gnomes, but she has not forgotten her life at the palace and it has most certainly not forgotten her.
While very loosely drawn from Snow White, Gail Carson Levine's book Fairest is not a retelling of that story. Rather, it's a rich fantasy set in the same fairy tale world as Ella Enchanted at around the same time. The book meanders along outside of the parameters of the legend for more than half of its length then tries to fit modified versions of many of the key elements of Snow White into the rest of the book. Frankly, the story worked better without them.
I thought the book was going to approach the fairest question solely from the standpoint of singing, something that would have fit the tone and setting of the book well. Instead, Levine muddied the waters with the introduction of the beauty potion and the magical creature in the mirror. It was contrived and never well explained and not just unnecessary but actually obstructive.
Indeed, Fairest is at its worst when trying to be too cute and draw in too many external elements. In addition to Snow White, the book explicitly references characters from Ella Enchanted. We learn early on that Aza has a sister named Arieda and it's pretty clear she's the same Arieda who befriends Ella at boarding school. Arieda never actually appears in this book and is only rarely mentioned, but the little said makes the timing and events of Levine's two books difficult to reconcile. Prince Char never appears in this book, but it seems like he should - or, if not, Arieda's experiences with him should have been vastly different in Ella Enchanted. I tried and tried to reconcile everything and couldn't.
Fairest is meant to be a love story, but it does a very poor job at portraying its central romance. While Aza's crush felt very real, we see no hint of feeling from the prince at all. Eventually he tells us of his interest, but even then no feelings are evident. We're told he's steadfast and true, but we see none of it.
The ending of Fairest (which I count from the poisoned apple scene) is quick, confusing, and not in keeping with the tone of the book to that point. I didn't buy it on any level.
One other thing to note is that the Ayorthia of this book seems quite different from the one portrayed in Ella Enchanted. There, Char remarked on how quiet Ayorthaians are all the time while here they're regular chatterboxes, albeit ones who sing rather than speak much of the time. I actually liked this particular incongruity as it struck me as nicely explained by cultural differences. The songs and sing-song dialogue patterns used frequently throughout the book also worked well.
I think this book could have been fantastic as just Aza the Ayorthaian's story, a tale set in the same universe as Ella Enchanted but not directly connected to it. I would have liked to see Levine throw herself behind a Snow White focused on the fairest singer, but her half hearted motions in that direction never really got off the ground. Her more serious attempts to mirror the traditional story utterly failed, leaving behind a book with many excellent components that simply falls apart in the end. Although I greatly enjoyed the first half or more of his book, I cannot recommend it. Read anything else by Gail Carson Levine instead.
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