Thorn by Intisar Khanani

In this retelling of the Goose Girl, Thorn must learn to find her power while trapped under a vicious magic spell.

The story that first sparked my love of fairy tale retellings was a version of The Goose Girl. This one is quite different, while still managing to retain all the usual trappings. I'm always amazed at how the authors manage to create entirely new worlds that still make sense of the story.

A couple of times in this characters made leaps that I, the reader, didn't follow, but it didn't impact my overall enjoyment of this story. I love the secondary characters and may have cried a couple of times - no spoilers! The tone was brilliant as well.

There's also a short story included - I'm not quite sure if it's meant to be a complete story or a portion of a longer one, but either way it's great to see some more of the world and I hope Intisar writes more. I'll happily read them.

Original Cover                              New Cover 

A princess with two futures. A destiny all her own
Between her cruel family and the contempt she faces at court, Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life. But when she’s betrothed to the powerful prince Kestrin, Alyrra embarks on a journey to his land with little hope for a better future.

When a mysterious and terrifying sorceress robs Alyrra of both her identity and her role as princess, Alyrra seizes the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl.

But Alyrra soon finds that Kestrin is not what she expected. The more Alyrra learns of this new kingdom, the pain and suffering its people endure, as well as the danger facing Kestrin from the sorceress herself, the more she knows she can’t remain the goose girl forever.

With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds and ultimately must decide who she is, and what she stands for.