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Thorn
by Intisar Khanani
This was good. It was a goose girl story, with only enough Middle Eastern influences to be barely noticeable.
Alyrra herself was the most interesting part: her past trauma, her timidity and kindness, and eventually her courage in speaking out. I liked her, and I felt for her. The relationship between her and the prince had a spark of something good too, and I think this could have been a very, very good story if it had been a little more well-drawn.
Instead, there were too many moving parts despite the story's slow pace. So many pieces that almost but not quite fit together. I want to say that these things will be explained in a further installment of the series, but the author seems to say that this is a standalone with only companion books coming in the future. If so, I really wish it had been built better.
Some questions:
This book has a good heart and good bones. I enjoyed it, but it could have been so much more.
Alyrra herself was the most interesting part: her past trauma, her timidity and kindness, and eventually her courage in speaking out. I liked her, and I felt for her. The relationship between her and the prince had a spark of something good too, and I think this could have been a very, very good story if it had been a little more well-drawn.
Instead, there were too many moving parts despite the story's slow pace. So many pieces that almost but not quite fit together. I want to say that these things will be explained in a further installment of the series, but the author seems to say that this is a standalone with only companion books coming in the future. If so, I really wish it had been built better.
Some questions:
• The prince knew what had happened to Alyrra from the beginning, which took the wind out of the entire deception. If he knew, why the dance? Why interview Alyrra over and over and over and yet let the impostor run free? I understand Alyrra's silence and inaction -- I don't understand the prince's. He knew magic was involved. He knew who was behind it. Why allow the plot to proceed, unimpeded? They could have solved the entire bodyswap problem just as easily 25% of the way through the book as they did at the end, and it's not at all clear why they didn't. The tension of mistaken identity could have been wrenching, but it wasn't because we all knew the truth the whole time. In that light, all the misdirection just seems fruitless and frustrating.
• The Lady. What happened to her? Alyrra saved the prince through the power of trust and idealism, which already seems like almost too much of a stretch, but the Lady explicitly refrained from renouncing her vendetta against all the rest of his family. What about his dad, the king? Is she still targeting him? What about Alyrra and the prince's eventual children? Are they marked for death? I don't understand if this actually solved anything or not.
• Falada seemed... weirdly shoehorned in. I know that's a strange thing to say given that he's a fundamental part of the goose girl story, but. He's part of a race of primordial sentient horses that no one has ever heard of, and he stays in the city seemingly for no reason but to go on walks and have philosophical discussions with Alyrra. He pretty much does nothing, at all, in the whole story except have these discussions and then die halfway through the book. He surrenders himself willingly to death, which accomplishes nothing. His presence in the story had zero practical impact. And can he speak from beyond the grave? Or not? It was never really explained.
• The Wind comes up like... twice. Once to be briefly introduced, and once to be finally revealed. That's it. The twist is nice, but this has got to be executed better, and it wouldn't have been hard to do at all. We all know this, because we've all read Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.
• All the relationships in this book were weak. It's important that we really invest in Alyrra's relationships with her fellow servants and townspeople, that we know who they are and feel how she feels at home with them. We learned some names and a few glancing details, but most of the time that could have been spent building some investment in Alyrra's life and choices was spent watching her have pointless, inexplicable conversations with the suspicious prince and philosophical conversations about morality with Falada. Those two were the only presences aside from Alyrra's that felt real in the book (besides the counterweight of her brother) and even they didn't justify all the time spent.
This book has a good heart and good bones. I enjoyed it, but it could have been so much more.