Fairest

Gail Carson Levine's Fairest is a retelling of "Snow White."

However, plot twist: this story's Snow White (Aza) isn't beautiful. In fact, many people might even say she's downright ugly.

Everything that made the original Snow White beautiful seems to clash in this girl. Pale skin contrasts horribly with sooty black hair, and firey-red lips to top it all off. Apparently, her eyes are her one acceptable feature.

There is another plot twist, too. Aza is the adopted daughter of innkeepers, not the sweet naive princess of the original fairy tale. Although we never find her birth family, it is more or less proven that Aza's original family was wealthy, probably nobility or even royalty.

Aza finally makes it to court one day, traveling as a noble lady's replacement companion to witness the wedding of the king to a foreign commoner. Upon discovering Aza extremely fine voice and incredible talent at "illusing" (ventriloquism), the new queen Ivi decides to make Aza her lady-in-waiting.

Scary things begin to happen almost instantly, however. The king is injured protecting his new bride, leaving her in charge of the kingdom until he recovers - if he recovers. Horrifyingly, Ivi doesn't just make a bad ruler; she makes an almost evil ruler. She blackmails Aza, refuses to help starving subjects, and spends all her time on clothes.

Aza's story eventually does follow the original, in that there is an attempt on her life and she flees to spend time with gnomes.

How on earth is this mess going to get straightened out? It's definitely not going to be easy. I suggest you find a copy and read for yourself. It's not as great as Ella Enchanted, but it's still a pretty good book, if you can get past Aza's merciless self-criticisms.