Review: Before the Fairytale: The Girl With No Name (Seventh Night #0.1) by Iscah

Title: Before the Fairytale: The Girl With No Name
Author: Iscah
Series: Sevent Night
Genre: Fantasy, MG, YA
Publisher: Amoeba Ink
Publication date: May 30th 2013
Source: received from author (Thank you!!)







Banished from her village, a young shape shifter sets out on a journey to find her place in the world...

The first of four "Before the Fairytale" stories, "The Girl With No Name" is told in a deceptively simple storybook style with the flavor of an original Grimm's fable, but don't expect your typical once upon a time scenario. This is a coming of age tale humorously interwoven with social commentary.

This story is recommended for older children to adult readers (9 & up) but may not be suitable for younger children.

Goodreads

The Girl With No Name was quiet an interesting read. A young girl that never knew her real parents, ushered out of her village by everyone thanks to her shape shifting abilities.

The book began like every fairytale style, with ‘Once upon a time…’. The main character of this book really is the Girl With No Name, since her parents never were in the picture she never received a name. She’s a shape shifter and magic-user and that’s hard in a land that doesn’t understand or respect magic. After her guardian dies she sets off to find her place in the world but mainly to find her father. Her journey takes her through many countries and she meets many new people from booksellers to princes. Throughout her journey she gets answers to her many questions. About her family, about her magic and about the world itself.

Every town or village the girl visits is different than the others. Every place has its own rules and culture. Like in every fairytale there is a witch and a prince but they are different than the ones I’ve read about. The prince is one of my favorite characters in this book, he’s kind and funny. And it’s here were the book took a different turn than in other fairytales. And it’s always fun when a book takes by surprise. I liked how the girl grows throughout the book. She is just a young child when she set off on her journey but at the end of the book she is a young woman. She found out what she was best at and she used her talents to help others and not for power. And she didn’t forget the ones who had been kind to her on her journey throughout the years.

Overall I enjoyed reading this book. It was well written and it had a nice pace. The Girl With No Name is the first of four novellas later the main characters of these book will come together in a full-length fantasy novel. I’m looking forward to read the other books in this series.

El