The Goose Girl by Robin Gallica

The Goose Girl by Robin Gallica

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Less Than Three Press in exchange for an honest review.*

I was not aware of the Goose Girl story fairy tale before reading this story here. Well, I’ve a vague idea I’ve heard the title before, and that it was a fairy tale, but I’ve not read it so I can’t say how this story here is similar or different.

*looks it up* Okay, so, ‘The Goose Girl’ was put out by the Brothers Grimm in 1815. *reads* And, as might be expected, the Brothers Grimm story is vastly more horrifying than you might expect for a fairy tale, as the original tales actually are. I was reading along and the story was similar – the fairy tale and the retelling, then the horse’s head gets nailed to a door and the little girl talks to it when she passes by. That’s the Grimm tale. No severed horse’s heads appear in Gallica’s version. Right, enough of that.

As both the Brothers Grimm story, and this story here has it – a young woman is sent off by her royal parent(s) (Grimm story – pop’s is dead; Gallica story – both king and queen are still alive) to be married. The young princess has no ability to get out of it, no choice. She is forced to conform, to do her duty. So she sent off to marry this mostly unknown boy (they had apparently been near each other at least once as very young children). One maid travels with her. As in the Grimm story, the maid refuses to continue serving the young princess, steals her identity and wanders off to the castle to marry the prince (actually, not sure if it is a prince in the Grimm version) while the real Princess is forced to be a servant.

I already mentioned two differences (severed horse head, dead/not dead pops), another is that the goose boy in the Grimm story is named Conrad, and in the Gallica story is named Konrad. And here ends my comparison because I’ve not read any more of the Grimm version.

Right, so, Ava (the princess, and the main point of view character) rides off on her favorite horse Falada (same name in the Grimm tale) with the maid Otilla. Before they left, the Queen – the mother – gives Ava a charm so that she would not be harmed on her journey by anything found along the way (which is important, of course, the wording). Along the way Ava is forced to change places with Otilla, and once they arrive at the castle where Ava was to be married, fake Princess Ava is warmly greeted while fake servant is said, by fake Ava, to be super bad as a servant and clumsy and stuff. So fake servant is lead away to work in the castle. Otilla – as Ava – says that the servant’s name is Margrit.

One thing leads to another and Margrit works as a goose girl who, for reasons, pretends to be mute (and they are important reasons). She watches the geese, watches Otilla as Ava (who makes a point of always being nearby at the end of the day looking super happy), and lives this life for a week or so until the wedding day appears. But let’s not give everything away, eh?

I rather liked this story. Quite interesting and entertaining.

Ava sighed. She’d heard that many little girls dreamed of being princesses, but that was only because they had no idea what being a princess entailed. They thought of it as having all the money in the world and the freedom to do with it as one wished. They weren’t thinking of the impeccable manners, the endless tutors, the state visits, the social schedule so full that going for a ride was a treasured treat. Or the arranged marriages. For that matter, every single one of Ava’s friends had been chosen for her by her mother . . .

Rating: 3.73

June 8 2017



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