Forest Born by Shannon Hale

Imaginitive.

I'm sure you all know by now that I love Shannon Hale (at least her children's books). And Forest Born was no exception. This is number 4 in a series of books that have come to be known as "The Books of Bayern." The Goose Girl was the first (and one of my all time favorite books). Then there was Enna Burning and River Secrets. And I hope you've read all of these because they are definitely fun, compelling, and creative books, and also because I don't want to spend this entry writing about those books to catch you up with this one!

Forest Born follows the adventure of Isi, Enna, Dasha, and new character Rin (Razo's sister) and is told from Rin's point of view. Rin grew up in the forest of Bayern and has always tried to blend in and not be noticed. One day, she realizes she has the ability to persuade people to do what she wants (if you've read the other books I'm sure you're remembering Selia and her gift right now). She hates the way this makes her feel and hates even more how it disappoints her mother, so she decides to suppress this ability and spends much of her time imitating others in order to keep her own personality locked away. At this same time Rin develops a relationship with trees. Somehow she can feel their calming influence. One day Rin unleashes her persuasion on a neighbor and immediately hates herself. She also loses the ability to feel calm through the trees, feeling anger and self-loathing instead. When Razo comes to visit, she takes him up on his offer to escape the forest and work for the queen for a while.

Shortly after leaving the forest, the queen's (Isi's) toddler son is kidnapped and Rin, Isi, Enna, and Dasha must save him and the kingdom. Forest Born tells mostly of the girls' adventure, but it is also a "classic coming of age" story for Rin. Through the adventure she learns to accept her abilities and herself and even learn to use her gifts to help others. All in all, Forest Born was a fun and feel good book.

So I am definitely not a fan of fantasy books, just not my thing. But these "Books of Bayern" are easily some of my favorite books. I love the idea of gifts of speaking...fire speaking, water speaking, tree speaking...so clever. And I like the exciting stories. I always read these books quickly because I don't want to put them down. But more than anything, I love Shannon Hale's words. The way she writes is so clean and fluid. And by clean I don't mean not smutty (although her books aren't), I mean not flowery. Geez, I am really struggling to explain this! Hale has a serious talent for writing young fiction. If you compare her writing to Stephenie Meyer, you too will wonder how Meyer ever got published. (And I get REALLY angry every time I see a Stephenie Meyer review on Hale's books.) Anyway, I loved Forest Born (but not as much as Goose Girl and River Secrets, but definitely more than Enna Burning). I love how I get lost in the story and almost feel like I am Rin, and it's not often that one finds a book like that.

I have a really good friend whose taste in books is very similar to mine. She loves Hale as much as I do! But she didn't like Forest Born as much. My mom (who got me started on Hale's books) didn't either. My mom thought Rin's character wasn't developed enough. And my friend thought there was too much internal dialogue. I agree with both. The internal dialogue (Rin's thoughts) got really lengthy and took up way too many pages. I was kind of annoyed with it by the end. And as far as an underdeveloped character, I thought this really worked for Rin. Her character was underdeveloped because she was still deciding who she was.

So even with my annoyance, I still really enjoyed this book. I highly recommend it. But if you haven't read any of the other "Books of Bayern," read those first. You'll be lost without them. But mostly you'll just be glad you read them!