cw for sexual assault and violence against women, victim blaming. there are some explicit scenes of this but it’s also a recurring theme throughout the novel as a systemic issue.

we love a girl with her talking horse and the wind as her friend who just wants to be left alone more than anything but she just has to have a conscience and just has to find the prince worth saving and just has to love this country as her home and want to make it better. how inconvenient.

thorn is a retelling of the goose girl by the grimm brothers and listening to the audiobook really felt like listening to the fairy tale of princess alyrra the goose girl that’s been passed down for generations and probably has a barbie movie made about it. i loved the audiobook of this.

if you’re after a plot heavy book with lots of twists and turns, this isn’t it. the plot of thorn is very simple, a quick google search of the goose girl fairytale pretty much tells you everything about the plot. thorn is focused on Alyrra’s character development, showing her grow from the shadow, wallflower princess doing everything she can to avoid returning to court life, her day to day life as a servant revealing the deep injustices that divide her new home that prince kestrin, from his shelter and privilege in the palace, cannot see and her finding a found family who love her. I loved watching alyrra learn what it’s like to be loved, the confidence and surety she grows into, and her struggle between comfortable denial and her duty. I loved that Alyrra was front and centre throughout this novel and the choices she made in the end were for her and not for anyone else. i love her friendship with the prince, her family in the stable, her relationship with the Lady and valka. i’m excited for the sequel, i know Alyrra isn’t the POV character but I am so invested in her future i will take any scraps of her I can get.