Fairest

Fairest is a novel by Gail Carson Levine, published in 2006. It takes plot elements from the story of Snow White and is set in the same world as Ella Enchanted, in Ayortha, the kingdom next to the one that earlier book belongs to, and it alludes back to it more than once.

Aza is the adopted daughter of innkeepers and has always hated how she looks. She is big, her skin is milk-white, her lips are the colour the book calls dragon tongue, and her hair seems black to humans although gnomes see it as htun, a dark purple they consider beautiful. Ayortha is a land of song, and what outweighs her appearance is her voice, which can sing almost anything and can be thrown without her mouth moving.

When her sister leaves for finishing school, an irritable guest at the inn asks Aza to come with her to the royal wedding, and the new queen, the beautiful Ivi, hears what Aza is able to do. Ivi cannot sing well herself and wants the gift for her own ends, and the fairy gift at the centre of the story is a mirror that finds its way into the hands of somebody who will not look at her own reflection if she can avoid it.