Forest Born

Book Four of the Books of Bayern

By: Shannon Hale

Narrated by: Cynthia Bishop

Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Rin is sure that something is wrong with her...something really bad. Something that is keeping her from feeling at home in the Forest homestead where she’s lived all her life. Something that is keeping her from trusting herself with anyone at all. When her brother Razo returns from the city for a visit, she accompanies him to the palace, hoping that she can find peace away from home. But war has come to Bayern again, and Rin is compelled to join the queen and her closest allies - magical girls Rin thinks of as the Fire Sisters - as they venture into the Forest toward Kel, the land where someone seems to want them all dead.

Many beloved Bayern characters reappear in this story, but it is Rin’s own journey of discovering how to balance the good and the bad in herself that drives this compelling adventure.

©2013 Shannon Hale (P)2013 AudioGO

fabulous, but...

I read these books when they first came out, loved them. got the Kindle books with whisper sync for my daughter, first goose girl, then enna burning. she listened to them on loop, day after day. we bought river secrets for a family road trip, then this one for the ride home. the cast has been amazing for the first three books, but suddenly, all the voices are different. things happen, but I'm sad they didn't get to keep the cast for all four books.

Ugh. This seemed to drag on forever.

Goose girl was so good. We listened to the entire series. Each consecutive book was less than the original. It was nice to see the progression of familiar characters, but the prose became repetitive and predictable. I'm glad we've finished the series and so glad we listened to her "thousand years" book immediately following "Goose Girl".

Good not great

I wasn't as impressed with this book as the others. All the girls seemed so blood thirsty. but still a great story of teenage girl finding herself

I Love this book, but Razo...

I just started listening to this and I'm not sure I can finish. in the last two books, Razo's voice was perfect. He sounded mischievous and friendly and laid back. Forest born. In this book something about his voice reminds me more of a silly, sickly man raised in a palace with a snotty tutor. It changes the way I imagine him and that's not acceptable. He's just about my favorite character. I'm sure there was some circumstance that made the change of voice necessary but I just really wish that weren't the case or that they chose someone more Razo-ish. I almost want to rate the performance lower, but so far everyone else is great. I love Rinna's voice. But, RAZO!

Good for background noise

My first complaint is the voice actor for Razo changed and was not nearly as good. The story overall was hit or miss. The character development of Rin was extremely frustrating. I actually hated her as a character. I understand her whole premise is learning to understand and accept your faults and strengths compassionately, but it took SO LONG through the whole book. Most of her monologue was whiny and self-loathing. I ended up reading spoilers to cut through most of it.

The performance by the narrator was inconsistent with her rhythm. Especially at the end. There were like 3 sentences where it could have been the end of the book, and her voice makes you think so. Right as you accept it’s the end there’s ANOTHER freaking paragraph.

I wish there had been a scene where the author showed the resolve between Rin and Willam.

Overall this book felt like a left field, hurried addendum to add the last of the 4 nature speaking languages to the books as Rin wasn’t any significant character mentioned except in passing before. In the other books you knew Enna and Razo as characters you loved and knew. Who the hell wad Rinna except Razos sister? Meh.

Love it!

Great. Loved the twists and surprises. I love the sibling relationship. A perfect ending for Bayern

Great series but this 4th book has a different feel from the first 3

Loved the first 3 books of this series but this one seemed to have a different feel, the characters from the other books seemed more hard and the story was told in a flash back type way that was different and difficult to follow. The voice change of some of the main characters was also a bit sad after spending 3 books with them as the same voices.
It was very well preformed! And it does continue a fun adventures series just know that it will feel different from the other books.

Good book...

I thought there could have been more regarding what happened with the other characters and did Renna find love. Well, so much more. Did Izzy get all the speech elements? I felt it ended unfinished. :( Good read, though.

Brings new meaning to "talk it out"

I listened to Goose Girl some time back then jumped to this one. I know I was missing some backstory, but the tale was clear enough. When your men get beat up by the baddies, time for the "talkative" girls to right the situation - with those most deadly of weapons, Speaking and Listening. The story arc of Rinna's self-doubting has two parts: her past guilt (which is not very subtle) and her future fears. The gift of Speaking (like Bilbo's Ring) has a way of warping minds, and I feel that this could have been dealt with more. All we see is the extreme case of the People-Speaking "Queen" but not how she got there or how Rin will have to deal with it in her own future, particularly as she has a double dose of it - Tree-Speaking and People-Speaking. Appended note, now that I have go back to read Enna Burning and River Secrets, the theme there of powers-warping-personality was prominent.

Wonderful series

This whole series was a delight to listen to. It’s one I’ll listen to over and over again. Truly a delight.