Snow White Volume 1
YA Sci-fi Fantasy Fairy tale Retelling
IWM
February 26th 2013
ebook
192
Amazon
Read from 23/12/13 to 12/12/16
The Mirror, The Huntsman
Snow White, Rose Red
Poisonous mists settled in the lowlands 17 years ago, rendering ninety percent of the land uninhabitable and killing over half the population. Most blame their misfortune on industrialization or the fey, but some curse Snow White, the princess who was born poisoned.
As the only person who can survive entering the poisoned woods without a gas mask, Snow White has dedicated her life to studying the poison and finding a cure. This obsession draws her deeper into the woods and its secrets, where nothing is as it seems. When Snow White saves a man who should never have been saved, she unleashes an evil more horrifying and destructive than the poison.
“The people in the village silently worshiped Snow White, but the servants 
feared her. They remembered the beauty and kindness of the late queen. They never forgot that she’d died by her daughter’s hand.”
I read this book as part of the Snow White Volumes 1 to 3 bind up and it was also the first book I had read by this author. I enjoyed reading this book so much that as soon as I finished reading it I immediately started reading the second book (The Mirror) in the bind up. This was a really twisted retelling of Snow White with the story of Rose Red thrown in for good measure. Snow White is a complex character who it was hard not to feel sorry for due to the fact that she is poisoned like the kingdom she is Princess of, and the fact that she is guilt ridden because she’s responsible for her mother’s death. It was great how Katherine twisted the sentient mirror into an actual person who’d been imprisoned in a dungeon, the poisoned apple being the fact that she was born with a disease (‘poisoned’) and the wicked stepmother with the evil that lurks in the poisoned kingdom.All the characters were well written and believable if not always likable. I loved the fact that all the male characters were portrayed as being grotesque although they did have some redeeming characteristic like beautiful eyes or showing great love. <br /> Snow White comes across as quite a confusing character because although she is fairly strong, determined and loving she also doubts herself so much that she believes she’s the one who’s poisoned her kingdom rather than the mining accident being the reason
All the characters were well written and believable if not always likable. I loved the fact that all the male characters were portrayed as being grotesque although they did have some redeeming characteristic like beautiful eyes or showing great love. Snow White comes across as quite a confusing character because although she is fairly strong, determined and loving she also doubts herself so much that she believes she’s the one who’s poisoned her kingdom rather than the mining accident being the reason it’s poisoned. The story skips from her young self to her present day life but in both, she is a very depressive character but it is understandable as she’s not only been born ‘poisoned’ but is also the reason her mother is dead. She met Princess Rose when she panicked in the aftermath of killing her mother and tried to escape the tower. Princess Rose was quite a confusing character to understand because her words and deeds tend to have alternate meanings. Although her father, the king wants Snow White dead she attempts to stand by Snow White until the end. Yet she nor the King stop Snow White from running into the poisoned forest. By the end of the book, it was starting to become clear that she was going to become the evil queen because she’d found the man who called himself Mirror, so the Mirror.
The style in which the book was written could be a little confusing to follow because at the start of chapters it was hard to tell whether it was being set in the present or past. However, once I got into the chapter properly it became much easier to decipher when it was set.
I thought the twist to the lore of Snow White in this book was really imaginative and wish that I had come up with it! This is why I started reading the next book in the series so I could end some of the loose ends and the cliffhanger from the first book.
This book is a YA sci-fi Romance Fairytale Retelling and it fits very well into these genres so I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys books from the genres.<br /><br />
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