Snow White has been struggling with the death of her beloved Prince Charming for over a year, and when her daughter, Princess Raven, begins to plan her wedding, Snow White is despondent and closed off. In an effort to find some solitude, Snow White explores areas of the castle she hasn't visited for years and comes face to face with a ghost from her past--the magic mirror.
When I read the book description, I thought the mirror was going to literally help her go on an adventure to find herself. That is not the case. Since the mirror is a reflection of her true self, it simply guides her on a journey of self-reflection. We travel back in time with Snow White as she explores the key relationships of her life--her father, her evil step-mother, Prince Charming, members of her court, and others. Each time the magic mirror begins to spin her back in time, we get more of a glimpse into who Snow White was and who she has become. Ultimately, the magic mirror forces her to make a decision to either accept the fact that Prince Charming is gone and move on with her life or continue to wallow in her own despair for the rest of her existence.
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| Will Snow White ever find her smile again? |
I really enjoyed Meredith's spin on this classic fairy tale. I've always loved Grimm's fairy tales, and Snow White is one of my favorite princesses. I feel Meredith did a nice job of using the language of the era, which is difficult to do. His prose is flowery and descriptive, but not in a way that makes one grow confused or feel overwhelmed. The pace was steady, and I feel that many of the characters were well developed, although I would have liked to have had more information about the evil step-mother, six of the seven dwarfs, and Princess Raven, who hardly has any interaction with the reader at all. I really liked the flashback scenes where we get more information about Snow White's life, though many of them are a bit disturbing due to the violence inflicted upon our main character.
I did not feel that Snow White came across as a strong female lead, despite the fact that the mirror tells her (and us) that she is strong several times. She almost always needs someone to come and rescue her with each predicament she finds herself in. Even when she attempts to handle things herself, it doesn't go as expected. Far from the Snow White portrayed by Ginnifer Goodwin on Once Upon a Time, this Snow White is more in line with the soft-spoken fairy of Disney's original movie from the '30s.
There were also several proofreading errors that caught my eye, particularly when it came to punctuation. I was constantly pulled out of the story when a lengthy sentence incorporating two independent clauses with a conjunction joining them did not have a comma. This might sound a bit picky, but it makes it difficult to read these types of sentences when they are not properly punctuated. This is another instance when I am wondering if there was an editor because none is listed and most of the mistakes seem to be in line with a careful proofread by a writer who may or may not be familiar with all of the punctuation rules or can't see them because we tend to read things the way we thought we wrote them....
There are some explicit bedroom scenes to go along with the violence already noted, so keep that in mind. I wouldn't recommend this for younger readers. I didn't find it horribly offensive but I read a couple of other reviews from readers who did. Definitely not one to plan on reading aloud to your kids at bedtime!
I gave this book four stars on Amazon. You can read my review here. If you find it helpful, please indicate so on Amazon as that helps my recommendations to be seen by others. If you'd like to find read Reflections of Queen Snow White for yourself, you can purchase it here for $1.99.
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