White as Snow

This was such an odd retelling of the Snow White story that even a few weeks later I can’t quite comprehend writing an adequate review of it. The story is engaging and Tanith Lee’s writing is wonderful, but I spent most of the time while reading it feeling a vague sense of unease and discomfort. Maybe it’s because the themes of Snow White are deeply problematic already (rape, viewing different people as being “other,” attempted murder, family betrayal), or maybe it was Lee’s straightforward yet twisted presentation of these themes, but either way this story was deeply unsettling.

This is right up there with "Beauty" by Robin McKinley and "Mermaid" by Carolyn Turgeon as a must-read fairy tale novel retelling. Tanith Lee mesmerizes with her use of imagery and symbolism and makes this retelling of "Snow White" fresh and vibrant, dark and disturbing. This is by no means a light read, but is in its darkness one aching with depth and truth. It cast me under its spell much like the fabled apple at its core. Lee's effort puts the silliness of the recent "Snow White and the Huntsman" movie to shame. This is faerie, fable and myth at its most naked and vulnerable. A reading journey I will never forget.

In an alternate-history medieval Europe, the noble maiden Arpazia, raised in an isolated castle, finds herself the captive of the conquering general-king Draco. The only remnant of her former life is an exotic glass mirror possessed of witchy powers. She feels no connection to Coira, daughter of her forced marriage to the brutal Draco. She becomes the lover of a woodsman, Klytemno, who embodies the divine Hunter King in pagan rituals. Then Klytemno requires her to send her black-haired, snow-pale daughter Coira into the woods as a sacrifice....

Lee managed to hit every trope of the major versions of the Snow White story, and tie it in with the Persephone/Hades myth, AND still deliver a banger of a story that was gracefully told and beautifully written. Truthfully I wasn't expecting much from this book, so to say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.

This is my first full Lee novel (I have read a few of her short stories and excerpts of her work before) -- while I am still dubious about her similitude to Angela Carter (as the book blurb boldly proclaims), I found her writing to be rich and tantilizing. It relies on a delightful fugue of images and motifs (the mirror, the moon, ravens and doves and blood) rather than super advanced syntax (Carter does both, though I am trying to let go of this comparison the editors so kindly thrust into my brain). That being said, she is undoubtedly a competent linguist; her talent imbibes this straightforward -- albeit lurid and dark --- rehashing of the Snow White tale with sensuality and surprise. Speaking of the rehash: I found her extrapolation show more of the dwarves role in the orginal tale to be especially intriguiging, quite sincere, and ultiamtely, a much needed repreive from the other characters who predominately rape our two female characters (big content warning for this book). Overall, Lee's imposition of the Demeter/Persephone myth was insightful, though in my opinion, contrived. This was especially the case toward the end of the novel as Lee scrambled to tie up all the loose ends of her doubly-exposed myths.

With that said, the story's clumsy formal choices is why I am deducting a few stars. The first third of the book had me completely sold: Lee struck a perfect balance between Arpazia's misery and the marvelous eroticism of her encounters with the hunter and the world at large. Essentially, it was an untold origin myth for the evil stepmother, a much needed interrogation of an ulimately misogynistic trope. However, for the reasons I mentioned above, Lee overwhelms herself with all these moving parts; once I reached the last third of the book, the story cracked under the weight of its ambitions. Coira's arc lacked the clarity and focus her mother's recieved at the start.

Yet, Lee is an ambitious and evocative storyteller -- for those reasons, I will absolutely read more of her work. I do reccomend giving this book a try if you love dark fairytale retellings, lavish unapolgetic prose, and images that will haunt you. show less

Absolutely gorgeous. Lee takes the dark tones of the original Snow White myth, pulls them together with the story of Demeter and Persephone, and wraps it all together in a world still reeling from the struggle between Greek paganism and Christianity. Queen Arpazia is written lyrically and sympathetically up until the bitter end, and Princess Coira is a strong and deftly-written young woman. Totally recommended.

CW: frequent rape, one instance of abortion, enslavement of dwarves

I liked the blending of the Snow White fairytale with the Demeter/Persephone myth and the thematic cycles and mirror motif therein. Some of the relationships and character trajectories moved forward in ways that didn't seem logical given the information we got on the page. Overall though I enjoyed the story, the crafting of the themes, and especially the hopeful ending.