I think of her hair as black as coal, her lips as red as blood, her skin, snow-white. As do I. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is a fairy tale, nay, a beloved fairy tale about a young, beautiful girl with hair as black as ebony, lips as red as blood, and skin as white as snow. It is the story of the triumph of good over evil; of the victory of an innocent, loving and beautiful child over her clever, evil, equally beautiful step mother. But Neil Gaiman doesn't think so. Why? Because he's Neil fucking Gaiman and he can ruin any fairytale he wants.

You see, it's all about perspective. The kind and gentle (for the intents and purposes of this story only) stepmother says, "They call me wise, but I am far from wise, for all that I foresaw fragments of it, frozen moments caught in pools of water or in the cold glass of my mirror. If I were wise I would not have tried to change what I saw. If I were wise I would have killed myself before ever I encountered her, before ever I caught him."

"Wise, and a witch, or so they said, and I’d seen his face in my dreams and in reflections for all my life: sixteen years of dreaming of him before he reined his horse by the bridge that morning, and asked my name." At the ripe age of sixteen, she finds herself in love with the beautiful king of the land. Sixteen and but a child herself, she finds herself married to him, and caring (I use the word loosely here) for his five year-old daughter. Her eyes were black as coal, black as her hair; her lips were redder than blood. ... Her teeth seemed sharp, even then, in the lamplight. But of course, everything about the daughter is not as it seems, and tragedy befalls our heroine.

A landscape, unrecognisable after a snowfall; that is what she has made of my life.

Saying anything beyond this would, of course compromise the build of the story. I will say this, though; this book is not for the faint-hearted, as beautiful as it is. Neil Gaiman, you perverse weirdo. I didn't think I could ever love you more, but see, now, I do.

I'll leave you with this...metaphor. Autumn is the time of drying, of preserving, a time of picking apples, of rendering the goose fat. Winter is the time of hunger, of snow, and of death...

I did enjoy this, I truly did. But I would have enjoyed it a lot more if it were a true story, not set out as a script for a play.

What was missing to me, was the stunning scenery and imagery that Neil normally paints with his words. Instead we got the intimate confession/story of the Queen.

I liked the change of POV, it added something new to the story. Then of course, there's the matter of Snow White herself. This beastly little wench truly was the dark jewel in the crown of a great retelling.

Why then only three stars? Firstly, because of the format minus one star.
Secondly, the tale was so short one barely gets a whiff of the foul goings on before it's over. I'd have loved to see where things ended with Snow White and the prince. Minus another star.

Try this one out if you're interested in a wicked little tale with a twist.

A very spooky retelling of Snow White.
Parts of the story are sort of violent, so I recommend for adults and very mature teens (16-18 years)

I feel triumphant, even though all it took was my signature on a slip of paper. I hadn't realized only half my order had been delivered, so I'll probably have to go through the exact same "missed delivery" stuff with the second book. Oh well.

I ordered print copies of the second and third books in this trilogy so that I could reread my favorite parts whenever I wanted, even if all my devices needed charging or the files somehow got corrupted (yes, I worry about that sort of thing). Earthrise is probably my least favorite of Hogarth's works so far, but I couldn't bring myself to order Books 2 and 3 without ordering Book 1.

ETA: That cover is even prettier on my print copy than it is on the screen, by the way.