I have to confess the Snow White fairytale is probably not one that I know particularly well, and there are surprisingly few retellings of it too, so I can't really say how closely this story follows the original but there are certainly a lot of familiar elements. There is the young Princess Sophie, her "evil" stepmother, a magic mirror, 7 short men and a handsome prince but Donnelly has put her own spin on them and things are not always exactly as they seem.
I loved the way the author added a feminist slant to a lot of these elements, with Sophie judged to weak to rule a kingdom alone due to her sex and her stepmother constantly having to prove her worth as queen for example. I also loved how other mythological elements were woven into the story, with the King of Crows and his sister a sinister presence in the background.
In terms of the characters, I found main character Sophie a little on the annoying side and I suspect this may be the main reason I didn't completely take to this story. She's just a little too much, too emotional, too naive, too impatient and too trusting and a lot of what she does comes across as silly and reckless. She doesn't seem to listen or learn and relies on everyone else to save her, something I found incredibly frustrating to read. There are "reasons" and she did develop and grow on me but it was all very last minute.
I loved the way the author added a feminist slant to a lot of these elements, with Sophie judged to weak to rule a kingdom alone due to her sex and her stepmother constantly having to prove her worth as queen for example. I also loved how other mythological elements were woven into the story, with the King of Crows and his sister a sinister presence in the background.
In terms of the characters, I found main character Sophie a little on the annoying side and I suspect this may be the main reason I didn't completely take to this story. She's just a little too much, too emotional, too naive, too impatient and too trusting and a lot of what she does comes across as silly and reckless. She doesn't seem to listen or learn and relies on everyone else to save her, something I found incredibly frustrating to read. There are "reasons" and she did develop and grow on me but it was all very last minute.