White as Snow

by Tanith Lee

Once upon a time there was a mirror . . .

So begins this dark, unusual retelling of the story of Snow White by the writer reviewers have called "the Angela Carter of the fantasy field." Tanith Lee's collection of fairy stories, Red as Blood: Tales from the Sisters Grimmer, is an acknowledged classic of fairy tale literature for adults. Now this mistress of the fairy-tale form gives readers a whole novel based on a beloved story, turning it into a dark and sensual drama full of myth and magic.

Arpazia is the aging queen who paces the halls of a warlord's palace. Cold as winter, she has only one passion—for the mysterious hunter who courts the outlawed old gods of the woodland. Coira is the princess raised in the shadow of her mother's hatred. Avoided by both her parents and half-forgotten by her father's court, she grows into womanhood alone . . . until the mirror speaks, and blood is spilled, and the forest claims her.

The tragic myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, stolen by the king of the underworld, is woven together with the tale of Snow White to create a powerful story of mothers and daughters and the blood that binds them together, for good or ill. Black queen. White maid. Royal huntsman. Seven little folk who live in the forest. Come inside, sit by the fire, and listen to this fairy tale as you've never heard it before.

Once upon a time there was a mirror, and a girl as white as snow . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Retellings, Horror, Mythology, Fairy Tale Retellings

319 pages, Hardcover

First published September 5, 2000

About the author

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.

Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.

Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.

Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.

Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.

Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.

Reviews

[mark monday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantasy author Tanith Lee drains all of the fantasy out of her retelling of Snow White. An impressive feat! The setting is not specific, other than medieval, existing in a place where pagan ways are coexisting with Christianity, albeit surreptitiously. The wicked stepmother is Snow White's real mother and yet not: mother has cut those ties and is barely conscious of her daughter. And mother is also a traumatized sociopath, consumed by an overwhelming narcissism and wrestling with new and confusing feelings of love. A lunatic, but one rendered as fully three-dimensional, the raped captive bride of a warlord, frozen at the young age when she was first kidnapped, trapped in a prison not of her making. Snow White herself is given all the dimensions as well, as are the Seven Dwarves, one of whom becomes her true love. And Prince Charming? The last quarter of the book is his, this insane and sadistic monster, and it makes that final portion particularly grueling. Fortunately, SORRY THIS IS A SPOILER, there is hope at the end.

The writing is clean and crystalline. The feminism is very dark, sometimes hopeful, always realistic. Tanith Lee turns this fantastic fable into a completely unsentimental portrait of women coping and trying to survive in a world of men. Her story is hard to read, especially for any reader hoping for escapism. An austere and entirely impressive achievement.

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some beautiful aspects of this book, and then there's the fact that nearly every female character is raped, often multiple times. The beauty is mostly in some of the writing and descriptions, though some of the ideas are also pretty interesting in theory -- Lee blends the story of Snow White with the Greco-Roman myth of Hades and Persephone.

This isn't either story as you know it, though, and for me it ultimately didn't work. The two stories didn't blend very well, because I was spending so much time drawing parallels, and because some of the parallels seemed a little laboured. Some of it is very sensual writing, while during a lot of it the heroines act like pieces of cardboard: I understand that is the reaction of some rape victims, some of whom may never "snap out of it", but it does unfortunately cut out a lot of the potential feeling of the story.

I did enjoy the introduction, which goes into the background of the story, and introduced me to a glorious poem by Delia Sherman, "Snow White to the Prince", which ends:

Do you think I did not know her,
Ragged and gnarled and stooped like a wind-bent tree,
Her basket full of combs and pins and laces?
Of course I took her poisoned gifts. I wanted
To feel her hands combing out my hair.
To let her lace me up, to take an apple
From her hand, a smile from her lips,
As when I was a child.

[Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I certainly didn't expect this book to be a chore when I first picked it up. It sounded intriguing. A retelling of Snow White? With the Queen's perspective? Told with some of the Persephone myth thrown in? Sign me up!

And I think having my hopes way up is worse, somehow, than not being sure what to expect. Because I got two-thirds through this before I realized how much I disliked it, and then I was invested in finishing it.

I didn't like that almost all the female characters are raped. I guess it was supposed to add a layer of gritty realism, but it only served to sap my enthusiasm to continue reading.

I didn't like the voice. Yes, fairy tales are often told in the same omniscient, detached voice. But fairy tales aren't over 200 pages long, with character development.

This didn't have much character development, either, for that matter. Why did the characters act as they did? I don't know. Apparently because the story made them. There was no real insight into anyone's characters, no motivations, no actual change except in where they were and who they were with. There are two love stories within this book, but damned if I know what any member of either couple saw in his/her beloved. We get a few sentences of how hot the ladies found their suitors, and then they're boning, with lots of references to magic and rituals, and things that made me think maybe even these supposedly consensual encounters were coerced.

I heard a lot of good things about this book, and now I'm really annoyed at everyone who recommended it. It could've been done so much better. Instead, I had to force myself through this mess.

[Meredith is a hot mess · Rating 5 out of 5]

And the girl went on staring at the forest. Her name was Arpazia. Her hair was black as the woods, her pale skin better than the snow. Her eyes, though, were a light, water-gray. She was fourteen years of age. She longed for change, not knowing the change of all things was almost upon her, not what it could mean.

This story starts out about Arpazia, Tanith lee's reimagined evil queen of the Snow White tale. Except the queen is not really evil, we learn early on of the tragedy Arpazia went through that ends up forming her personality.

This retelling also combined Snow White with the mythological tale of Persephone:

Here, it was said, at time's start, the earth had opened, and a young goddess was snatched into it in one volcanic moment, from which drama the seasons had begun...Belgra Demitu was named for it, and for the goddess-mother of the abducted maiden.

The myth of Persephone was woven with the pagan religion the people of Belgra Demitu followed. The forest imagery was gorgeous. The outings in the woods and descriptions of the pagan religion were some of my favorite aspects of this book.

This was a dark, eerie retelling of Snow White. Full of twists and turns, I never knew where the author was going with the story.

I probably would only recommend this to fans of Tanith Lee or people who I know like dark retellings. At times the tone felt austere, chilly, cold as ice. This was especially true in regard to Arpazia's point of view. Coira's story was heart wrenching. Very sad and bleak. It was also beautiful. This story was so tragic, yet there was an amazing romance that I did not see coming. I was afraid there would be a sad ending, but Tanith left the story with a glimmer of hope:

Soon the watching mirror saw in the East, that always place of renewals, advents, a brightness like itself. The mirror offered neither question nor reply. The mirror's dialogues were done.
And when the sun rose, it rose blood-red.

[Charlotte Kersten]

“Blackest wish turn white like snow,
Bloodiest wish like blood outflow.”

So What’s It About?

Arpazia is the aging queen who paces the halls of a warlord’s palace. Cold as winter, she has only one passion—for the mysterious hunter who courts the outlawed old gods of the woodland. Coira is the princess raised in the shadow of her mother’s hatred. Avoided by both her parents and half forgotten by her father’s court, she grows into womanhood alone . . . until the mirror speaks, and blood is spilled, and the forest claims her.

The tragic myth of the goddess Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, stolen by the king of the underworld, is woven together with the tale of Snow White to create a powerful story of mothers and daughters and the blood that binds them together, for good or ill. Black queen. White maid. Royal huntsman. Seven little folk who live in the forest. Come inside, sit by the fire, and listen to this fairy tale as you’ve never heard it told before.

What I Thought

This is an absolutely gorgeous, hideous retelling of Snow White. It’s beautiful and cruel in the way all of my favorite fairy tale retellings are, cutting right to the bloody heart of the classic tale. What I will say right off the bat is that this is not a read for the faint of heart. It is full of cruelty and violence - slavery, rape, torture, the abject dehumanization of women and people with dwarfism - and its ending is as harrowing as the rest of it. I can understand that some might find it to be way too much to handle, but while it was a difficult read for me, I am so glad that I pushed through.

The first of our two heroines is Arpazia, abducted, raped and made a queen and mother at fourteen. Her story is an awful one that is told with an incredible grace that makes it all the more heartrending- the time she spent lost in her “trances” of suffering and madness and helplessness, her ignorance of how to exist in the world or be with people and her grasping attempts to do these things. Her experience of being a mother is inextricably tied to the horror of her daughter’s conception so she blocks her daughter Coira from her mind; when she realizes that Coira exists and has grown into a beautiful young woman, she cannot stand the pain of identifying with her and hating her the way she hates her child-self, so she betrays her and sells her away; when she ventures out into the world, she tries to save and love her daughter at long last, but her love is a poisoned love.

Perhaps the most beautiful and painful part of her story is her desperate, obsessive love for the kind huntsman which is possibly the only good thing in her entire life - there are some incredibly beautiful scenes where she has visions of him after his death and he helps her see her life more clearly, treating her with the kindness and love and gentleness that no one else ever gave her. When she dies at the end of the book, Lee makes it very clear that she is leaving her lifetime of suffering behind to be with her huntsman in a peaceful death. I feel the same way about Arpazia’s death that I feel about the ending of The Pattern Scars by Caitlin Sweet - no, it does not fit a traditional empowerment narrative about survivorhood and living through trauma, and I understand the potential negative implications of writing a trauma narrative where the victim dies at the end. But all I can say is that these books make me feel that not every story featuring trauma has to have an optimistic moral; maybe it’s enough for some stories to be honest and beautiful in their pain. I think that very skilled authors, those with an incredibly delicate touch, can pull this off.

The book’s other protagonist is Arpazia’s daughter Coira. I found her to be much less interesting than Arpazia, mostly because she is so incredibly passive and closed-off to the world. I understand why she is the way she is, but she is still not very engaging to read about. I also feel that her romance with Hephasteon is somewhat abrupt and underdeveloped, but I do like how good they are to each other in a story filled with so much cruelty and violence and how they end the book embarking on a new journey filled with hope for the future.

This is an especially rich reading experience because of how the tale of Snow White is intertwined with the legend of Hades, Persephone and Demeter, the mythic identities of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone, and the conflict between pagan rites and Christianity. It feels like something of a moot point to say that Tanith Lee’s prose is absolutely exquisite, but I would feel remiss if I didn’t mention it. As a final point, I wanted to mention that I think this is a fascinatingly similar read to Black Wine by Candas Jane Dorsey- both are incredibly dark stories told with beautiful prose, and there is the dual narration of a mother’s story and her daughter’s story about their existences through sexual violence and slavery. And while the mother eventually succumbs to “madness” because of her suffering and dies, her daughter lives on to create a more hopeful future. With that in mind, those who enjoyed this book might also enjoy Black Wine, and vice verse.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tanith Lee's White as Snow is elegent and sensual and terrible. Not terrible as in badly written, but terrible in it's absence of feeling, hideous in it's coldness. It's a fairy tale in which there can be no truly happy ending.

This version of Snow White is twined with the myth of Demeter and Persephone. It begins with Arpazia, the little girl who becomes the witch queen, then follows with Coira, her unwanted daughter, product of rape. In fact, about halfway through the book, I lost track of how many rapes had been committed against one of the women or the other.

It's a tale in which you can't tell the difference between love and hate, and the tiny pinprick of light the author finally offers in the last page is not enough to banish the clinging darkness.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is simply the finest novelization of a fairy tale. Tanith Lee has created a simply marvelous world where the Snow White tale is retold.


Read it again in June 2015; some books truly are my old friends...


9.21.08
Ok, so I'm rereading this one again too! A patron was talking to me about books at the library and how sad it was when there was only one book left in the system. I told him that one of my favorite books of all times (which I own) has only one copy in the system and he wanted to know what it was. After hem-hawing that he probably wouldn't be interested in a fairy tale novelization, he corrected me by naming three similar books that he's read and enjoyed. So, I reserved this book for him and of course I need to read it again...as it's fresh in my mind.

How sad the library only owns one copy!! >sigh<

9.30.08
Finished re-reading this last night, and blushed nearly through the whole thing! I am sure it's because I recommended this book to a semi-regular male library patron and I guess I repressed how sensual (or "eeeerotic" if you're Larry) the book is. Still the finest novelization of a fairy tale, and definitely a "grown up" version!! The story is not sensual in a romantic novel way; it's more dark and eerie.

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorites by Lee, and one of my favorite retellings. It was so rich and weird and dark. But there were moments of softness that isn't typical of Lee, but which were really well done.

I found Arpazia's story arc unbearably sad. I even cried a little at the end.

And the romance—I am DEAD. Loved it.

[Noella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gestopt met lezen. Niet mijn ding.

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arpazia is a distant mother to Coira - but considering the things she has gone through, and what befalls Coira when her attention does fall upon her, this might be a good thing.

This was an interesting take on the Snow White story, honing in on the relationship between mother and daughter and the heavy burden of intergenerational trauma. I enjoyed the many-layered identities of the characters, and the way the story of Demeter and Persephone - the ur-story of the devoted mother - was laid over this tale of parental rejection, as well as the ways they came together and fell apart.

However, I did feel like the long numb trances through with Arpazia and Coira move lessened the urgency of the story, leading to my interest sagging at times. I also thought the ending was kind of anti-climactic, though it did make sense thematically.

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, dark retelling of Snow White combined with the tale of Persephone. This worked really well for me, I enjoyed the writing and found it hard to stop reading.

[Joshua · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tanith lee's "White As Snow" is yet another rewrite of the classic fairy tale "Snow White." All the original elements can be found here, the wicked queen, the young princess, and the dwarves, the enchanted mirror and apple make an appearance as well, but to a lesser degree. In this authors work everything is tilted, twisted and warped into a dark, blood soaked novel.
I appreciate lee's vision, I understand the barbaric cruelty and tortured mother/daughter relationship she try's, and partly succeeds in getting across. However, lee never seems to have an exact idea of what exactly it is she is trying to say. She combines the original fairy tale with the myth of Demeter and Persephone, and the afore mentioned mother/daughter struggle. Add to this a smattering of mystic religion, and a barbaric setting, and what you have is an interesting and often convoluted book.
But the books real weakness is it's characters, who vary from cruel to brutal. Rarely, if ever is there an even semi-coherent character not lost in the mists of madness or icy trances. Both of the female leads remain in a trance for the vast majority of the book, they rarely interact with the other characters, and almost never display an ounce of emotion. Both Arpazia and Coira are detached, icy, unemotional messes, and I found it hard to feel for either.
On the other hand, this novel is chock full of gorgeous prose, more than one memorable moment, and a bleak atmospheric quality.

Overall "White As Snow" is an interesting read that has moments of greatness. But it's main attraction is lee's heavily atmospheric prose which paints a black and white portrait drenched in bright red blood.

[Jessica Lewenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm sure everyone should know by now that I absolutely love fairytale retellings. And if you didn't know, well, now you do.

This book is basically everything I want in a fairytale retelling, and so much more.

It takes the tale of Snow White and spins it on its head, mixing in elements from Greek mythology, particularly the tale of Persephone and Demeter. It sometimes doesn't read like a fairytale retelling; oftentimes, it's so loose it may as well be its own story. But even so, it keeps the imagery: red, white and black, the number seven, the mirror (which becomes it's own character) and the apple, as well as taking themes from the Persephone and Hades myths.

Of course, what I simply can't ignore is the writing. It is absolutely gorgeous, so lyrical, so fantastical. I swear I swooned and sighed several times. Here's an example of the gorgeous writing:

And the mirror gazed through the night window, and met the slim white face of the three-quarters moon.
I have passed this way before, said the moon to the mirror.
I too, answered the mirror, began in the East.
Already, I must go on, said the moon. Farewell, until another night.
But watching, the mirror still saw a moon, a face as white as the moon, in a midnight of hair.
"Am I beautiful?" the queen asked the mirror."
pg 87.

Oh, isn't that simply gorgeous?
I urge everyone to read this book. It might be a bit hard to get your hands on, but oh so worth it.

[Jay Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow what an incredible feat of creative writing this book is. I absolutely loved this book, I was drawn in and hooked too the end. Tanith Lee deftly weaves the snow white story with celtic legend and classical mythology into a marvel of fantasy literature. Tanith Lee's writing is artistic; unique quirks, accents and touches abound. The story is like a dance, with pivots and twirls that would challenge the best ballet dancer. You can tell that this book was lovingly made, it is the best snow white re-telling that I have ever read. Tanith Lee has written a book that challenges the sanitised sickly sweet fantasies churned out by the likes of Disney. This book is full of pain, the violence will shock you, the sadness will touch you. The trials that women in medieval times would have faced are realistically presented here. With themes ranging from rape, misogyny, murder, and filicide this is not a teen flick novel. As a dessert this is dark chocolate with a splash of bitter lemon it really packs a punch. Only a talented writer can weave so many elements into a convincing well written tale; the story is magical whilst set in an utterly realistic and unforgiving world. If you haven't, read this book now! I will read this again soon...

[Jewel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took me a long time to figure out how to rate this. White as Snow is so beautifully written and emotional, yet it took me a long time to finish despite its short length. Some parts completely held my attention, while other chapters were a bit less engaging.

I loved Arpazia. I'm kind of devastated by her terrible ending. (she didn't deserve that, Tanith Lee! It's not fair!) She was a villain, but still so relatable to me. I really empathized with her. I've seen a trend in novels and movies lately, where a story is told from the bad guy's perspective, but rarely is it done in a way I appreciate. Oftentimes, the villain ends up being a misunderstood good guy with no flaws. Tanith Lee, however, managed to completely humanize the Evil Queen from the tale of Snow White and make her into more than just a vain and jealous woman, while also making her into a complex protagonist who I grew very attached to.

The romance near the end of the book was also incredible. I almost want to give the book five stars because of how invested I was in it, despite the fact that the relationship takes up less than a quarter of the novel. It was so unconventional and tender and perfect. I reread the end scene a couple times because I loved it so much.

TW: non-con, murder

[Marquise · Rating 1 out of 5]

This retelling of Snow White is Lee's second and very lamentable attempt at reworking this tale, and one I'd recommend to avoid at all costs. It's that terrible, surprisingly terrible for an author that managed to pull out one of the best retellings of this same tale I've read (in her "Red as Blood" anthology) and whose prose is usually lovely. I can almost see her thought process for choosing to go for the darkest of dark twists yet not being able to handle it with the deft hand it'd have required. That's the thing about dark stories, they're so tricky.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a lot I liked about this book, and a lot that I didn't, or a lot that I was just indifferent to. Weaving the tale of Hades and Persephone into Snow White always seemed superfluous and odd; there are no natural parallels and the ones Lee makes feels like one tale being forced onto another, and sometimes the elements of Snow White, of which this is allegedly a retelling, disappear into the other. And there are what I feel like small fudgings or just plain mistakes, like saying that it was Persephone going underground that caused the first winter, not Demeter's sorrow at losing her daughter refusing to let anything grow until she got her back. Since this is a story, by nature, of a women who has murderous intentions towards her daughter, the heart of the connection never fit, and that's the perfect example right there.

And then there are the characters themselves, the two women. Aloof and inscrutable, I've written about this type before, and how it makes them almost impossible to like, not because of these characteristics, but because giving them these characteristics seems to then make it impossible to relay what they're thinking and feeling in anything but a clinical manner. We know how damaged they are, we want to sympathize, we definitely want to empathize, but I'm sad to say that they both came off as stuck up instead of damaged too often, and more often than that, just plain stupid. There are the good points, like the dwarf "Stormy" (named so to represent one of the "seven deadliest sins" in a show he and his compatriots are forced to perform in); for a book with such a strong feminist leaning, I'm sad to see that the strongest and most likeable character is actually the man, even if all other men come off as nothing but dicks seeking young girls' holes to stick themselves in.

Which brings me to the rape. Ah, yes. The rape. Even in the last few pages of the book, and I do not exaggerate, there's an implied male-on-male sexual act of extremely dubious consent. The first hundred pages or so are actually difficult to get through, partly because they focus so heavily on this tale's "wicked queen," but mostly because the prose is still in violent mode, and Arpazia's fears of being raped again are not idle, since every man's thoughts seem to turn to how they can force underage girls under them. Once all of that calmed down, I could just enjoy the book (and then it starts up again and I was able to sort of compartmentalize it.) Being from the Mediterranean myself, the suggestion that that's all men thought about and did in what appears to be Eastern Europe left me with a bad taste in my mouth for more than just the reason that... I've long ago abandoned the idea as a feminist that we have to show men as greedy inferior characters to vaunt the female characters. I like an equal balance. But maybe because neither Arpazia or Coira actually come across as particularly intelligent or controlled characters, they are on an even keel with the men.

The prose is beautiful in some places, plain in other, but always readable; Lee doesn't feel the need to go overboard, as I've sometimes read her do. And the story is compelling. The way she bends and twists the story are fabulous, and I would have liked to have seen it without the direct comparisons to Persephone/Demeter/Hades, just have the readers notice that for themselves, so it didn't distract from the cleverness of what she was doing. It was definitely worth the read, especially for someone who adores fairy tales and their clever retellings. But this can't even hold a candle to Lee's earlier Red as Blood. It reminded me quite a bit of Margo Lanagan's Tender Morsels, and that's good and bad as a comparison, because that had a lot of the same faults.

(On a side note, does anyone else think that the seven dwarves could be compared to seven Olympian gods? We find out that Stormy's real name is a tribute to Hephaestus, but what about the others? Is Pride golden Apollo? Vinka vain and jealous Aphrodite? An argument could be made.)

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was one of the most miserable books I've ever read. Yes, lots of sex (as I was expecting, since it's marketed as an adult fairy tale), but it was all impersonal and detached. Lots of rape, lots of women being used. However, the women hardly ever reacted, and when they did seem to actively participate--the author then skipped over it. Smutty romance novel this was not. It seemed more about abuse and misery. Even having read Game of Thrones, this book has a striking lack of empathy or--any--emotion.

I sped over the last half, after reading enough to realize I wasn't relating to the characters (who were also written as detached and uncaring as the rest). Even the other aspects of the story (the Snow White and Persephone & Demeter influences) weren't even decent or interesting. I didn't feel those elements even stood up to the strength of the original myths.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another one where I was bored by the end. Although this might've also been not really for me in general. It was a bit too subtle about some of the themes and stuff it was going for.

And it wasn't what I expecting from the Persephone namecheck in the description. (It messes with the Snow White aspect, but I don't love that myth like I do Persephone, so I didn't care as much.)

Oh, and this is also pretty dark and trigger warning for rape.

Mostly, though, I think there was just a disconnect between me and this book. And me and this review. I don't know what else to say!

[Jenn Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second time I read this book and the really interesting thing is I don't think I picked up on ANY of the major themes the first time. In my own defense it was over ten years ago that I read it, but it was like reading a brand new book this second reading.

First and foremost this is not a book for children. Young adults may be able to read it, but it is definitely intended for adults. There are continuing themes of rape, reflection, mythology, madness, and the idea that life is what you make of it in White as Snow. It really affected me in that I'm not sure how much of this was fantasy and how much based on the historical aspect of the time, but these people suffered. Their life spans were much shorter than ours are today, but many were able to live a full and lively lifetime. Others simply withered into madness. I'm very much interested in reading other books in this series.

[Serena W. Sorrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do so adore Tanith Lee. So when I picked up White as Snow I was expecting something good; I was not disappointed.

The story follows two main threads: Arpazia and Coira, mother and daughter. They are very similar and extremely different and serve as mirrors and foils to the other. The whole set up is quite breathtaking and serves to tell a Snow White story unlike any I have read before.

The imagery, the mythology woven into the tale, and the directions it took me in emotionally and psychologically were all new, refreshing, and interesting. I enjoyed not knowing how the story would end.

I have a few complaints, but they are all stylistic narrative choices that were taken. I did find the narrative to ramble on at points, whether this was due to a PoV character's frame of mind or authorial decisions I don't know, but it dragged a little in those areas.

Never the less, without fail it always picked up again and threw me back into the story.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful writing as always but I couldn't connect to any of the characters and the story was a real drag.

[Barb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm addicted to retellings of fairy tales that turn the story upside down. For all that I love Tanith Lee and Terri Windling's Fairy Tale Series, this book was too dark by far. Snow White has always been a rather bloody story but this version takes it to a new level of nasty.

The women in this book are brutalized in every way possible. They are raped, imprisoned, discarded and left to die while the powerful male characters move on to destroy lives with impunity. Lee's storytelling is beautifully lyrical, but even her evocative prose can't cover up the misogyny rampant in the story. This is a world I don't ever want to visit.

I also found that the inclusion of a myriad of literary elements, including fantasy, folklore, mythology, and pagan religious ceremonies, created a rather muddled novel that seemed to be going in several directions at the same time. Perhaps choosing one or two of these styles would have made this a more enjoyable read for me.

This is not the best example of Tanith Lee's genious, but for any fan of the author it is worth a look.

[Cristina Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really picky with fairy-tale retellings. I don't really like them to be sugar coated, or diluted, because that just defeats the purpose for me..

However I loved this book. it's very* psychological, draws heavily on the fairy tale of snow white, and myth, which i love and i felt it did it justice. it is a dark book..like a strange carnival. so if you don't like certain dark themes, avoid it, because the elements add to the characters maladies, theres a lot of symbolism. its twisted and evocative. I appreciate certain unconventional elements the author added (like the dwarves being different sex, the mirror's use in the end) because it elevates it from the typical retelling. it reads like an ancient tale instead of being modern.

I only had questions left unanswered about Ulvit's fate (perhaps I should reread it) & I wanted some slight closure maybe of Cora & Arpazia, perhaps Cora questioning her on why she felt nothing (as a reader we can deduce why but it seemed like something important given how attached Cora was)

[Kate Forsyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinary retelling of the Snow White fairytale – dark and sensual and strange and rather frightening – with some astonishingly good writing. I have never read anything by Tanith Lee before but I will be hunting down her other books for sure. I’d be very careful about giving this to children to read, though – it is very confronting and even shocking in parts.

[R.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me an emotional beating both times I've read it. The first time I was a preteen and the second time was this month. But I couldn't stop reading it. I had to see our two main characters (Arpazia and Coira) through to the end. But I feel like I was put on a rollercoaster with zero safety features and somehow I came out of it alive but a bit scarred.

[Lewis Woolston · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first became aware of Tanith Lee when i read an article about her in a Sci-Fi magazine when she died a few years ago. It mentioned that she'd written some episodes of Blake's 7 so i thought i should check her out.
She is probably one of the more original genre writers out there. Her takes are nearly always dark and demented but refreshingly original.
This book is essentially just a remake of the Snow White tale told by someone with a morbid, gothic imagination and it works really well.
As some other reviewers have mentioned and warned there is quite a lot of rape in this story, nearly every female characters is either raped or lives in fear of rape. If that bothers you maybe read something else. But if you like the darkness and want to read a dark take on the classic Snow White tale this might be up your alley.

[A.B. Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Politically, I find this novel fairly repugnant. It regurgitates some of the most unsavory elements of second wave feminism, right down to the white feminist primitivisms that, in the present, take the form of gentrifiers burning sage in their remodeled Flatbush lofts in the name of the sacred feminine. Lee's sentences, however, are undeniably beautiful, as is the poignant redoubling of the central mother/daughter antagonism. My contingent defense of this book is more personal than philosophical or aesthetic (although the one would undoubtedly branch eventually into the others, if I thought long enough.) I was, at one point in my life, a young woman who wanted very much to be a writer. I was raised to do my utmost to stamp out every sign of the anger that simmered inside me, as many young women are. I thought, for a long time, that my intention to write, if it was to be carried out seriously, meant stuffing my anger into a dark and dusty corner of the Art Closet, so that I could perfect my Cheever and Hemingway impersonations.

Back to Lee: this is an enraged, bitter, twisted book, and unapologetically so. It seems to me that this novel's great strength is its willingness to unflinchingly embrace the cruel forms that the will to survive can take in a cruel world: to affirm the realism of that cruelty, if never its righteousness. If the women at the heart of it find some measure of peace, some cool shadow to rest in by the novel's end, it is explicitly for their own sake and perhaps the sake of other women. Men, and the demands women make of each other on behalf of men, barely enter the equation of who comes to what end: the judgment at the heart of all fairy tales. What is right turns out to be nothing more or less than what makes it easiest and sweetest to live, or, if it's time, to die.

The effect would be entirely spoiled if the affective ceasefire was diluted by corny moral redemption or self-improvement. Insert pat self-help slogan about resentment and drinking poison, say. Luckily, Lee is canny enough a critic of patriarchy to tiptoe as best she can around that well-mined vein of horseshit. The happily-ever-after of heterosexual coupling is, slantwise, preserved, but it's almost an afterthought, I suspect for this exact reason. I think I would have found this novel too resonant with some of my own traumas to get all the way through it as a teenager, but I wish I'd had it on my shelf, anyways. I imagine I'd have found it immensely enabling. I eventually came into the inheritance of my own fury by a more subterranean route, in college. (I read Rimbaud.)

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting re-imagining of the fairy tale Snow White mixed in with the myth of Persephone. Beautifully written as all Tanith Lee's books are.

[K.S. Trenten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deeply disturbing and what’s truly disturbing isn’t the witch’s madness, although what she brings upon her daughter she is bound to is heartbreaking. It’s the way so many people look down at women, allowing them to be violated when they’re young, abusing them when they’re old. The abuse of the fairest of them all is mirrored by the seven dwarves cast as the seven deadly sins; close, yet apart.

This is a far more brutal reimagining of a fairy tale than I care for, yet it was redeemed by the beauty of its poetic prose along with the twisted, yet powerful arc of Arpazia and Coira’s love for each other, discovering in each other the fairest of them all. This endured in spite of the casual brutality of kings and common men toward them. It was tragic, farcical, and maddening to see a prince snatch this title away from them.
I’m left uncertain and not entirely satisfied with the dubious happiness of the ending. Coira and Arpazia’s male lovers didn’t disappoint them in the end, even if it took death and defilement to convince them to return. At the same time, it’s not without hope, and perhaps the destination the characters were always moving toward.