What do you think?
Snow White, Black Heart
Carla was the fairest in the school - until Lucy arrived.
Now it seems she'll do anything to regain her crown.
But exactly how far will she go?
Now it seems she'll do anything to regain her crown.
But exactly how far will she go?
43 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
About the author
Jacqueline Rayner
131 books169 followersJacqueline Rayner is a best selling British author, best known for her work with the licensed fiction based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Her first professional writing credit came when she adapted Paul Cornell's Virgin New Adventure novel Oh No It Isn't! for the audio format, the first release by Big Finish. (The novel featured the character of Bernice Summerfield and was part of a spin-off series from Doctor Who.) She went on to do five of the six Bernice Summerfield audio adaptations and further work for Big Finish before going to work for BBC Books on their Doctor Who lines.
Her first novels came in 2001, with the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel EarthWorld for BBC Books and the Bernice Summerfield novel The Squire's Crystal for Big Finish. Rayner has written several other Doctor Who spin-offs and was also for a period the executive producer for the BBC on the Big Finish range of Doctor Who audio dramas. She has also contributed to the audio range as a writer. In all, her Doctor Who and related work (Bernice Summerfield stories), consists of five novels, a number of short stories and four original audio plays.
Rayner has edited several anthologies of Doctor Who short stories, mainly for Big Finish, and done work for Doctor Who Magazine. Beyond Doctor Who, her work includes the children's television tie-in book Horses Like Blaze.
With the start of the new television series of Doctor Who in 2005 and a shift in the BBC's Doctor Who related book output, Rayner has become, along with Justin Richards and Stephen Cole, one of the regular authors of the BBC's New Series Adventures. She has also abridged several of the books to be made into audiobooks.
She was also a member of Doctor Who Magazine's original Time Team.
Her first professional writing credit came when she adapted Paul Cornell's Virgin New Adventure novel Oh No It Isn't! for the audio format, the first release by Big Finish. (The novel featured the character of Bernice Summerfield and was part of a spin-off series from Doctor Who.) She went on to do five of the six Bernice Summerfield audio adaptations and further work for Big Finish before going to work for BBC Books on their Doctor Who lines.
Her first novels came in 2001, with the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel EarthWorld for BBC Books and the Bernice Summerfield novel The Squire's Crystal for Big Finish. Rayner has written several other Doctor Who spin-offs and was also for a period the executive producer for the BBC on the Big Finish range of Doctor Who audio dramas. She has also contributed to the audio range as a writer. In all, her Doctor Who and related work (Bernice Summerfield stories), consists of five novels, a number of short stories and four original audio plays.
Rayner has edited several anthologies of Doctor Who short stories, mainly for Big Finish, and done work for Doctor Who Magazine. Beyond Doctor Who, her work includes the children's television tie-in book Horses Like Blaze.
With the start of the new television series of Doctor Who in 2005 and a shift in the BBC's Doctor Who related book output, Rayner has become, along with Justin Richards and Stephen Cole, one of the regular authors of the BBC's New Series Adventures. She has also abridged several of the books to be made into audiobooks.
She was also a member of Doctor Who Magazine's original Time Team.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 9, 2025
SO GOOD
April 18, 2016
Before I start, I love Jacqueline Rayner for her Doctor Who books. The Sontaran Games is one of my favourites and as for Winner Takes All, I once got into a short-lived fight in PE and when the teacher took me out and suggested I read a book, I was very glad I had that one. Even if her book is just OK, her writing has a wonderful human quality about it.
Not in this book. It's about a fairly popular girl called Carla, who loses the audition to play Snow White to a new girl called Lucy and instead ends up as the Wicked Queen. When their drama teacher buys a very creepy and unusual mirror to use as a prop, Carla ends up perhaps taking her role a little too seriously and starts to change as a person and things escalate from there.
It's a fair premise. It has the potential to be a very psychological and scary book, but it just feels rushed. Most, if not all of what happens in this book happens over the course of about a week; that's not long enough. If this character is changing, we need to see it happen slowly, we need to see their dark side creeping up on them. For an idea like this to be scary, you need to have a lot of build-up!
The character-development falls flat: they're all bombastically bland, the romance is pretty soulless and the dialogue reveals nothing about their personalities. That's the problem: if we don't know anything about these characters, why are we going to fear for them?
The writing is rather poor. Instead of keeping the reader in suspense, it states the obvious all too often. There's very little description, so it doesn't really create any vivid or scary imagery in the reader's head. It could have used a bit of humour, just to liven things up a little, but there isn't any!
Overall, it's dry, it's dull, it's a crushing disappointment from an author I love. However, I will still read any other Jacqueline Rayner books I come across.
Not in this book. It's about a fairly popular girl called Carla, who loses the audition to play Snow White to a new girl called Lucy and instead ends up as the Wicked Queen. When their drama teacher buys a very creepy and unusual mirror to use as a prop, Carla ends up perhaps taking her role a little too seriously and starts to change as a person and things escalate from there.
It's a fair premise. It has the potential to be a very psychological and scary book, but it just feels rushed. Most, if not all of what happens in this book happens over the course of about a week; that's not long enough. If this character is changing, we need to see it happen slowly, we need to see their dark side creeping up on them. For an idea like this to be scary, you need to have a lot of build-up!
The character-development falls flat: they're all bombastically bland, the romance is pretty soulless and the dialogue reveals nothing about their personalities. That's the problem: if we don't know anything about these characters, why are we going to fear for them?
The writing is rather poor. Instead of keeping the reader in suspense, it states the obvious all too often. There's very little description, so it doesn't really create any vivid or scary imagery in the reader's head. It could have used a bit of humour, just to liven things up a little, but there isn't any!
Overall, it's dry, it's dull, it's a crushing disappointment from an author I love. However, I will still read any other Jacqueline Rayner books I come across.
March 16, 2015
For a short story, aimed at kids, I will admit to not expecting much, but I couldn't put this down. Gripping read, though admittedly it has been the tale of so many books and films before. The author just seems to capture the right amount of menace and believability perfectly.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews