Review: Snow, Glass, Apples
Snow, Glass, Apples by Colleen Doran
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rating 4 out of 5| Grade: A, Haunting.
You know that feeling you sometimes get at the back of your neck, like something is crawling up your body, its slithering, hissing rattle which causes you to feel grima like when someone is scratching their fingernails against a blackboard? This story is that.
Taking the well known Grimm's tale of 'Snow White', and adds a mature, chilling, haunted twist to it. Before you think of picking this up, be warned, the story contains quite a lot of graphic content, and is not something you read to your toddler for a bedtime story.
Going the Maleficent route, the story focuses on the Evil queen, who has to face the ever encroaching calamity that is her step daughter, who is <Spoiler>an immortal Blood sucker.</Spoiler> Concubine and later second wife to the King, the not so evil queen was merely a girl, quite bewitching, who had managed to catch the ruler's eye, and was made into his consort.
For the most part she kept to herself, and never tried to harm the Snow white princess, the child of the King from his deceased first wife. Things take a drastic turn, as the King, once strong and virile, succumbs to a withering ailment, and weakness brought about by his daughter's thirst. Finding herself the ruler of the realm, the queen makes the hard choice for herself and the safety of the people. Which doesn't work out quite the way she'd hoped for.
I love the way in which this story flips the script, showing how she is the one whose life is in danger due to her step daughter. Most of the story revolves around the Queen and how she tries to combat this abominable, unstoppable force of evil nature, as it is slowly draining the life out of the realms.
The pages of this story set up quite a dark atmosphere, of times from the old ages, when men were still afraid of that which went bump in the night. Choosing and even more darker tone than even the Grimm brothers, and a definite f**k you to the sunshine & poppycock Disney film. (Then again, Disney today has become a monstrosity much worse than any of their evil villains could hope to be. :https://nypost.com/2019/07/06/disney-...)
Remember about that content warning I mentioned; That applies to not just kids. Graphic Violence, blood, gore, mutilation, possible incest, witch hunts; if any of these make you squeamish, this is not a story for you. Oh, and BTW Prince charming is a (spoiler) Necrophiliac, who is only attracted to snow white due to her corpse like complexion and coldness. Your childhood has been mind bleached. (End Spoiler)
Other than the great story, the artwork by Illustrator Colleen Daran is just hauntingly beautiful. Able to encompass the feeling of loneliness, dread and fear for life that the Queen, the realm, and by extension we the readers feel. Yet at the same time it is majestically alluring, and just glorious to look at.
The tone shift from the first part of the story to the much darker later half is made all the more apparent from the duality of the colors and liveliness in the frames. The queen in particular, hard and pragmatic, is nonetheless shown as the pillar of strength determined to act as a bulwark against the death horror which the princess emanates. She is firmly placed as the antithesis to the vampiric being.
Many of the pages, could find their way as a mural in some medieval castle, with how expressive and detailed they are. One has to appreciate the effort which the Illustrator took in bringing them to life.
Once again, this is strictly a folktale, not a fairy tale, meant for mature readers, with mature themes. So, read it at your own risk, and please, not around children.
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