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Wiedźma. Prawdziwa Historia Złej Królowej (2014)

by Serena Valentino(Favorite Author)

3.72 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Dream Books

review 1: Serena Valentino's 2009 novel FAIREST OF ALL: A TALE OF THE WICKED QUEEN serves primarily as a prequel to the 1937 Disney film SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, but it also overlaps it, as the narrative eventually catches up with the film and provides the story of the film from the Evil Queen's perspective. The novel's finest strength is that it causes readers to watch SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS in a completely different way, as you view the Evil Queen in a completely different way. Serena Valentino crafts a brilliant story that is, in some ways, a psychological novel, as it tackles issues such as the potential repercussions of grief and external forces pressuring someone and manipulating her. Serena Valentino's writing style also allows its readers to delve deeply int... moreo the Evil Queen's psyche and possibly even understand her. FAIREST OF ALL reminds me very much of William Shakespeare's THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH (or, as some would refer to it, THE SCOTTISH PLAY); in fact, there is a group of three characters in the novel that was inspired by the witches from MACBETH. The novel is set up very much like a Shakespearean tragedy in general. At the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to a very loving, kind, and blissfully happy woman who loves her husband and her stepdaughter Snow White, whom she regards as her own daughter while still honoring the fact that Snow did, at one point, have a biological mother. By the end of the novel, however, we see a very different person, a woman consumed by hatred, grief, vanity, violence, and so forth, and this is due both to character flaws and external manipulations, all typical characteristics of a traditional tragedy. I won't refer to the plot any more directly than that, though, as I don't wish to spoil you if you have not read the novel. I do have a few points of contention with Serena Valentino's FAIREST OF ALL, but, although worth mentioning, they are not serious enough to drastically subtract from my appreciation of the novel. Firstly, I did notice some potential inconsistencies between FAIREST OF ALL and SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS as well as some unanswered questions. In SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, for example, the Dwarfs know of and fear the Evil Queen, knowing that she engages in the use of black magic, but in FAIREST OF ALL, this is something that the Evil Queen seems to successfully keep secretive, so how would the Dwarfs, who presumably never even met the Evil Queen, know what she does in secret in the dungeon of her castle? FAIREST OF ALL also never reveals whose skeletal remains are in the dungeon of the castle, as seen in in the film, and finding out to whom those skeletons had belonged was one reason why I was looking forward to reading FAIREST OF ALL. In the novel, Snow and her parents seem to practice some sort of Pagan religion. They celebrate the solstices, and I seem to recall there being a mention of more than one god; however, in SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, Snow is, during one scene, seen praying to what seems to be the Christian God. There is another potential inconsistency that I caught, as well, but I unfortunately cannot discuss it without spoiling a major plot point of the novel, which I do not want to do. Secondly, I don't like how the novel consistently throughout its entirety refers to the Evil Queen and her husband (Snow's father) as the Queen and the King, respectively; it does not name either one of them. The Evil Queen's name is traditionally thought to be Grimhilde because that is apparently her name in very old publicity material and comics; however, Disney apparently does not accept that as canon any longer, and since FAIREST OF ALL was published via Disney Press, it is possible that Serena Valentino was asked not to name the Evil Queen. Aside from these points of contention, however, I really love this novel. It's vehemently dark and depressing, much more so than I had been expecting, and I even had to put it down a few times because it was turning my stomach and making me sick. That is a sign of effective writing, however, and I strongly recommend FAIREST OF ALL to anyone who loves Disney, especially the Evil Queen and/or SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS in general. As aforementioned, you will watch the film in a very different light.
review 2: When the Evil Queen first appeared on movie theater screens in 1937, Walt Disney set the gold standard for all screen versions of fairy tale villains to come. She was gorgeous, menacing, and altogether overwhelming -- a scene-stealing villain, the embodiment of unrepentant evil. Or was she? As it is no secret that I adore fairy tales and film and novel re-tellings -- or re-imaginings -- of these classic tales of good versus evil, it was a foregone conclusion that when I stumbled upon Fairest of All I'd one day read it.Here, Serena Valentino crafts a backstory to the Evil Queen of legend, positing a history that, were different choices made, could have allowed for a very different -- and altogether more positive -- outcome of the Queen's relationship with her stepdaughter Snow White. Much like Elphaba's story in Wicked, the television show Once Upon a Time, or (presumably) the upcoming film Maleficent, this novel attempts to reassess the Queen in light of her upbringing, if not exactly excusing or attempting to justify her behavior outright, but rather to offer a plausible reason as to why the Queen would go to such drastic measures to remove Snow from her life.The young Queen is one eager for a place to belong, desperately in love with her husband and eager to be a mother to her new daughter. But she's terribly insecure, crippled her father's emotional abuse and eager, desperate for the validation being in a family can provide. However, when that haven is threatened, the door is opened for this insecure Queen to seek affirmation elsewhere -- even if its at the hands of a mirror whose power stems from her greatest oppressor.I love the ambition behind this novel, and the fairly plausible manner in which Valentino attempts to flesh out the canon of the film. It is a bit simplistic in its rendering, however, as she introduces great ideas only to leave them less than fully developed, perhaps giving the target audience less credit than they deserve. Valentino knows her source material, and peppers her story with film and other Disney canonical (including my favorite, a Sleeping Beauty shout-out!). Her prose, while occasionally reminscent of Grimm or Perrault, can be somewhat simplistic and stilted, filled with awkward descriptions and "flourishes," but on the whole this is a pleasing addition to Disney and fairy tale lore. I'd love to see Valentino explore the backstory of other famous villains, like Ursula, or perhaps Cinderella's enigmatic nemesis -- a veritable treasure trove of opportunities are waiting in the wings, and Valentino's passion and imaginative flair for this type of fiction holds promise. less

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