An often-engaging fairy-tale origin story, although one in need of judicious editing.
A young man’s worth is tested in Waterman’s YA fantasy retelling of a familiar story.
This reimagining of classic German fairy tale “Snow White” focuses on the King of the Fairies. At first, he’s simply a young man named James White who’s “just witty enough and just smart enough to muddle through each day.” In a dense forest, his courage, compassion, and strength of purpose are tested as he embarks on an unsettling odyssey through a land of fairies, elves, trolls, water sprites, carnivorous Stonebacks and Rootfangs, fluffy spiders, and a treelike giant with two heads. The narrative, conceived as a series of scrolls by an Elvish scribe, begins with an account of the fatherless, 7-year-old Snow White asking her castle’s sentient Wishing Well, “How did it all begin?” Her return in a later scroll, near the book’s end, includes the scribe’s hint that there’s “something not quite right,” which leads into a second book to come. Overall, this is a deliciously offbeat, fantastical saga that will be suitable for many teens and adults, bearing in mind that the depictions of violence—ordered by power-hungry, half-beast/half-human Grausam—are graphic. It’s also a bit overlong and might have benefited from a stronger edit. However, the familiar, Disney-esque elements of the “Snow White” story—the wishing well, singing dwarves, the vain and evil queen—receive well-developed backstories. It’s a tale of a high-stakes struggle between good and evil, and leading the good side is Aarde the Faun, protector of the Enchanted Realm. Along the way, Waterman addresses themes of manipulation, deception, corruption, and redemption in tale with moral asides (“every choice one makes is a reflection of one’s self”) and sly humor (an ad for a “Lime in a Coconut” drink—likely inspired by Nilsson’s real-life 1972 novelty song “Coconut”—becomes important). Quirky language further enlivens the plot, as when a two-headed giant is called an “anomaly of expectations,” a carnival is said to have “foofaraw and razzmatazz,” and words of wisdom “tug” on characters’ “weeds of woefulness.”
An often-engaging fairy-tale origin story, although one in need of judicious editing.Pub Date: March 17, 2024
ISBN: 9798990156104
Page Count: 425
Publisher: Wendy Oross
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Life in the seaside village has been hard for Adrianne and her family, even before the arrival of the mermaid. Since Papa’s death, they’ve been living with horrible Auntie Minnah, the village boys ignore Adrianne in favor of wealthier and prettier girls and the villagers despise the whole family. Adrianne gets the opportunity for her dream job, but as soon as things start looking up, the Windwaithe Mermaid comes, summoning Adrianne and terrifying the superstitious villagers. Now Adrianne needs to make a choice between a magical life of undersea romance and the poverty and degradation she knows on land. It ought to be an easy choice, but perhaps not. Lucky, lucky Adrianne. Her magical adventure will bring out her true potential—as a girl who is “quite attractive” and whose outer beauty is now visible both to herself and to the handsome boys of the island. Readers obsessed with paranormal romance could do worse, but they probably won’t remember this for very long. (Fantasy. 10-12)
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-545-09734-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2010
The scion of a once-prominent, wealthy family, Hector Bell engages in ingenious bartering and wishful thinking to support his wife and sons, Cyrus and Darius, on the decaying estate, while he writes stories no one wants to read. Now it’s time to present the town with the Bell Gift, a requirement of the original land grant, but unlike his forebears, Hector has nothing to give. Exasperated by Hector, Cyrus is preparing to head off to university and study engineering, but his younger brother, Darius, longs to solve their father’s dilemma. When a small earthquake opens up a cave on the estate, Darius thinks he’s found the answer, but each step brings new challenges. He’ll need inventive ideas, resourcefulness and most of all help from his friends to meet them. Much of the pleasure in this ode to “life [as] what happens while you’re busy making plans” lies in Hirsch’s dry, understated humor and his subtly charming characters, who are willing to put up with one another’s foibles and eccentricities, however annoying, for the sake of friendship. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-1-935279-65-5
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Kane Miller
Review Posted Online: July 29, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2010
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