Reviews

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede

marshmallowbooks's review

3.0

This is based on a fairy tale I had never heard before. The actual fairy tale is told in snippets at the beginning of each chapter, so you get the expanded story along with the tale from which it was developed. I enjoyed the story, told from many points of view, and covering 16th century England (as opposed to Germany, home of the Brothers' Grimm who wrote the tale) and an adjacent fairy realm. I could have done without the language of the times, though. The thees and thous and dosts and whilsts wore on me. And I have yet to figure out why it was the trend then to use an in place of if sometimes. But getting around the language wasn't too daunting of a task to keep me from finishing the story.

avialia's review against another edition

lighthearted fast-paced

3.0

It was nlt a fun fairytale at all

pagesofpins's review

2.0

I really like Wrede, but this was a slog to get through and didn't land as an alternate history or a fairy tale.

emilygaynier's review against another edition

5.0

I really really enjoyed this book.
I think even though it's aimed towards adults, kids could read it too. It is darker then her Enchanted Forest series, but other then references from one character about sex I didn't see anything inappropriate for a younger reader.
Hugh has my whole heart

cmbohn's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Nice retelling of the fairy tale. I would have rated it higher except for two problems: the archaic vocabulary in the dialogue really put me off and the story was slow and repetitive. I got bored often. It wasn't until I was halfway through that I was really invested.

diamontique's review against another edition

3.0

The book started out okay, but then it kind of went downhill. However, I think that the book was supposed to be a comedy of errors - I recall in the book that Wrede actually gave a lampshade hanging of how each set of characters didn't know what the other was doing.

kateslowreads's review

3.0

I think this was a lovely book, but I will never find of Wrede's book that does the same thing for me that Dealing with Dragons once did. This book, like Mairelon the Magician, did not have villains that inspired fear or respect. Also like Mairelon, it seemed a comedy of errors, where all the characters stumble across one another at the end, and bad guys are revealed, revelations are made, etc. There was little suspense, because I was never concerned for the protagonists. Usually I'm a patient reader, content to comfortably lie back and wait for idiocy and mayhem to unfold, but I enjoyed this book less because Wrede's usual cast of intriguing characters were lacking and so there was nothing to make up for the lack of suspense. *sigh* I will keep reading her books though, because Princess Cimorene was my idol as a little girl, and she was a good one too, and I keep hoping I'll meet someone like her again in Wrede's stories.

kmoses87's review

3.0

I'd give it 3 and a half stars. It wasn't what I expected (as the author mentions, the original story of Snow White is not what we are used to), but because of that I didn't find it as enjoyable. I would have liked more romance, and the girls and two princes falling for each other in the end seemed kind of thrown in. I also would have liked Joan's attempt at a love spell to have caused a bit more chaos than it not working because she didn't know John's real name. Overall, I wasn't drawn much into the story. I also expected Mandini to be more of an evil character, but she really did nothing more than attempt to take the crystal where Dee and Kelly had trapped Hugh's power, but she didn't resort to any really evil ways to do that. She merely tried to convince Kelly to bring it to her.

punandprose's review

2.0

Interesting spin on this story. However, it just wasn't for me. I unfortunately couldn't get past the overabundant usage of "thee" and "thou." Ultimately, this book was just okay.

m_kayk's review against another edition

5.0

I love how this takes a fairy tale and sets it in real time, in a known location. There are twists that Wrede added, but the main story sticks to the original tale.