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ewil6681's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
geolatin's review against another edition
3.0
Fantasy writer Patricia Wrede's has crafted a tale based on Grimms' fairy tale. (Incidentally, the Grimm brothers were uncles to my great grandmother.) As much as I enjoy this author, I felt some weakness that I believe was from the effort to use authentic Elizabethan words and phrases in the dialogue, but modern English in the narrative. It felt somewhat disjointed, almost like reading something where all the dialogue is in a foreign language. I can understand much of the language of Shakespeare, but the mental effort to go back and forth made the reading feel choppy. Then, occasionally, modern English or syntax would slip in, creating cognitive dissonance. I still enjoyed reading it to the end, but this isn't this author's best work.
pagesplotsandpints's review
4.0
This was such a fun read and surprisingly quick! Thanks to Alyssa for suggesting this one for an OtSP read! :)
Well. The best thing about this for me was the personalities. I loved the characters and thinking back on it (well, after having just finished), they're what really stand out for me. I LOVED every single character and the ending was just perfect.
Well, this also takes place in an Elizabethan sort of setting and the language matches soooo. It was a bit much for me at times. Like, if I wasn't reading this with Alyssa & Amy, I probably would have easily been scared away by the language alone (thee! thou! eek!) but I started to get the hang of it. Sometimes I felt less scholarly. Sometimes I felt more scholarly. Sometimes I just got lost in the story and the language wasn't as apparent BUT definitely something for new readers to be aware of!
A fun retelling too. I'm not as familiar with the original tale -- I think I read way back in the day when I was a kid but forgot a lot about it -- so it was fun to read it as a retelling that still felt very close to the original tale.
Mini-review posted on The Book Addict's Guide 1/14/15: I read SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED with Alyssa & Amy for our December On the Same Page read (it’s one of Alyssa’s favorites) and after not liking Amy’s favorite, I was terrified. I got a couple pages into the book and was like, “Holy cow. That’s a lot of thee & thou & thy.” But as I read on, it really wasn’t as daunting as it first seemed. I’m not used to the language so yes, it did affect my read a little bit because I had to concentrate more, but overall, the book was very enjoyable!
SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED is actually one fairy tale I remember reading as a kid (at least I THINK I read the original…) and it stuck out in my mind. I really enjoyed Patricia C. Wrede’s adaptation and how she changed the tale in little ways to make it her own story and these changes actually really helped me grow attached to the book too. I’m notoriously hesitant about fairy books but after falling in love with books like Heir of Fire and A Court of Thorns and Roses, I’m definitely coming around so I was so happy to see that not only was it something that I wasn’t afraid of in SWRR but also something that I enjoyed.
I loved the characters and they totally made the book for me. They were SO much fun with so much personality. I’m glad I was pushed to read this one with Alyssa & Amy because I would not have done it without them!
Well. The best thing about this for me was the personalities. I loved the characters and thinking back on it (well, after having just finished), they're what really stand out for me. I LOVED every single character and the ending was just perfect.
Well, this also takes place in an Elizabethan sort of setting and the language matches soooo. It was a bit much for me at times. Like, if I wasn't reading this with Alyssa & Amy, I probably would have easily been scared away by the language alone (thee! thou! eek!) but I started to get the hang of it. Sometimes I felt less scholarly. Sometimes I felt more scholarly. Sometimes I just got lost in the story and the language wasn't as apparent BUT definitely something for new readers to be aware of!
A fun retelling too. I'm not as familiar with the original tale -- I think I read way back in the day when I was a kid but forgot a lot about it -- so it was fun to read it as a retelling that still felt very close to the original tale.
Mini-review posted on The Book Addict's Guide 1/14/15: I read SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED with Alyssa & Amy for our December On the Same Page read (it’s one of Alyssa’s favorites) and after not liking Amy’s favorite, I was terrified. I got a couple pages into the book and was like, “Holy cow. That’s a lot of thee & thou & thy.” But as I read on, it really wasn’t as daunting as it first seemed. I’m not used to the language so yes, it did affect my read a little bit because I had to concentrate more, but overall, the book was very enjoyable!
SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED is actually one fairy tale I remember reading as a kid (at least I THINK I read the original…) and it stuck out in my mind. I really enjoyed Patricia C. Wrede’s adaptation and how she changed the tale in little ways to make it her own story and these changes actually really helped me grow attached to the book too. I’m notoriously hesitant about fairy books but after falling in love with books like Heir of Fire and A Court of Thorns and Roses, I’m definitely coming around so I was so happy to see that not only was it something that I wasn’t afraid of in SWRR but also something that I enjoyed.
I loved the characters and they totally made the book for me. They were SO much fun with so much personality. I’m glad I was pushed to read this one with Alyssa & Amy because I would not have done it without them!
mousie_books's review against another edition
4.0
Snow White and Rose Red is an interpretation/retelling of the original Grimms' fairy tale. Each chapter has a short snippet from the text that inspired/correlates with it. The story (and perhaps the original) was far less depressing than I was expecting. They are similar to each other, but both bear no resemblance to Disney's version-- other than, they all feature a girl by the name of Snow White and at least one dwarf. The book itself had a very slow start. I wasn't all that interested until the bear appeared, but by the end, I enjoyed it.
[Edit] Apparently, 'Snow White and Rose Red' and 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' are distinct Grimms' stories, that confusingly, have protagonists with the same name.
[Edit] Apparently, 'Snow White and Rose Red' and 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' are distinct Grimms' stories, that confusingly, have protagonists with the same name.
shecantcomplain's review
4.0
It was hard to get into at first because of the Shakespearean language (I'm ashamed to say), but once I got the hang of it again it was actually quite interesting!
yeagleyreads's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
mindsplinters's review
4.0
Extremely clever rework of the Grimm tale of Snow White And Rose Red. It uses a lot of the frame tale but not in completely obvious ways, reworking it all into something fresh and smooth. Setting it in Elizabethan England was especially interesting. Of course, the language took a bit to get used to but it is far simpler than Shakespeare and it doesn't read as try-hard at all. It still flows naturally so long as you keep remembering that "an" means "if". The layers of the story manage to form some tension and push-pull while the characters contribute to that. Robin is a total little shit and I love it.
iamnotamerryman's review
3.0
I enjoyed this book, but it really needed a lot more character development.
singh_reads_kanwar2's review
3.0
The story of Snow white and Rose red two sister who are known for there kindness , one winter a bear made himself there guest but they take care of him and when summer came he left and Snow white and Rose red life went back on track they met a Dwarfs and saved his life everytime but the Rude dwarfs always angry scolded them one day when dwarfs was looting the treasure he got kicked by Bear and the spell on prince broke and he told the truth to Snow white and Rose red and return to his kingdom and later both prince of kingdom married the sister and have happily ever after.
magentabyfive's review
2.0
Not all that interesting. It's not that it was a bad book, but wasn't very gripping to me. The romance was so lackluster that it hardly seemed worth noting. The girl's never seemed to develop much of a personality beyond what they had in the fairy tale. Maybe they weren't developed enough for me because, while the book was relatively short, there was a lot of time around other characters, including the random girl John didn't pay attention to getting obsessed over him and then trying to start rumors.
I enjoyed the brother's story, especially near the beginning. I think if the story had followed them almost exclusively and not spent time going through the motions of the fairy tale with the sisters, but still being about the fairy tale, that would have been fine. John, though he is the typical prince, and Hugh at least had enough personality that I liked them. The sister's I didn't feel like I gleamed enough about them to care, like Sleeping Beauty in Disney's version where what little I learned about her irritated me, and the story was more about the fairies. Here, as I said, it's too stretched for characters to develop any in any interesting way.
The inclusion of the fairy tale was both a blessing and a curse. I enjoyed the story for what it was, but it was a bit like the dialogue, more distracting me from the story than engaging me in it. I don't know, the dialogue just did not work for me. I think because it felt removed from the rest of the text in some ways. The problem comes when it is clear the author is not from the era, I find that dialogue from this isn't bringing me back to that time, but more used as a gimmick in the book. It didn't help define the characters, it just made it harder to get lost in the world she had created.
Which wasn't to say it was awful, as I said, especially near the beginning I enjoyed whenever John was the one we were following around, and I did enjoy the original fairy tale being there for me to read, even if it did distract, in many ways, from the story Patricia Wrede was writing ironically.
I enjoyed the brother's story, especially near the beginning. I think if the story had followed them almost exclusively and not spent time going through the motions of the fairy tale with the sisters, but still being about the fairy tale, that would have been fine. John, though he is the typical prince, and Hugh at least had enough personality that I liked them. The sister's I didn't feel like I gleamed enough about them to care, like Sleeping Beauty in Disney's version where what little I learned about her irritated me, and the story was more about the fairies. Here, as I said, it's too stretched for characters to develop any in any interesting way.
The inclusion of the fairy tale was both a blessing and a curse. I enjoyed the story for what it was, but it was a bit like the dialogue, more distracting me from the story than engaging me in it. I don't know, the dialogue just did not work for me. I think because it felt removed from the rest of the text in some ways. The problem comes when it is clear the author is not from the era, I find that dialogue from this isn't bringing me back to that time, but more used as a gimmick in the book. It didn't help define the characters, it just made it harder to get lost in the world she had created.
Which wasn't to say it was awful, as I said, especially near the beginning I enjoyed whenever John was the one we were following around, and I did enjoy the original fairy tale being there for me to read, even if it did distract, in many ways, from the story Patricia Wrede was writing ironically.