Reviews with content warning for Racial slurs - Snow, Glass, Apples

Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman

6 reviews

atuin's review

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dark fast-paced

2.5

A gruesome tale with beutiful artwork, but some dated language like calling romani the g slur.

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neolx's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad fast-paced

1.0

This is one of the stupidest, grossest, most offensive things I’ve ever read. It is pointless, gratuitous, and horribly written. The art is fine, but the writing is not only mediocre and awkward, but seems like it was written by AI. While Snow White may be a monster in this retelling, she is still only a girl of six and later twelve years of age, and she is constantly sexualized and demeaned (in addition to being depicted instigating sexual acts with grown men, including her father!) and don’t even get me started on the necrophilia scene. Besides this, the book was also demeaning to disabled people, describing the forest people as misshapen, stunted, greedy idiots, and overall demeaning to women in general (no woman, alone and naked in her bedroom, would ever think “if a man were in my room spying on me right now, he would be aroused by my naked body!”). I can’t believe this was allowed to be published.

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ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

“The Spring Fair was slightly improved that year. The forest folk were few, but they were there, and there were travelers from the lands beyond the forest. I saw the little hairy men of the forest cave buying and bargaining for pieces of glass, and lumps of crystal and of quartz rock. They paid for the glass with silver coins—the spoils of my stepdaughter's depredations, I had no doubt. When it got about what they were buying, townsfolk rushed back to their homes and came back with their lucky crystals, and, in a few cases, with whole sheets of glass.”

TITLE—Snow, Glass, Apples

AUTHOR—Neil Gaiman

ILLUSTRATOR—Colleen Doran

PUBLISHED—2019

PUBLISHER—Dark Horse Books

GENRE—fairytale retelling; graphic novel

SETTING—fantasy kingdom

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—snow white, witchcraft, romance, sex, vampires, folklore imagery, gorgeous illustrations

WRITING STYLE—🌕🌕🌕🌗🌚

CHARACTERS—🌕🌕🌕🌚🌚

STORY/PLOT—🌕🌕🌕🌗🌚

BONUS ELEMENT/S—The illustration style for this book is one of my favorite styles of art!

PHILOSOPHY—🌕🌕🌚🌚🌚

ILLUSTRATIONS/ART—🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕

“Lies and half-truths fall like snow, covering the things that I remember, the things I saw. A landscape, unrecognizable after a snowfall—that is what she has made of my life.”

My thoughts:

This story was fine, I guess—I think I’m just still not in my Neil Gaiman era at all yet. The artwork was gorgeous though. I thought what Colleen Doran did with her illustration of the story was stunning. It reminded me a little of Helen Mask’s art, who is one of my alltime favorite artists (I have a print of her Star illustration on my wall). I’m definitely going to look up more of Doran’s work as well as that of her stated inspirations: Harry Clarke and Aubrey Beardsley.

I would recommend this book to readers who like grittier fairy tale retellings and don’t mind surface-level horror stories that are just about the ~vibes~. This book is best read slowly so you can enjoy all the gorgeous artwork!

Final note: Honestly waiting for my Neil Gaiman era to arrive tho. I feel like I could really get into it if I was… like… into it. 🤣

“They brought me her heart. I know it was—no sow's heart or doe's would have continued to beat and pulse after it had been cut out, as that one did. I took it to my chamber... I did not eat it. I hung it from the beams above my bed, placed it on a length of twine that I strung with rowan berries, orange-red as a robin's breast—and with bulbs of garlic… As long as the heart hung, silent and immobile and cold, from the beam of my chamber, I was safe, and so were the folk of the forest...”

🌕🌕🌕🌚🌚

Season: Winter

CW // g-word slur, sexual content & nudity, blood, cannibalism, torture (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

A MIRROR MENDED by Alix E Harrow (Interestingly, Arthur Rackham’s illustrations are reproduced in this and have a similar vibe to what I’ve seen of Aubrey Beardsley’s artwork…)
THE BLOODY CHAMBER by Angela Carter
BOY SNOW BIRD by Helen Oyeyemi
THE SLEEPER AND THE SPINDLE by Neil Gaiman
HANSEL & GRETEL by Neil Gaiman
Harry Clarke’s artwork
Aubrey Beardsley’s artwork
Arthur Rackham’s artwork
Helen Mask’s artwork
Hogan McLaughlin’s artwork

Content Warnings

adonis_march's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

Up top, I will add this disclaimer, unfortunately Gaiman still has not learned in 2019 that the g-slur is not an appropriate was to refer to Romani people, and this book has brief but stereotypical depictions of Romani individuals, as well as some elements of anti-Romani sentiment. That is why it is only receiving 4.5 stars, despite my love for the story itself.

As a lover of horror and Gaiman, "Snow, Glass, Apples" is everything I could ask for in a Snow White retelling. This lush, gothic thriller of a fairytale combines just the right pacing with elegantly unnerving illustrations done in an art-nouveau style. The character of the Evil Queen was sympathetic in a much more realistic way than many adaptations - where her actions remain the same as the original fairytale, but you can actually understand and sympathize with why she was forced to these extremes. Snow White, as a villain, was again, so perfectly unnerving and terrifying - a true creature of the night from folklore. The ending is dark, it is a tragedy, but you get the feeling about two pages in that this is NOT going to end happily ever after. Overall, if you like a darker read & some beautiful art, definitely pick this up.

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emilo's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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mydearwatsonbooks's review

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