Author: Serena Valentino
Narrator: Lucy Rayner
Publisher: Blackstone Audio
Publication Date: October 2016
Genre: General Fiction / Fantasy
Buy The Book: Amazon | BN | Audible
Description: The tale of the young princess and her evil stepmother, the Wicked Queen, is widely known. Despite a few variations from telling to telling, the story remains the same—the Queen was jealous of the girl’s beauty, and this jealousy culminated in the Queen’s attempt on the sweet, naive girl’s life.
Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused the Queen to become so contemptuously vile. Still, some have attempted to guess the reason. Perhaps the Queen’s true nature was that of a wicked hag and her beautiful, regal appearance a disguise used to fool the King. Others claim that the Queen might have hated the girl for her resemblance to the King’s first wife. Mostly, the Queen is painted as a morally abhorrent woman who never loved another being during the course of her miserable life.
In fact, the theories about exactly what caused the Queen’s obsessive vanity and jealous rage are too numerous to catalog. This book recounts a version of the story that has remained untold until now. It is a tragic tale of love and loss, and it contains a bit of magic. It is a tale of the Wicked Queen…
My Thoughts: We all know the tale of Snow White, some of us have it memorized. Growing up, this was one of my favorite Disney stories but I always wondered why the Queen was so vile and hateful. This woman gave stepmothers the world over a bad name and I honestly was very happy when she went over the cliff at the end. This interesting story gives us a whole new perspective and different spin on the how and the why the Queen becomes evil and wicked.
The Queen garnered a lot of sympathy from me. She wasn’t always evil and wicked and Snow White wasn’t her ultimate target. Instead, the reader is given a front row seat into the life of the woman before she became the Queen, her love for Snow White. Yes, you heard me correctly. She absolutely adored Snow White. Her love for the King. She was, in a nutshell, one of the most liked and even respected members of the Court. She grew up in a horrible situation, her mother dying in childbirth and her father hating her all her life. She meets the King and falls in love with him and upon marrying him claims Snow White as her daughter. Unfortunately, tragedy strikes and the Queen never regains her spirit, resolve or peace of mind that she once had. Her childhood fears and self-loathing returns and she becomes obsessed by an enchanted mirror and being the fairest one of all. She will do anything to achieve that goal.
Knowing how it all would end did not diminish my enjoyment of the story and getting there. The Queen struggles with her obsession and the rage and hatred that consumes her and though her love for Snow is absolute, the evil wins out in the end. I can’t help but wonder, though, if in the end, she chose to take the path that led to her ultimate demise in order to save Snow from further attempts that she would most likely make.
I went with the audiobook option and the performance of Lucy Rayner kept me engaged. This is the first book in the series and I have the next two and am hopeful they will be just as enjoyable.
My Final Verdict: Overall, I found this story interesting and recommend it to fans of the classic fairy tales. Though I still love the original story and the Queen is a character we have all loved to hate, I have a little more empathy for this tragic character.
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