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'Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen' by Serena Valentino

Book Review by Katie Heyes

By Katie HeyesPublished 5 years ago 5 min read
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Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first Disney film ever created, and it left a great impression on not just the animation industry, but also the film industry. The animation was remarkable for its time—after all, it was the first full-length animated film—and it works marvelously well at keeping audiences emotionally invested with enchanting music and likable main characters. However, when you actually begin to analyse the main substance of the story, you begin to discover that the story itself is actually pretty weak.

Firstly, our main protagonist Snow White is quite dull. Having no backstory or interesting character development, there is nothing to get us interested in her story despite how likable she appears to be. Additionally, our main villain is very stereotypical. In the film, we aren’t given an insight into her backstory; as a consequence, she is not a very interesting character. Her only motivation is that a girl was prettier than her—on the surface, that is pretty weak. Evidently, more work needed to be done in order to make this story a complex and interesting narrative.

Luckily, this book provides us with just that—a more interesting narrative and set of characters.

Fairest of All tells us the backstory of the Wicked Queen; we learn how she had a tragic upbringing with a father who used to tell her that she was ugly every day of her life. Despite her miserable childhood, her life takes on a turn for the better as the King of the land sees beauty in her and consequently falls in love with her. That sounds like a fairy tale in itself doesn’t it? In any other fairy tale story that would end and they would all live happily ever after… but not this story. As the Queen becomes accustomed to her new role as leader of a kingdom and mother of the princess Snow White, she suffers a tragic loss which leads to her becoming more distant from the people she loves—even her stepdaughter Snow White. Her only comfort came from hearing that she was the fairest of all from the slave of a magic mirror—this slave was none other than her callous father! This eventually becomes an obsession, leaving her to dive further and further into the pool of vanity and jealousy… wow… just... wow.

As you can tell, this is a vastly more intriguing and complex plot; this makes the main characters vastly more interesting—especially with the Queen. The turmoil that she has to go through is immensely heartbreaking, resulting in the readers having a lot of sympathy for her character. Not only that, but her story is also quite relatable. Due to her father’s disappointment in her, she would have wanted nothing more than to finally be blessed with his words of approval. Consequently, visiting her father in the magic mirror to receive the appearance compliment from him becomes an obsession, and we see her mentally fall apart as she has to battle two alternate personas—the kind person who she was and the vain, praised person that she eventually became. Having desires for a father’s approval are, unfortunately, quite common in today’s world. This story provides people who are suffering with the same dilemmas as the Queen with some great words of advice—focus on the people who love you and forget about the idiots who don’t see it. Therefore, this story excels in making the Queen a more engaging, empathetic, interesting and complex character—far superior than her film counterpart.

Additionally, this fairy tale world is a lot more, believe it or not, realistic. One of the major criticisms of all the Disney films in general is that the stories, in particularly the romances, don’t play out how they would in the real world. In fact, they have sort of become clichés of themselves, such as the “three day romance” and “all your wishes will come true if you just believe.” However, this novel does not use these. Instead, this story adds more depth to the romance of Snow White and the Prince; more time has been added to their love affair so that it is more convincing as opposed to the love at first sight cliché. Moreover, Snow White herself becomes a lot more interesting. Instead of being a bland, submissive damsel like she was in the original, more depth is added to her character so that she also has a tragic backstory. In addition to losing her father and mother, she slowly has to watch her stepmother become more and more distant from her as she gets older—it even comes to the point where she tries to keep her and her Prince apart and, of course, tries to kill her. Whilst we don’t get a direct insight into her thoughts and feelings, it is evident that she had to overcome a lot of struggles, yet she still manages to have a positive attitude and not let the issues of loss consume her life as it is what her father would have wanted. Another brilliant moral is presented here—always remaining positive for your own wellbeing despite the troubles life may bring—as a result, Snow White becomes a more interesting character and a better role model for young girls, rather than just a damsel in distress.

One more thing to admire is the fact that this book does not shy away from showing the harsh realities of life. Heavy themes are addressed in this novel, including loss, insanity and abandonment. As sad as these themes are to read about, it is still vastly important as it provides the younger generation with advice on how they should deal with these issues in later life. As a consequence, they are better educated on life in general. This novel excels in doing what a lot of stories should do—provide good morals.

With the myriad of praises I have offered, surely you would think that this book can do no wrong… well… there is one small problem I had—the writing style.

Unfortunately, the writing style is not fantastic. Adventurous vocabulary is rarely used, which makes for a slightly less interesting reading experience. Moreover, quite a lot of sentences begin with “but” or “and,” which isn’t the sign of a skillful writer, and as a lot of you English enthusiasts know, is not allowed when writing. The fact that these basic rules are being forgotten is appalling in my opinion. Despite this though, the fact that this novel has such an engaging story means that the writing style is not too distracting. However, for an overly critical mind like mine, this problem is too prominent.

Overall, despite that one flaw, this has been a superb reading experience and I would greatly recommend this to any Disney fan. Even if you didn’t like the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, you will feel more fulfilled after reading this book.

Rating 3 out of 5 stars

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