Title Snow, Glass, Apples Series --- Author Neil Gaiman Cover Art Colleen Coran Publisher Darkhorse - 2019 First Printing 1995 Category Horror Warnings Explicit sex and gorey visuals Main Characters Unnamed characters Main Elements Vampires, witches, faeries

A chilling fantasy retelling of the Snow White fairy tale by New York Times bestselling creators Neil Gaiman and Colleen Doran!

A not-so-evil queen is terrified of her monstrous stepdaughter and determined to repel this creature and save her kingdom from a world where happy endings aren’t so happily ever after.

From the Hugo, Bram Stoker, Locus, World Fantasy, Nebula award-winning, and New York Times bestselling writer Neil Gaiman (American Gods) comes this graphic novel adaptation by Colleen Doran (Troll Bridge)

I noticed this on the newly acquired shelf of my library and when I saw the author was Neil Gaiman I grabbed it (possibly the first person to borrow it!).

This is a very dark, disturbing and beautiful take on the classic Snow White fairy tale. What if Snow White were not innocent, in fact had a taste for the blood that coloured her lips (after all she is also unnaturally pale!)? What if her evil stepmother, wasn't so evil after all and was just trying to protect the kingdom from the demon child? There is a lot of blood and gore in this graphic novel. Also there is graphic sex (*cough* that poor prince with his, umm, sexual deficiencies and perversions...it does explain why he would kiss a corpse though!)

At the same time while disturbing and dark, it is also gorgeous and beautiful. Doran was insipired by this art style years ago but it wasn't something she could use on a regular basis, but it was perfect for this retelling. The details were stunning, I found myself staring for minutes at a time at the corner of a scene or at the edge of a dress. The astounding amount of time it must have taken to add all those whirls, scales, flowers, and stars left me bewildered. How something could be beautiful and disgusting at the same time amazed me. And made this book all the more horrific.

While most classic fairy tales are to modern readers "not for children" (remember how the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella cut off parts of their feet so they could fit in the glass slippers, filling them with blood, or how Cinderella then sends the birds to pluck their eyes out...) this graphic novel is DEFINITELY not for kids. Maybe even not for all adults.

But the artwork...beautiful just the same. I hope Doran gets many more opportunities to illustrate in this style.