The Snow Queen's Shadow by Jim C. Hines
This is the fourth and last of Hines's "Fairy Tale Princess" series. That's not the official title for the series, I don't think, but I don't remember and am feeling lazy. Everything that needs to be wrapped up is and there's definitely closure, but there's still room to revisit it.
The first three books in the series are set after the fairy tales they utilize, showing the characters after "happily ever after" and using and expanding the original casts. The world is a standard medieval-lite world where all fairy tales coexist either in the present or in the past, and the central characters are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White, and they're the queen's secret agents. It sounds light and parts are, but it's actually a dark, critical representation of fairy tales that often crosses into deconstruction, with a focus on how women are treated within the traditional narratives, especially the parts most modern representations try to avoid. And they're fast paced adventures with three swashbuckling heroines.
Most of the same is true of The Snow Queen's Shadow, save that instead of following up a fairy tale, it reworks "The Snow Queen" to feature the regular cast as the protagonists and antagonists, and loosely follows the plot. Some parts work better than others (for example, with the seasons, Spring and Winter work excellently, but Summer and Autumn less so) but that's also true of the previous books. And, uhm, most things. I'm just very attached to "The Snow Queen."
I was really hoping that there'd be a way to save Snow (and not just because she's my favorite, and by "save" I meant "she doesn't die") but it was obvious that wasn't going to happen almost the moment she reached her homeland. I'm a bit uneasy with the "powerful and sexually promiscuous sorcereress is overtaken by a powerful demon because of a spell she casts and goes on murderous rampage" aspect, but as slutshaming and "women with power are dangerous" are among the last things I'd attribute to Hines and the POV he gives the series, it's more a reaction to similar things in other media than here.
Actually, I had that problem with several things in this book? That is, things that, within this canon and narrative, I'm fine with, but I can't help but compare them to other narratives. Like, Talia and Snow are exiles, and will be remembered negatively in their homelands? Talia abandoned her twins sons (like Medea, I find it very significant that there are no daughters, as I feel it makes a statement that, for this individual character, the sons are the father's legacy, not hers) and killed their father, and Snow was the daughter of an evil sorceress who was believed to be dead after killing her mother and then returned years later to try to kill everyone. Now, Talia was unconscious the entire time she was pregnant and felt little/no maternal connection to them, and their father raped her while she was the enchanted sleep and his family tried to use her to strengthen their power. So I can't imagine any readers judging her for it, but the people of her homeland don't know that part. And Snow was controlled by an evil demon and did what she could to help destroy him, but she won't be viewed as a victim or heroine, but as a killer. And Danielle won't have any daughters so her and Bea's (who also only had a son) legacy will be carried out through Jakob, who will most likely overshadow both his parents and grandparents. The text itself is too woman-positive overall and focused on the women's POVs for this to interfere with my enjoyment or judgemnent of the series, I just can't help but notice them in terms overal narrative trends at at large.
Back to the rest:
-I like Danielle being ruthless.
-I'm glad we got a Gerda in Gerta (well, Gerta, Talia and Danielle all served the Gerda role, but I feel that it was Gerta's centrally) and also that Gerta also took over the Rose Red role. And I'm glad that Snow did deliberately create the key to stopping the demon.
-Acknowledgement that beauty is subjective! Readers and viewers, of course, have always known this, but most texts take a stance that what's held up as beautiful (their female leads) by the author is the only "real" beauty. We had this before with Talia, but it's nice to see it again.
-I wish there had been a way for Gerta's love for Talia to be independent of Snow's wanting to be able to love Talia the way Talia loved her, but given what Gerta is, I suppose that wasn't really possible, and I think the resolution of that worked.
-The imagery in the cold and ice and snow parts was gorgeous. Icmean, the imsgery was good in general, but especially there. I was all "I want a movie so I can seeeeeeeeeee it!"
In short, while not perfect (what is?) these are very fun and worth checking out if you like girls on adventures (together) and critical examinations of fairy tales and unique takes on fairy tales.