Fairest of All Book Review
This is my in-depth (no, really) critique of the book.
Beware: beyond this point spoilers abound.
Part One: The Summary
The book begins with the marriage of the Mirror Maker’s daugher, an un-named woman identified only by honorifics, to the King. She’s nervous yet hopeful about becoming the King’s wife and step-mother to the King’s young daughter, Snow White. She’s also insecure about her beauty, not believing in the compliments heaped upon her on her wedding day, especially from her new maidservant, Verona. She’s already very fond of Snow and deeply wants to be a good mother to the child, whom she calls ‘little bird.’ As a wedding gift to his new wife, the King places a large mirror in the bedroom of the Queen made by her father, the deceased Mirror Maker.
The new family is together for only a short time as the King must go lead his army to victory far away. The Queen and Snow White are sad to see him go but bide their time with tales & games of dragons and a visit to the Apple Blossom Festival. They receive news the King is to return from battle and they plan a banquet for his return. Before the King arrives, the Queen believes she sees a face in the mirror when she is alone in her room and smashes it, but for fear of being labeled mad she keeps the incident to herself. She also begins to have dreams about a man in the mirror pursuing her.
During the King’s banquet, the enemy attacks the castle and the King takes the Queen to a rowboat in the lower levels of the castle with which she is to flee into the forest and wait out the battle. The King finds them in the forest after the battle’s end and they return to the castle together, safe for now. The King then announces he must leave again, but he’s repaired her dead father’s mirror. The Queen despairs.
After the King has gone, the Queen receives news that three distant cousins of the King are coming to visit. The triplet Odd Sisters arrive with bizarre dress and ghastly make-up, completing each others’ sentences with every other word. They terrorize Snow White by reciting a list of ingredients of a potion to steal the child’s youth & beauty, then comment that the Queen disappoints for not being a cruel fairy-tale stepmother. They arrange for a picnic with Snow White in the woods and seem vexed when the Queen suggests she joins them.
Meanwhile, the Queen begins to hear a voice beckoning from the mirror and later sees the face of a man inside the mirror. She is distraught and frightened by these developments as her nightmares have also returned.
The Queen emerses herself in planning for a Winter Solstice gala to coincide with the King’s next return home. On the night of the party and her second reunion with the King, Snow White is revealed to have left the triplets in the forest after they’ve frightened her. The King reacts sharply, yelling at Snow White to apologize to the sisters (who made it back to the castle on their own) and grabbing her arm. The Queen furiously intervenes and demands the King release his daughter, apologize to her, and for the sisters to be sent away. The King is so cowed by his wife’s outburst he entirely complies. The sisters are insulted and warn they will not be treated so disdainfully. They are then escorted from the castle with their luggage to be sent after them.
After the party, the Queen reveals to the King that her own father was emotionally and verbally abusive to her, calling her a “ugly, useless, and senseless girl.” He compared her to a hag who possessed none of her departed mother’s beauty and accusing her of being an enchantress to ensnare the attentions of the King. On his deathbed, he confessed to never having loved her at all. The King comes to understand why his gift of her father’s mirror wasn’t welcome and smashes it for the Queen in solidarity. He then leaves to the far-off war.
One day a mysterious gift comes to the Queen. When she opens it, a voice speaks to her from the mirror, calling her enchantress and claiming it can see anything in the land - including the death of her husband. Her maidservant Verona rushes in to report the news and the Queen is devastated. It breaks her heart to deliver the news to Snow White, who is equally traumatized by the loss of her father.
The Queen retreats into her grief away from her household and step-daughter. The King’s relatives arrange for the funeral where the Queen encounters the triplets who apologize for her loss and their previous behavior. They also inquire as to how the Queen is enjoying her gift - the mirror they sent to her and whether the Man in the Mirror is obeying her.
The Queen has the triplets show her how to call the Slave in the Magic Mirror and answer her questions. The sisters reveal the Queen’s parents longed to have children but the Queen’s mother couldn’t conceive so the father offered his soul in the bargain. Just after the Queen was born her mother died, an act which her father blamed entirely on the Queen. When her father died, the sisters imprisoned his soul in his mirrors and gifted one (or more) to the Queen. They also mention a second gift they have left in the dungeons of the castle.
Feeling isolated, abandoned, and powerless the Queen inquires of her imprisoned father if she is beautiful, as he is bound to tell the truth. The mirror replies she is the fairest in the land. Suddenly vindicated for years of abuse and neglect, the Queen draws her power from her father’s submission & truth-telling. She emerges from her seclusion, drawing an addictive source of energy from her father’s forced approval.
The years roll by until one day the mirror claims Verona is fairer than the Queen. The Queen is torn between her love of her friend and her desire to be the only beauty in her father’s eyes. She even contimplates killing Verona, but in the end decides to send Verona away on a diplomatic mission. Though sad to lose her truest friend, the Queen is relieved to hear the mirror call her fairest of all.
The Queen eventually explores her second gift from the triplets - books of spells and jars of ingredients with which to practice magic. The Queen begins experimenting with potions to increase her beauty but finds her early spells backfire due to her naiveté. The Queen also notices Snow White is approaching marriable age, though not believing Snow to have any marriage prospects she has her step-daughter wear rags and clean the palace with the other maids to at least be useful. One day Snow falls into a well but is rescued by a Prince who begins to court her. In a gesture to save Snow from loss and grief, the Queen lies to the Prince telling him Snow White has no real affection for him to end his suit. Then, to the Queen’s dismay, Verona returns as the wife of a lord.
The Queen remembers affections for Verona's friendship and desires to be the woman she was before the mirror’s judgments ruled her life. Meanwhile, her dreams become darker and more twisted visions - she dreams of roaming a forest to find Snow White with her heart cut out, blood streaming down the girl’s white dressing gown. She dreams of the triplets laughing at her and the mirror telling her he’s told her nothing but lies to revenge himself upon her for killing her mother.
In an effort to separate herself from this torment and to save Verona from her jealousy, the Queen gives her mirror over to the Huntsman and has him bury it in the forest. Thereafter she has dreams of roaming the forest, trying to dig up her mirror and finding Snow White’s heart instead. One day she awakens to find the mirror in her room and her hands covered in mud and dirt. She recalls the sisters voices in her dreams, telling her where to dig.
Verona finds the Queen’s sense of humor has become nasty and cold - far from the woman she remembers. When the Queen and Verona are dining together Snow White is brought before the Queen as she had fallen off a horse. The Queen deduces she was riding with the Prince and slaps Snow White for her insolence. Verona is horrified and after confronting the Queen’s cruel nature decides to leave at once, which pleases the Queen who was only too ready to banish Verona.
Finally, the mirror tells her that Snow White is fairest of all and so the Queen plots to rid herself of the girl. When the mirror tells her the Huntsman has tricked her, the Queen turns to find the sisters standing behind her. The sisters reveal the Queen comes from a long line of witches on her mother’s side and with the spellbooks they gave her (which were her mother’s) should be able to find a disguise to get close enough to Snow White to kill her. When the Queen doesn’t seem up to the task, the sisters each spit in a cup and give it to the Queen to drink. The Queen finds new depths of rage within her and so seeks out the Huntsman. She finds him in the castle courtyard and proceeds to stab him in the gut, leaving him for dead.
After transforming herself and feeding Snow White the apple, she hears the sisters taunting her that the disguise cannot be reversed so she will remain aged and ugly forever. Truly lost in confusion and fear, she flees from the pursuing dwarfs when she again hears the voices of the sisters telling her not to go up the cliff as she will surely die.
The sisters entice her to hide in the forest with apologies and promises of reversing the transformation, but the Queen realizes she decided the cliff-path long ago when she abandoned her step-daughter. The Queen presumably dies by falling over the cliff.
The epilogue is written from Snow White’s perspective after she has been reunited with the Prince. After her own wedding, she receives a gift of a mirror wherein she sees the face of her step-mother, the Queen, blowing her a kiss.
Part Two: The Critique
(Coming Later Today)