2015 Review Round-Up: Fantasy Novella: Six-Gun Snow White, Catherynne M. Valente

Six-Gun Snow White
Catherynne M. Valente
ISBN: 9781481444729
Sets Snow White in the American West, with a side-plot giving the Wicked Queen actual motivation.
Read December 2015

This was an interesting and powerful retelling, and I finished it off quickly.  I loved the addition of the sub-plot that gave the stepmother/wicked queen an actual motive for Snow's heart, and the interesting twisty development that ensued.  I thought that the "six-gun" motif was undertilised and somewhat forgotten as the story progressed, and especially the detail of the gemstones seemed to fall by the wayside.  Likewise the ending of the story felt a bit rushed, and the epilogue was peculiar.  I had the oddest feeling that the story beforehand, all wild west and openly magical and folkloric, was the reality, and that the glimpse of modern life with professors and physics and apartments was the fantasy, all hazy and unreal.  It was the strangest sensation of disjointed impressions I've ever gotten from a story that I liked.

Despite all that, it was a glorious magical (grim, depressing, hellish) world to visit for a short while, and Snow was a captivating protagonist to follow.

Juvenile Fantasy: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making, Catherynne Valente

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making
Catherynne Valente
ISBN: 9780312649616
Re-Read, finished September 24, 2014


This book, y'all.

I first read this book back in 2012, when I wasn't keeping as scrupulous a review record of what I was reading.  I didn't review it then, because I couldn't ever think of anything to say other than how much I liked it.  Strangely enough, the more a book has touched me, or the more I feel like it fits, the less I find I can coherently say about it directly.  It's a challenge.

This book is a beautiful and illusion-shattering psychology manual on the topics of humanity and growing up, dolled up in a fancy-dress-party disguise as a romp through Fairyland by a little human girl named September, and the friends and enemies she makes as she quests.

It is amazing.  It made me cry, and made my heart ache, and made me wish that I had even a clock with my name on it.  I want a library to be my ancestor, and for a trio of married witches to tell my future in moldy soup, but I also want to scoop just about all the characters up into a great big neverending hug and lie through my teeth that everything will be all right, and not to worry about such big terrible things as life and betrayal and fairness.

I discovered recently that there were a couple of sequels: The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, and The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two.  I hate reading sequels after there's been a long break between reading the first, so naturally I had to go back to this one, and oh god, it hurts just as badly as it did on the first read.  It's painfully beautiful and true and wild and good.

I will leave you with a much more excellent (although not much more on-topic) review of this book from one of my favorite authors and people; Patrick Rothfuss, from over on Goodreads.