On the Same Page | Snow White and Rose Red

Snow White and Rose Red • Patricia C. Wrede

I’m always excited to read books that my besties love. It makes me feel like our friendship is really special because we’re sharing things that mean a lot to us. SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED by Patricia C. Wrede is one of those books for my dear Alyssa, who loves this book fiercely. I can see why. A retelling of a classic fairy tale, with a Fey bonus. I really loved this book, which makes me so happy but also makes me think about my own personal experiences with reading about faeries. Since two of the main characters in SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED are half-fey, and other fey creatures play important parts in this story, I thought I’d chat for a few about what it is about faeries that I sometimes love and sometimes find boring beyond all things. Let’s hope that I can actually get to the bottom of it, because frankly, I have no idea.

So faeries. Fairies. However you spell it, they don’t always click with me as a reader. I’ve read books with faeries (that’s just what we’re going to go with from here on out in terms of spelling) that I’ve loved, I’ve read books with faeries that I’ve only been meh about, and I’ve DNF’d books with faeries in them. Running the gamut, I am. What about these books worked for me? What didn’t? Gimme a sec while I hash this out.

I’ve read and loved Julie Kagawa’s Iron Fey series. The world was interesting and kind of dangerous, but I think what I mostly liked about that book was the romance. In SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED, there are romances, but nothing like the kind of swoons we find in more contemporary YA books. The feels between John, one of the half-fey sons of the Queen of Faerie, and Rosamund, one of the daughters of the Widow Arden, are very subtle and sweet and are only made slightly obvious by a few flirty conversations (but like, Elizabethan England flirting), and the feels between Hugh, John’s brother, and Blanche, the Widow’s other daughter, are even MORE subtle. Mere glances that last longer than they should, or that occur at particularly emotional times. I think in the case of SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED, this subtlety is what drew me to the characters’ relationships even more. That, and the fact that John and Hugh seem to have deep respect for Rosamund and Blanche and what they are capable of.

I’ve also read and loved the Fablehaven series by Brandon Mull. That series is chock full of vibrant, dangerous, fickle faeries, as well as an abundance of adventure. There’s less of that in SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED. The faeries here are less the fantastical creature variety and more the manipulative, vengeful, beautiful High Faeries (that’s what I call them in my head). The faeries in SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED are not anything like those in Fablehaven (an EXCELLENT MG series, by the way). Their stoicism and the very real sense that they exist out of time really appealed to me here. I think that, while I enjoyed Fablehaven A LOT, I enjoy these kinds of faeries more. The ones that are just human enough to give me a little bit of the willies.

Kind of like the faeries in the Sevenwaters series by Juliet Marillier. They are very much like the faeries in SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED. But Sevenwaters is about faeries the way, like, ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS is about Paris. I’ve connected more with the human characters in those books than the faeries, but that’s not necessarily the case in SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED, because I love Blanche and Rosamund and the Widow Arden as much as I love John and Hugh.

So what about faeries that I didn’t connect with? Now that I’ve started highlighting some faerie books that I enjoyed, I’m surprising myself with how many there are, mostly because there are still a few I haven’t mentioned. But I’ve had a hard time with faeries that were all deliberately evil. That’s of no interest to me. I DNF’d EXTRAORDINARY by Nancy Werlin because the faeries in that book were basically all bad. Pass. And I had a hard time getting myself to continue reading Kiki Hamilton’s The Faerie Ring series, but I think that was more plot related than anything to do with the faeries.

Basically, guys, this whole post isn’t helping me and I feel like it’s a confusing muddle of pointless stream-of-consciousness. (In my defense, I’m writing this post while also trying to beat down the lingering vestiges of a migraine.) Or rather, it’s helped me to realize that I don’t seem to have as big an issue with faeries as I always thought I did. This makes me so happy! There are actually a number of books about or with faeries that I’m really looking forward to, so I’m heartened by my discovery, and I’m so very glad that SNOW WHITE AND ROSE RED was the book that helped me make it. It seems more like I have OTHER issues with books that happen to have faeries in them as opposed to not liking the faeries themselves. Thanks for being such great listeners, guys!

So what about you guys? I know many people who’ve said that they were like me and didn’t always enjoy faerie books. Are you one of them? Which ones have you read? What do you think it is about them that you like or dislike?

And don’t forget to check out Brittany and Alyssa‘s posts today!