White As Snow

December 4, 2000
Horror and fantasy veteran Lee, author of such adult fairy tale collections as Red as Blood and Forests of the Night, offers an enticingly dark and seductive reworking of "Snow White" that echoes the macabre ambience of the Brothers Grimm. Drawing on the sex and violence implicit in the original fairy tale, Lee gives a modern, introspective angle to the classic story. The evil queen, Arpazia, first appears as an innocent princess of 14, who is terrified when Draco, a rising new leader, conquers her father's castle and rapes her. Soon after he has her sister, Lilca, hanged because Lilca betrayed the castle. Draco forces Arpazia to travel with him and his barbaric army. She later bears him a girl, Candacis, whom she immediately shuns as an incarnation of evil, mumbling death spells as the infant tries to suckle her. Lee casts the evil queen in a sympathetic light, depicting her as a tortured soul who in later years begins to question her dark fate. With its melancholy shading, Lee's new twist on an old tale is sure to engage fans of dark fantasy.

December 20, 2000
Lee's (Saint Fire) erotic fantasy novel reinterprets the traditional "Snow White" story by focusing on the evil queen and providing the logic behind her handing over the deadly apple to her only daughter. Young Arpazia's life changes for the worse when her father's castle is invaded and she is forced to become the wife of her captor, King Draco, as well as the mother of his brutally planted seed. Betrayed and dishonored, Arpazia grows cold and refuses to nurture the child, whom she blames for her loss of innocence, beauty, and capacity to love. The child, Coira, mirrors her mother physically and emotionally, and both women suffer numerous atrocities during their lives that scar them and bring about the tragic ending. Incorporating many traditional fairy-tale elements, Lee's Gothic story is set in a medieval world filled with castles, wars, dwarves, pagan lore, and Christian ritual. The insightful introduction by noted fantasy editor Terry Windling sheds light on the numerous threads of the original tale and describes its connection to the Demeter-Persephone myth. Occasionally, the story is stilted by anachronistic language, but true fans of fantasy will be enchanted.--Jeanne M. Leiboff, New York

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.