Review: Fairest of All

By Serena Valentino

The tale of the young princess and her evil stepmother, the Wicked Queen, is widely known. Despite a few variations from telling to telling, the story remains the same—the Queen was jealous of the girl’s beauty, and this jealousy culminated in the Queen’s attempt on the sweet, naive girl’s life.

Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused the Queen to become so contemptuously vile. Still, some have attempted to guess at the reason. Perhaps the Queen’s true nature was that of a wicked hag and her beautiful, regal appearance a disguise used to fool the King. Others claim that the Queen might have hated the girl for her resemblance to the King’s first wife. Mostly, the Queen is painted as a morally abhorrent woman who never loved another being during the course of her miserable life.

In fact, the theories about exactly what cause the Queen’s obsessive vanity and jealous rage are too numerous to catalog. This book recounts a version of the story that has remained untold until now. It is a tragic tale of love and loss, and it contains a bit of magic. It is a tale of the Wicked Queen.

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My Thoughts:  I love fairytale retellings and I really love Disney. I've always been fascinated with the story of Snow White and I've enjoyed most of the retellings of it.  When I saw this book series awhile back, I was very tempted to buy them all but I decided to wait instead. Many years later, I finally decided to borrow the first book and read it.  I have to say, this book was okay. 

Fairest of All was the backstory of the Evil Queen from the story of Snow White. Before the events that we know from the Disney movie, the Queen was a very sweet and nice woman. She was in love with the King and adored Snow White. She tried to be a good mother to Snow and even called Snow her little bird. Of course, things didn't go as planned for the Queen and tragedy hit. While the Queen was trying to deal with the sudden changes in her life, three weird sisters were introduced in the story and became a catalyst to the Queen's transformation. The book answers the question as to why the Queen became evil and described the events of her downfall. 

Though the backstory of the evil Queen was interesting, I was not too fond of the author's writing style. It felt very simple and sometimes felt as if it were dumbed down. There was a lot of repetition in the book and the word choice felt as if this was the author's first attempt to write a book. I was not too impressed. 

Overall, Fairest of All made a decent attempt to tell the story of a Disney villain. I was not too certain if I was going to continue to read the rest of the series but according to people's reviews, there is more to the three weird sisters. Let's see how the second book goes. I rate this: