Author's Note: As of 09/11/2012 the novella has been edited. Grammatical errors only exist in older versions.
What if all you knew about fairy tales was wrong?
Book description of Snow White Blood Red: A Grimm Diaries Prequel as told by the Snow White Queen:
I have always wondered why you never asked about my name. Was I so superficial to you? So stereotypical and mundane? Why did you treat me as if I were just the monster of the week? You know what I think? You never had the time to really hate me. You wanted to hate me, long before you even met me. You wanted to scrape my existence and avenge your childhood princess by laying all blame on me. What if they didn’t call me the Evil Queen, what if I told you the real story from my point of view instead of hers, would you ever think of me as an angel? Could I ever make you care? I know that deep inside of you, you adore me,but you’re just scared, afraid to admit how much you love the Snow White Queen.
This Grimm Diaries Prequels are a number of short books in the form of epistolary diary entries. The diaries are more of teasers for the upcoming series: The Grimm Diaries, allowing you to get a glimpse of what to expect of the series.
Bestselling author of the Grimm Diaries and Insanity series. A traveller and collector of out-of-print books from all over the world, obsessed with the origins of folk tales and the mysterious storytellers who spread them. Many of his books made Amazon's Top 100 Customer Favorites in Kindle 2015 & Amazon's Top 100 kindle list. Cameron lives in Yerba Buena San Francisco California. When he isn't writing or collecting books, he is playing music or enjoys the silence.
Well, this was pretty good, such a little surprise! I even kept reading while walking to a shop, on a serious note, I do not recommend doing that. I hope that I'll find time to read the rest because this has great potential to be a pretty cool series. I totally love dark fairytales retellings might have something to do with the fact that I grew up with Cinderella's stepsisters cutting off their toes and heel to fit in the shoe.
there are enough glowing reviews on here for this book/story, that i feel i don't need to do that thing that i do sometimes, where i try to be super duper upbeat-positive glowy for the self-published authors. because, yeah - there is a lot of crappy self-pub out there, but it seems unnecessary to shit-talk people who are putting it all out there and broadening the scope of the publishing industry. and there are some true gems out there, unknown to many. i really admire gumption and the DIY spirit, so sometimes i will oversell something that might not be "quite" there just to help spread the word. and, i mean, i'm not that discriminating - i read monster erotica, for goodness' sake.*
but people are raving about this, so i feel okay about being a little more critical. you are your own person - make up your own mind.
while i love the idea behind this book, there are some purely technical matters even i can't overlook. the curse of the self-pub world is editing. editors are amazing people. they can approach the work - the author's baby - with an entirely critical mindset, and make suggestions to the author about where they have maybe overstepped, become too close to the material, become too enamored with the way words sound at the cost of clarity.
for example:
It was one of the coldest winters. The snow fell intensively, burying the lovely purple poppy fields and covering it with a shroud of a thick layer of dark white snow. Somehow, the white of the snow that year did not reflect sunlight or shadows. It lay grisly over the contour-lined land like a dead girl’s white coat made of the fur of dead polar bears, like a white wavy carpet that was in no way magical. The curves of the land made the snow look like there was a beautiful gigantic dead girl buried underneath it. Little did I know that the time would come that this buried girl could only be Snow White or me, that the world wouldn’t be spacious enough for both of us.
i know what is going on in that paragraph, and it could be lovely, but it just needs a little tweaking to remedy the repetition and some grammatical slip-ups. but the image is a good one. and it is one of those things; you are in a fairytale atmosphere, and as you are reading it within that context, it is easy to get caught up in the rhythm and the spirit of it, and dissonances like that can more or less be glossed.
however, a bigger problem for me was that of tone. the shape of this story is in the form of a letter from the "evil queen" of the snow white tale to wilhelm carl grimm. in 2012. there is a reason given for this seeming "whaaaaa,?? and i accept it. but the tone of this oscillates between the traditional, formal fairy tale style and some jarring modern-day intrusions that just don't work for me.
I knew my daughter would grow up to be a kick-ass girl one day, but right then, she was still a baby – and yes, the Queen of Sorrow says kick ass and stuff like that. Because guess what? I am an immortal, and I have seen everything from Brothers Grimm to Lady Gaga. You feelin’ me?
that is too forcefully contrived, and makes me feel like there is a rapping grandma in front of me. it is not terrible, but it is inelegant, and i think the modern-day elements could have been more gracefully included.
overall, i was intrigued. i will be reading the other two prequels, because i am interested in where this is going, and i do love fairytale retellings. i think a professional editor could tighten this up a great deal, and despite the problems i had with it, i did enjoy reading it. as for you, if you are reading my reviews, you are clearly not a stickler for grammar, yeah?
*this doesn't mean i can't be trusted - i will never out and out lie about a book, but sometimes i will talk around something if i feel like i cannot fully endorse it.
This was a short story written from the perspective of the Evil Queen (Snow White’s mother), shedding light on what Snow White really was, and letting us know that the fairy tales we have previously heard have all been wrong…
UPDATE: I will post a long detailed review about this series in here soon, but I can't help but notice so many haters on this wall. Many of them are writers which makes me roll my eyes. This series does have its flaws, but it's mind bending and I am so loving it. So stop hatin' nd start participatin' 7/9/2012
Officially a favorite. Review will follow. I am so blown away but need to see more of the young adult characters that I love in the second book to make up my mind .
Who knew Snow White's step-mother is actually her birth mother? Not what I remember as a child. She is the "Queen of Sorrow" and she tells her story while sitting on the deathbed of Jacob Grimm. Snow White is also not the sweet, innocent character we've all come to know and love, but is described as a "beautiful monster" and also one whom is even more powerful than the Queen herself. Though not without her flaws, the Queen admits her evil tendencies, but paints a much darker picture of her daughter and the horrific reality of her existence. While most of us remember Rumplestiltskin's consequence in knowing his real name, even the Queen follows suit and takes heed, understanding she can never reveal her true identity.
This is an interesting prologue/novella to Mr. Jace's story about the happily-ever-after tale of Snow White and our misconception of what she really is. The writing flows and even though I read this story after all the corrections were made, I understood it's darkness, depth and his profound unique style of writing. I can see this author's premise appealing to the YA reader and I was intrigued, wishing at the end that there was more.
Interesting twist to the fairy tale, the idea is quite interesting but the execution is lamentable.
I have read a lot of amateur and fan fiction stories in the past (I have been judge for an amateur writing contest for 2 years and editor for three) and I must say that this story is awful and wouldn’t have passed to the second round anywhere. Since English is not my native language I always focus more in the fact that the story makes sense and leave the true grammar details to the other judges and/or editors, but reading this story is painful to anyone’s sensibilities and I could understand it if she is not an English native speaker. It has a lot mistakes in what you would think is the process of translating/thinking the story from one language to another. I know I have committed a lot of those myself, yet I can find the worst of them in a simple proofread and those that I can't, well that is why I have native speaking friends checking it for me. Apparently Cameron either didn’t proof read her story, never had someone else to check it, or simply didn’t care because the mistakes are SO notorious that it would send a grammar Nazi to his tomb.
But well I can survive bad grammar if I am shown a good story. It was hard to find one.
First it begins with the setting’s exposition, as if it was the background to a RPG. Reading it was like biting aluminum, feeling the metallic taste, wanting to take it out and yet forced to see if it would do better. Readers don’t care for exposition! Readers are looking for a story! Half the word count was explaining something and telling you that still they had to hide the rest, surely trying to create suspense or mystery and a need for the reader to learn such secrets. Fat chance.
Then finally after half the book we get to what we were promised from the beginning, the story of the Evil Queen. I can only say it could have been a lot better. The characters are exaggerated and cartoonish; the rendition of the queen is too modern and not very believable, exaggerated and overextended metaphors, etc. I could go on and on, but I have better things to do.
Again the idea was a good one, and I really dig the concept of White Snow being a monster hiding below a façade of innocence… but the execution… well that is the true monster in this story.
Toto je presne tá kniha, (brožúrka skôr. Ale zase poznám tristo stránkové "knihy", ktoré dokopy nič nepovedia a u tohto útleho prekvapka som sa škerila a pozastavovala nad dejom skoro nepretržite, má to svoje grády)
o ktorej budem rozprávať ako o pamlsku. (Ktorý možno v budúcnosti prerastie v niečo iné. Otrávenejšie.)
Bol to chutný pamlsok.
Až mi je ľúto, že to tak rýchlo skončilo. Veď si to žiada úplne epickú krvavú márovačku a tony otrávených jabĺk k tomu (btw, keď chvíľu čítam anglicky a do textu sa ponorím ťažko si zvykám na slovenčinu. Išla som napísať "jedových jabĺk".) ! Á!!! Chcem tristostránkový re-telling z pohľadu Zlej kráľovnej, ihneď.
Čo tam je:
- desivé decko
- parenting (...is not going very well.)
"Don’t you hate when children ask you why, and you don’t have a persuasive answer?"
(poznám to až pridobre, keď strážim deti na oslavách)
- Kráľovná (to aká je zistíte sami. Teraz prežívam osobné peklo pretože je to ťažká sympaťáčka a ja som sa jej pritom /jej Disney verzie v slovenskom dabingu/ bála strašne)
- spojitosti s "vonkajším svetom"
A tak. Povedzme, že mám rada prekvapká. A rozprávky (vééľmi). A že k tej jednohubke chcem vytvoriť pár pekných ilustrácií (bude doosť potrebná červená farba.) Snehulienka, zrkadlo, kráľovná a...veď to poznáte.
Alebo žeby nie?
-- Mimoto k príbehu z pohľadu Zlej kráľovnej: Predstavovala som si jej hlas a pretransformovať zvuk hlasu (ktorý pôvodne rozpráva v rozprávke od Disneyho slovensky) do angličtiny...stálo za to. Až ma občas príjemne zamrazilo.
HLAVNÉ POZITÍVA: Číta sa to rýchlo, je to chytľavé a neprestanete kým nie je koniec. Zvláštne podmanivé a pritom jednoduché v duchu najlepších rozprávok.
HLAVNÉ NEGATÍVUM: Budete mať strašný absťák ak pri sebe nemáte viac dielov. ["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
What if all the fairy tales with happily ever afters where wrong? What is the good guys were really evil and the bad guys really the ones trying to save the world?
What if everything you ever learned and knew about fairy tales was wrong? What if, after reading this, nothing was ever how you perceived it again when it comes to the tales of the Brothers Grimm?
Oh I had fun with this one! I know what you are thinking, why in the world am I reading dark fairy tales so close to the holidays? The reason? The real reason? I needed something to cleanse my palate. Something believe it or not, that wasn't full of sappy love stories and happily ever afters. I needed something dark and sinister. Something to keep me awake at night pondering all the monsters in the world that are disguised as beautiful maiden and handsome princes.
I needed something I could read in one sitting that would read like a full length novel, in short, I needed this story.
It was such a teaser, begging for the reader to continue on with the prequels, to learn more of the story, to learn who the real monsters are, beautiful or not.
This was so well done, such an easy fast read that had the right amount of mystery, intrigue, darkness and the paranormal.
Miluju pohádky a vždy jsem to tak měla. A obdivuju, když někdo dokáže zpracovat pohádku opravdu dobrým a originálním způsobem. A tahle série vypadá na parádní jízdu. Nápad skvělý, zpracování dobré, postavy vypadají taky nadějně... Začalo to vysvětlováním, hodně vysvětlování a hodně popisů, ale u něčeho takového, složitého a nového světa, se to neobejde. Líbilo se mi to, hodně, hlavně proto, že o tomto jsem ještě nečetla - pohádka z pohledu záporáka? A nijak zidealizovaného? .)
I haven't read something so original, enticing, and with such a strong voice since so long. Prepare yourself for bang on the head, a slap on the face, and one of those books when you say 'YES. I was looking for something like this.'
For a scant 24 pages, this novella is the best teaser ever. An awesome idea for an indie writer, i must say, because the purpose of this novella is to get you to decide whether you want to read the upcoming series, starting with Snow White Sorrow in October, or not.
I wish all writers would do that, including those presented by major publishers. How awesome would it be if I read 20 teaser pages to decide if I want to go on reading this series or not, instead of buying and expensive book for a good cover and discover I don't like it.
So here is my review: The story starts with the Evil Queen saying, 'I wonder why you have never asked about my name.' and then, 'You wanted to hate me all along without knowing who I am' ( these might not be the exact words, I don't have my kindle with me, But you get the meaning]
This alone should suck you in, because I've always thought why we never get who the Queen really is -- including Snow White and the Huntsman. But I always admired her, Charlize Theron in the movie, because she is just a unique character.
The story is set in a world of an alternative reality where the Brothers Grimm rewrote the tales we know to hide some big secret that we don't know. One of those secrets is that Snow White is much darker than the one we know.
Why did they rewrite the dark fairy tales? We don't know yet How come Snow White is what she is ( I can't spoil it )? we don't know yet If the Queen's story is true, how did she become so what she is? We don't know yet Why do all fairy characters wake up from their curse every one hundred years? We don't know How will every book be written by a different fairy tale character? ( this interests me the most, but from what I have red in Snow White Blood Red, don't expect the characters to be like you remembered them. It's all twisted, but in an intriguing way.]
Wow . all these questions in a short novella. You bet I am reading the series. And the writing is awesome. You get to believe that this is actually a diary written by the Queen. You feel her psychotic personality in the way she talks.
And Snow White? Hmmm. I will leave that to you to check out.
A must read. 4 Stars for brief editing issues that I wish will be corrected in the main book.
Wow, just wow! "Snow White Blood Red" is an incredibly unique prequel to what I believe will be a great new series that might be as spectacular as Harry Potter. No, do not confuse my meaning. This is not a story about magic or magical beings. It is a story about the truth behind fairy tales. The world building is spectacular, the characters are creepy good, the plot is intriguing and engaging and the writing is simply superb.
First and foremost, you must understand there are immortals living among humans. They are the people behind the fairy tales. They live in the human world and in the dreamworld. However, these fairy tales can change every 100 years when someone powerful chooses to rewrite them in sand. The sand allows only the writer to find them. An immortal can be destroy while dying in the dreamworld and another immortal intervenes. How can another immortal get into the dreams of another? The answer is with the help of a dreamhunter. This information is given to us from the Sandman Grim, Keeper of the fairy tales.
Once the groundwork for this prequel has been set, we are introduced to Snow White's stepmother. However, in reality she really is her birth mother. She is the Queen of Sorrow. She admits she is evil but wants people to know her story and how Snow White is not the sweet innocent character we were led to believe. However, she as well as other fairy tale characters will not reveal their true names to us because names have power as was demonstrated in the tale of Rumplestiltskin.
As the Queen sits at the deathbed of Jacob Grimm she retells the story of Snow White early years and how she became the evil creature she truly is. I will not reveal what or who she is because that would just be too much of a spoiler. However, after retelling the story, the Queen promises more tales are to come, leaving us the reader wanting more.
As I stated earlier this novella was beautiful written and one of the most unique reads I have encountered in quite a while. I cannot wait to read the other tales and look forward to the first book in the series.
I remember dropping this novella a while back because the bad grammar and lack of corrections were grating on me. However, changes have been made and it was a much more enjoyable reader experience this time round.
Although quite confusing at times, I decided to give it a chance because the concept was intriguing and I'm a sucker for a fairytale retelling. I shall continue with the series because the author has clearly explored different ways in which to present these fairytale retellings and the plot has potential.
Perhaps not executed as well as other retellings, the novella manages to provide enough mystery to convince the reader to continue (at least to the next one). I would recommend this to people who have patience and are more likely to give an average, slightly under-developed short story a chance to flesh out into hopefully a decent new approach to fairytales.
This is where I glare at the goodreads rating system because in all honesty, I would only give this a 2.5 but 2 stars on here indicates not liking a book which is not true to my opinion of this novella. Sigh.
That may have thrown you off but if the synopsis has piqued your interest and you still require convincing, I've found that the author has also used non-conventional fairytales as well and some of them I don't even know about so that may help you to take the first step. Although that's your choice, I'm just hoping I can stick it out for the long run.
The Amazon Kindle Lending Library is possibly one of the greatest things invented, though I'm still getting used to finding my way around it but The Grimm Diaries Prequels showed up on my recommended list and after reading the synopsis on Goodreads I decided to give them a go and I'm glad I did. Snow White Blood Red is from the point of view of Snow White's Mother, most commonly known as The Evil Queen - you know the lady with the poisonous apples and she tells us the story of Snow White growing up and how it came to be that she is wanted dead. I adored how the author spun this tale because Snow White isn't the Princess we're used too, no this one likes to bite cute boys and has a rather evil streak because she's a vampire and well as you know vampires are something I adore and whilst you might think this is odd it fits in really well and it's clearly well thought out.
I like the idea of this story but I didn't get on with the writing style. The phrasing is awkward and clunky and I kept having to re-read bits to try and make sense of them. This could be partly down to bad editing (there were definitely some words missing and extra words added in places) but it meant the story struggled to hold my attention. What should have been a quick 10 minute read took a lot longer & I very nearly gave up before the end.
I'll probably try the next novella since the copy I downloaded from amazon contains the first 4 prequels but unless there is a big improvement on this one I doubt I'll get any further than that. As it is I'm happy I downloaded this when it was a kindle freebie because I'd be cross if I'd wasted money on it.
The author's writing unfortunately stymies and quashes the impact and enjoyability of a story that otherwise could be very gripping. I think that with deliberate practice over time, the author could develop their writing skills to effectively present their imagination to the world.--Then I hope the author might revisit these concepts and retell them. With a bit more thought, I realize that by the time I've read this particular story, the author's writing could have long evolved. That could make for some great storytelling. [crosspost from Amazon.com]
Musím už viac čítať po anglicky. Vybrala som si túto knihu hlavne kvôli malému počtu strán a že je to o rozprávkach, ktoré mám naozaj rada. Teraz po dočítaní dokážem myslieť na jedno: prečo to nemá viac strán? Tak rada by som to čítala :) Bolo to dobré :)
The Grimm Diaries Prequels by author Cameron Jace are several novellas serving as teasers for his series The Grimm Diaries. In an interesting twist, it is said that the Brothers Grimm altered the true fairy tales and concealed the fact that these characters hide among us. There are seven diaries, each told by a famous character and to be read before reading the first full length diary, Snow White Sorrow. These diaries come with a warning that they don’t always hold the truth and that some characters might be manipulating the facts in their favor. I love this concept! Trying to figure out whether or not I’m being lied to while reading the story is genius and so much fun. The first diary I started with was Snow White Blood Red, as told by the Snow White Queen, wrongfully known as the Evil Queen.
This story started out quite well for me. The Evil Queen address one of the Brothers Grimm and proceeds to defend herself and reveal the “truth” about the fairytale princess we all know as Snow White.
“Night after night, and year after year, parents fed their children false bedtime stories, until your lies grew into inescapable memories. Your happy ever after lies, Wilhelm, shaped the world.”
The queen continues with an intriguing rant and ponders why she was made out to be the evil character in the story:
“You know what I think? I think that the world never got the time to hate me. It just wanted to hate me long before it met me. If I tell those who detest me about the true nature of their little princess, would they ever care about me half as much as they care about her?”
I loved where this was headed, but then it turned a bad corner… a really bad corner. This prequel became so laden with typographical and grammatical errors that I had trouble focusing on the story. It was very frustrating, and when what started out as a new and distinctive idea turned into an already overdone storyline, I lost interest fast.
In all fairness to the author, he has a note on Goodreads that, as of 9/12, this novella has been edited, and grammatical errors only exist in previous copies. I only wish I had known that before I began reading my copy that I had, unfortunately, downloaded prior to that date. I am happy that future readers won’t struggle with the errors that I found so annoying. I would be tempted to read a corrected copy, if not for the fact that I found the end of the story to be so displeasing.
I’m still curious about some of the other diaries, and I’ll just have to decide how strong that curiosity is before I continue on with the other prequels or begin Snow White Sorrow. I do commend Mr. Jace on a fascinating theory and hope the other books offer a fresh and unique spin on these classic stories.
Why 4 stars you asked? I'm surprised myself. I don't know if I'm being biased because I always...
always...
like fairy tales retelling.
I came across this quote in the author's blog;
"...although the prequels were in no way a true reflection to how I write, and as I said I am not a writer. I am storyteller"
At first, I was like, 'arrogant much?'. I mean, of course authors such as J.K. Rowling and J.R.R Tolkien are exceptional storytellers but do you think they can be the best-seller authors of all time of they weren't a good writer in the first place?
So, I thought, hey Snow White Blood Red, come at me bro!
*half an hour later*
There is a freaking rainbow in the author's mind. I enjoyed this thoroughly. (Dammit! I hate being wrong)
I don't know how much of what he'd been telling us in his novellas are facts (as he claimed them to be) but the stories are rich and surprisingly, original.
Somehow, I feel like all the plaigarism accusations directed towards the author turned out to be blessings after all. Because he did mentioned that he wrote the prequels to clear up all those accusations.
For those who haven't started with this series yet, I think it's better to read this particular prequel first, then wait for Snow White Sorrow because personally I think that prequel #2 Ashes to Ashes and Cinder to Cinder is better suited to be read before Cinderella Dressed in Ashes but I could be wrong.
And as ridiculously as this may sound, you may need to read the author's blog to sort of understand what was going on (sort of like a companion book).
Note to the author: No, I didn't appreciate the reference to Lady Gaga. It was so awkward and out of place. And I think with a good editor and a good planning, you can go far. (Honestly, you can't keep changing things - the order of the prequels, the number of the prequels, the length of how long your books will be free on Amazon, it's very, very confusing)
" Let me tell you a Deadtime story, Jacob! One that the world isn't supposed to know about. Not even you. Although you think you've been told the right story, you were so wrong."
The order in which I read these books is not linear. I started with book six Mary Mary Quite Contrary and have now moved on to the first diary. This tale's narrator is the Evil Queen of Snow White, who in this book points out that for all the fuss that goes on about this story for so long no one even knows her real name! I had never really thought about it that much before reading Snow White Blood Red, but here the Queen raises some really interesting questions! :D
"You know what she is, right?" I whispered to him, my breath waving like fog upon his face. This time I meant Snow White. "You 've heard the stories. They have told you and you know what she is."
This is a completely new take for me on Snow White's story. In this world the main question that remains is who is the victim really? Snow White isn't just a fair, innocent maiden. She has darkness in her that even the queen fears! I can't wait to read the actual book! The Snow White story from this brand new perspective! It's dark and different and so much more complicated than a simple children's fairy tale. The Queen in this story had always held a certain appeal for me. It wasn't that I liked her, but she always felt to me like one of the most interesting characters in the Brothers Grimm books. Cunning and resourceful, she was one of the best book villains! Now her story is portrayed under a completely different light and I love it yet again! :D
"Don't you love?" I wiggled my nose. "When the character in the book killed the author?"
I love fairy tale retellings. I love seeing how different authors decide to twist the stories and make them totally different from what we knew as children. So, given the opportunity to read prequels about such stories, I jumped right on it. I want to thank the author for providing me with a copy of the first six prequels to read and review.
I really enjoyed this twist on Snow White. I loved reading the "Evil Queen's" POV and hearing what she had to say about Snow White. And the twist the author decided to go with about Snow White was very enjoyable. I really want to see where this story goes for sure! The story is warped and way different from any direction I thought such a fairy tale retelling would ever go. I even came to really like, even identify with, the Evil Queen. Can you imagine that? Once you hear her point of view, you will definitely question the plot of the version you have heard all your life!
The author has a great way with words. At first, I thought I'd be annoyed with this being told in first person with tons of narrative, but it didn't bother me in the least. As a matter of fact, the story moved very quickly and before I knew it I was done! And this story sets the tone, and introduces a main theme that will be ever present in the prequels to come!
So, if you want a twisted version of Snow White's tale, that will take you in a direction you would never have imagined, then this is the story for you!
UPDATE: the book has been professionally edited and the final edition is on Amazon.com. The story flows better and the material is a little easier to understand than the first edition. This author is now one of my favorite authors and I highly recommend this book and the other Prequels.
**I am going to update this a bit. I realized after writing this that I was really harsh with my review. I have heard that the author has done some more editing to the book and I don't want the mistakes that I found to turn anyone away from the book. I really do think that it is an incredible story. So, while there are several errors in the edition I read, I would absolutely recommend this book.**
First the bad: this book could not have been edited. It seemed almost as if the author just typed it up quickly and submitted it without checking it for errors. I almost got fed up and put the short down. I almost deducted a star for the massacre of language. Almost. I am BEYOND excited for the series. The concept is incredible and the writing style (with the exception of the errors) is good. As long as the series is actually edited, I have a feeling this could be a new favorite. Fairly tale lovers, prepare yourselves. This is going to change everything you thought you knew about the classics. Love. It.
(Source: Downloaded for free on Amazon.) This prequel story is written as a diary entry/ letter written to Wilhelm Grimm, by the Evil Queen – Snow White’s mother. In the letter she berates him for changing the true nature of the Grimm’s fairy tales, explaining how they were changed to hide the fact that the fairytale characters were actually immortals living among us, and tells him how as a child Snow White would bite people and drink their blood! Now the Evil Queen has killed Jacob Grimm, and she is searching for the ‘lost seven’ – Snow White’s friends, and believes that Peter Pan knows where they are.
This is an interesting prequel story. Written from the evil queen’s perspective it gives us an insight into the world in which the main story will take place, and sets the scene for a dark fairytale retelling, in which Snow White is more vampire than princess, and the Evil Queen is only trying to stop Snow White from hurting others. There is a lot of information in this book, and I had a hard time keeping up with it in places. I liked the world and ideas that were touched upon, although I’ve got no clue how Peter Pan and Neverland come into things as I don’t remember those ever being associated with Grimms fairy tales! This prequel certainly sets an interesting scene for the main book though, and is worth reading if you can download it for free. 8 out of 10.