Hemlock & Silver

This is a retelling of the fairy tale Snow White in which the author’s fabulous imagination gives us a much deeper understanding of how Snow came to be eating enchanted apples and why.

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Our courtyard held potted citrus trees and herbs and a row of pepper plants that our cook guarded jealously. The house I’d grown up in had a fig tree, which meant that we were overrun with pigeons when the fruit ripened, and the ground underneath became a treacherous landscape of overripe fruit and bird crap.

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The focus of this re-imagining isn't focused entirely on Snow, though. Rather, it's focused on the expert on poisons that the king employs to get to the bottom of what is happening to his daughter.

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It’s wonderfully feminist in that all the major characters, good and evil, are women. I especially like that the heroine, the expert, is a big woman: big boned, tall and meaty. What a refreshing change of pace! It’s also refreshing that she cares very little for what people think of or say about her, she’s only interested in the Why of everything. She’s a scientist and a scholar. Nice!

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I test my work on roosters before I test it on myself. I don’t particularly enjoy it, but every farm on earth has excess roosters that are slated for either the dogs or the stewpot. Also, the majority of them are absolute bastards. The ratio of good rooster to violent hen rapist seems to be about one in ten, I don’t know why.

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It’s also feminist in the way there isn’t a single instance of a woman asking a mirror, Who is the fairest of them all? and then being jealous and spiteful about the answer. Instead, the author takes the magic surrounding the mirror and the apples in a totally new direction.

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The writing is like a roller-coaster, fast-paced and funny. In some moments, I wasn’t able to put this down. It deals with problem-solving, the love between a mother and her children, being one’s self, and the lack of judgement that allows one to befriend hideous-looking entities and insolent one-eyed cats.

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Blessed Saint Adder, was this man doomed to be present at every humiliating moment of my life? Retching and sick and sobbing … Maybe I can get explosive diarrhea and round out the set.

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