And the girl went on staring at the forest. Her name was Arpazia. Her hair was black as the woods, her pale skin better than the snow. Her eyes, though, were a light, water-gray. She was fourteen years of age. She longed for change, not knowing the change of all things was almost upon her, not what it could mean. This story starts out about Arpazia, Tanith lee's reimagined 'evil queen' of the Snow White tale. Except the queen is not really evil, we learn early on of the tragedy Arpazia went t

Took me a long time to figure out how to rate this. White as Snow is so beautifully written and emotional, yet it took me a long time to finish despite its short length. Some parts completely held my attention, while other chapters were a bit less engaging. I loved Arpazia. I'm kind of devastated by her terrible ending. (she didn't deserve that, Tanith Lee! It's not fair!) She was a villain, but still so relatable to me. I really empathized with her. I've seen a trend in novels and movies lately...

There are some beautiful aspects of this book, and then there's the fact that nearly every female character is raped, often multiple times. The beauty is mostly in some of the writing and descriptions, though some of the ideas are also pretty interesting in theory -- Lee blends the story of Snow White with the Greco-Roman myth of Hades and Persephone.This isn't either story as you know it, though, and for me it ultimately didn't work. The two stories didn't blend very well, because I was spendin...

Tanith Lee's White as Snow is elegent and sensual and terrible. Not terrible as in badly written, but terrible in it's absence of feeling, hideous in it's coldness. It's a fairy tale in which there can be no truly happy ending. This version of Snow White is twined with the myth of Demeter and Persephone. It begins with Arpazia, the little girl who becomes the witch queen, then follows with Coira, her unwanted daughter, product of rape. In fact, about halfway through the book, I lost track of how...

This is the second time I read this book and the really interesting thing is I don't think I picked up on ANY of the major themes the first time. In my own defense it was over ten years ago that I read it, but it was like reading a brand new book this second reading. First and foremost this is not a book for children. Young adults may be able to read it, but it is definitely intended for adults. There are continuing themes of rape, reflection, mythology, madness, and the idea that life is what y...

Beautiful writing as always but I couldn't connect to any of the characters and the story was a real drag.

This is one of my favorites by Lee, and one of my favorite retellings. It was so rich and weird and dark. But there were moments of softness that isn't typical of Lee, but which were really well done.I found Arpazia's story arc unbearably sad. I even cried a little at the end.And the romance—I am DEAD. Loved it.

I'm addicted to retellings of fairy tales that turn the story upside down. For all that I love Tanith Lee and Terri Windling's Fairy Tale Series, this book was too dark by far. Snow White has always been a rather bloody story but this version takes it to a new level of nasty.The women in this book are brutalized in every way possible. They are raped, imprisoned, discarded and left to die while the powerful male characters move on to destroy lives with impunity. Lee's storytelling is beautifully

Tanith lee's "White As Snow" is yet another rewrite of the classic fairy tale "Snow White." All the original elements can be found here, the wicked queen, the young princess, and the dwarves, the enchanted mirror and apple make an appearance as well, but to a lesser degree. In this authors work everything is tilted, twisted and warped into a dark, blood soaked novel. I appreciate lee's vision, I understand the barbaric cruelty and tortured mother/daughter relationship she try's, and partly succe...

I'm sure everyone should know by now that I absolutely love fairytale retellings. And if you didn't know, well, now you do.This book is basically everything I want in a fairytale retelling, and so much more.It takes the tale of Snow White and spins it on its head, mixing in elements from Greek mythology, particularly the tale of Persephone and Demeter. It sometimes doesn't read like a fairytale retelling; oftentimes, it's so loose it may as well be its own story. But even so, it keeps the imager...

I certainly didn't expect this book to be a chore when I first picked it up. It sounded intriguing. A retelling of Snow White? With the Queen's perspective? Told with some of the Persephone myth thrown in? Sign me up!And I think having my hopes way up is worse, somehow, than not being sure what to expect. Because I got two-thirds through this before I realized how much I disliked it, and then I was invested in finishing it.I didn't like that almost all the female characters are raped. I guess it...

There was a lot I liked about this book, and a lot that I didn't, or a lot that I was just indifferent to. Weaving the tale of Hades and Persephone into Snow White always seemed superfluous and odd; there are no natural parallels and the ones Lee makes feels like one tale being forced onto another, and sometimes the elements of Snow White, of which this is allegedly a retelling, disappear into the other. And there are what I feel like small fudgings or just plain mistakes, like saying that it wa...

I'm really picky with fairy-tale retellings. I don't really like them to be sugar coated, or diluted, because that just defeats the purpose for me..However I loved this book. it's very* psychological, draws heavily on the fairy tale of snow white, and myth, which i love and i felt it did it justice. it is a dark book..like a strange carnival. so if you don't like certain dark themes, avoid it, because the elements add to the characters maladies, theres a lot of symbolism. its twisted and evocati...

This is simply the finest novelization of a fairy tale. Tanith Lee has created a simply marvelous world where the Snow White tale is retold. Read it again in June 2015; some books truly are my old friends...9.21.08 Ok, so I'm rereading this one again too! A patron was talking to me about books at the library and how sad it was when there was only one book left in the system. I told him that one of my favorite books of all times (which I own) has only one copy in the system and he wanted to know

This was one of the most miserable books I've ever read. Yes, lots of sex (as I was expecting, since it's marketed as an adult fairy tale), but it was all impersonal and detached. Lots of rape, lots of women being used. However, the women hardly ever reacted, and when they did seem to actively participate--the author then skipped over it. Smutty romance novel this was not. It seemed more about abuse and misery. Even having read Game of Thrones, this book has a striking lack of empathy or--any--e...

This retelling of Snow White is Lee's second and very lamentable attempt at reworking this tale, and one I'd recommend to avoid at all costs. It's that terrible, surprisingly terrible for an author that managed to pull out one of the best retellings of this same tale I've read (in her "Red as Blood" anthology) and whose prose is usually lovely. I can almost see her thought process for choosing to go for the darkest of dark twists yet not being able to handle it with the deft hand it'd have requi...

An extraordinary retelling of the Snow White fairytale – dark and sensual and strange and rather frightening – with some astonishingly good writing. I have never read anything by Tanith Lee before but I will be hunting down her other books for sure. I’d be very careful about giving this to children to read, though – it is very confronting and even shocking in parts.

Wow what an incredible feat of creative writing this book is. I absolutely loved this book, I was drawn in and hooked too the end. Tanith Lee deftly weaves the snow white story with celtic legend and classical mythology into a marvel of fantasy literature. Tanith Lee's writing is artistic; unique quirks, accents and touches abound. The story is like a dance, with pivots and twirls that would challenge the best ballet dancer. You can tell that this book was lovingly made, it is the best snow whit...

Another one where I was bored by the end. Although this might've also been not really for me in general. It was a bit too subtle about some of the themes and stuff it was going for.And it wasn't what I expecting from the Persephone namecheck in the description. (It messes with the Snow White aspect, but I don't love that myth like I do Persephone, so I didn't care as much.)Oh, and this is also pretty dark and trigger warning for (view spoiler)[rape (hide spoiler)].Mostly, though, I think there w...

I do so adore Tanith Lee. So when I picked up White as Snow I was expecting something good; I was not disappointed. The story follows two main threads: Arpazia and Coira, mother and daughter. They are very similar and extremely different and serve as mirrors and foils to the other. The whole set up is quite breathtaking and serves to tell a Snow White story unlike any I have read before. The imagery, the mythology woven into the tale, and the directions it took me in emotionally and psychologica...