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166th out of 2,467 books
—
5,813 voters
Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen
by
Serena Valentino (Goodreads Author)
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 th...more
Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused th...more
Hardcover, 250 pages
Published
August 18th 2009
by Disney Press
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An interesting telling of the Snow White story from the Queen's perspective. Shows her as a loving and lovely young woman and her descent into jealousy, vanity and madness. A decent story - but I expected a bit more depth, I suppose.
I'm a bit torn on the language used. It was very simplistic, like a child's storybook. At first it bothered me, but then I decided it sort of fit the style of the story. I'm also not entirely thrilled with the obsession with beauty - it basically amounts to the notio...more
I'm a bit torn on the language used. It was very simplistic, like a child's storybook. At first it bothered me, but then I decided it sort of fit the style of the story. I'm also not entirely thrilled with the obsession with beauty - it basically amounts to the notio...more
A wonderful story about how the wicked queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs became so wicked.
I like to casually browse the Young Adult section at Borders and B&N and I'm very influenced by cover art. Reading the inside flap, I only needed one sentence to sway me. I bought it immediately and started reading once I got home. I have to say that the author caught the Disney version of the characters perfectly and I believe that's the way it should be.
The writing was well written and it mov...more
I like to casually browse the Young Adult section at Borders and B&N and I'm very influenced by cover art. Reading the inside flap, I only needed one sentence to sway me. I bought it immediately and started reading once I got home. I have to say that the author caught the Disney version of the characters perfectly and I believe that's the way it should be.
The writing was well written and it mov...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
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1 like · like · see review
Oct 31, 2012
Dementropy
marked it as to-read
Two days before I spotted this on a shelf, I was having a discussion about the strength of the Wicked Queen's motives in Disney's Snow White. At least with Sleeping Beauty, we have Maleficent - a sorceress/fae (depending upon which version you like) who doesn't like being slighted.
Being the most beautiful, however, doesn't really come off as a strong force behind targeting Snow White, the little folk, and having the treasure houses to hire assassins (after all, one would think that if you kill...more
Being the most beautiful, however, doesn't really come off as a strong force behind targeting Snow White, the little folk, and having the treasure houses to hire assassins (after all, one would think that if you kill...more
This book caught my attention straight from the beginning, I found the idea behind the book to be very interesting. The main focus of this book is Snow White's step mother, and the Queen that rules after her father's death. However, Snow White is just another character; the book is the entire story of the Queen from childhood, to her death, and even slightly after. The author shows you her life from a birds eye view, explaining every characters actions and how the Queen was affected for the most...more
I didn't have high expectations for Fairest of All, being a Disney princess book and all. But the image of the Queen's deeply disturbed face against a black background piqued my curiosity. She looked so consumed, she seemed beyond saving. The title also wasn't visible in embossed black, adding to the mystery. The interior was designed perfectly to fit the magical, slightly dark tone. If you can get past the fairy tale language, it is an enjoyable book.
The Queen, of course, wasn't always evil. Sh...more
The Queen, of course, wasn't always evil. Sh...more
Sometimes it can be really interesting to look at things from a different perspective. In this instance, Valentino presents the story of Snow White from the perspective of the Queen, her step-mother. The tale starts shortly after the Queen has married Snow White's father. They seem to have formed a very happy family. The Queen is an adoring mother figure for poor Snow White, whose mother died years before.
Things start to change when the King must join his men on the battlefield, leaving the Quee...more
Things start to change when the King must join his men on the battlefield, leaving the Quee...more
4 likes · like · see review
Everybody knows the tale of Snow White and her evil stepmother. What nobody knows is what exactly made her stepmother evil.
What happened that this person, the inspiration for every other evil stepmother in fiction, that she became so hating and evil?
Serena Valentino (best known from graphic novels like "Nightmares and Fairy Tales" as well as "Gloom Cookie") takes you on a journey through the tragic life of one of the most popular villains in storytelling.
She gives the character a depth nobody wo...more
What happened that this person, the inspiration for every other evil stepmother in fiction, that she became so hating and evil?
Serena Valentino (best known from graphic novels like "Nightmares and Fairy Tales" as well as "Gloom Cookie") takes you on a journey through the tragic life of one of the most popular villains in storytelling.
She gives the character a depth nobody wo...more
This was one of those books that I really wanted to like, because I had such high hopes for it. It starts off well enough, chronicling the early years of Snow White and "the Queen", as she is simply called (I actually read somewhere that during development of the 1937 film the Queen was called by the name Grimhilde). I particulary enjoyed the warmth of the relationship between the two, laying down a nice contrast between past and present. Unfortunately, the book was oftentimes laden with awkward...more
4 likes · like · see review
We all know the story of Snow White; a beautiful princess, a wicked stepmother, a hunter and a poisoned apple. But what is the real story? Is Snow White really as innocent as all that, and is the Queen really that evil? Well yes, and yes. But what it not known is why...
Snow White's stepmother, the Wicked Queen, was not always wicked; she was once young, and beautiful, and loving. But something had changed, she had changed, she traded her grief for vanity and once she started there was no going b...more
Snow White's stepmother, the Wicked Queen, was not always wicked; she was once young, and beautiful, and loving. But something had changed, she had changed, she traded her grief for vanity and once she started there was no going b...more
When I saw this book at the bookstore, the thing that drew me in was the cover. Because look at it - is it not a gorgeous cover? When I picked up this book and read the inside flap, the thing that drew me in was how it was a retelling of Snow White, supposedly making the Wicked Queen... un-wicked. I've always been interested in that type of story, giving the villain a reason for being a villain.
It started slow. So slow, that, even a couple pages in, I was looking at the page numbers and thinkin...more
It started slow. So slow, that, even a couple pages in, I was looking at the page numbers and thinkin...more
I really believe that if you are going to write a twist to a fairy tale, that you need to have a story that is absolutely going to WOW your audience. This book was ok. I think I would give it 2.5 stars for story and another half star because the cover is nice (which is what led me to the book in the first place...that, and its connection to the Disney movie). I don't think this book was very well-written or that the plot really did anything to enhance my love of the original story. The character...more
I think I really would have liked this book a lot back when I was fifteen, and yearned to go "deeper" into Disney stories than what was shown onscreen.
Still, reading this as an adult, and as a retelling enthusiast, I felt that it fell flat. It read like fan-fiction, complete with overly simplistic writing and glaring errors (really, Disney hyperion? Did you lay off your editors, too?). It's the author's first novel--she usually writes comics--and it felt like a beginner's attempt. Although it wa...more
Still, reading this as an adult, and as a retelling enthusiast, I felt that it fell flat. It read like fan-fiction, complete with overly simplistic writing and glaring errors (really, Disney hyperion? Did you lay off your editors, too?). It's the author's first novel--she usually writes comics--and it felt like a beginner's attempt. Although it wa...more
1 like · like · see review
I enjoyed this, in a simple way. I'm curious as to what I would've thought of it if I had never heard of the story of Snow White (I know, impossible). The worst parts of this book seemed to be parts that the author had to make it fit with the Disney Snow White movie. But it still made me want to watch it again. :p At any rate, I thought this story was weaved well (I'm clearly am not as hard on editors as my sister ;) Though I would agree with her that the writing was overly simplistic in parts,...more
I have come to fancy little books like these simply because they touch upon my inner child, not to mention the fact that I am completely facinated with backstories. This book started out quite well, well in the sense that as usual I almost felt bad for the evil queen and i was left pondering as to just how she could possibly become so evil!!! However, the book takes a small drop in excitment when the queens downfall doesnt exactly seem realistic and therefore looses some lack of interst. It seem...more
I love Disney, fairy tales and fairy tale retellings. But this did not impress me.
Fairest of All is a retelling of Snow White from the Wicked Queen's point of view. It is very clear that Ms. Valentino (and I somehow strongly suspect that Serena Valentino is a pen name cause I mean... really... a name like that is right up there with Bella Swan *insert eye roll here*) is desperately attempting to do what Wicked did for The Wizard of Oz. But this falls so short of the mark.
First off, one of the ke...more
Fairest of All is a retelling of Snow White from the Wicked Queen's point of view. It is very clear that Ms. Valentino (and I somehow strongly suspect that Serena Valentino is a pen name cause I mean... really... a name like that is right up there with Bella Swan *insert eye roll here*) is desperately attempting to do what Wicked did for The Wizard of Oz. But this falls so short of the mark.
First off, one of the ke...more
1 like · like · see review
I found the whole premise behind this book to be really interesting, what made the wicked queen so wicked? I hope that Valentino writes more books similar to this I would really love one about Maleficent. The Queen in Snow White is perhaps one of my favorite all time villains. This book was a really quick read; the plot was fast-paced and I loved all of the characters... especially Verona and the terrifying trio( Lucinda, Ruby, and Martha)the literal witches of the family.I LOVED how this showed...more
i thought this was really cute book. its like the back story of the wicked queen and how she wasn't always evil and how she did love snow white as if she were her own daughter.it was her love and loss that drove her to envy Snow White.And with the amazing detail Selena gave I could see the characters clearly in my mind. I was taken to a world that I wanted to know more about. I could not stop turning the pages. I think they should make a movie out of this book, well at least make a movie about t...more
I cried in the hands of this book - so full of human emotion. I was taken away by the Queen's character, the terribly tragic, miserable , and conflicted hero/villain, and just the way the book was written. In some ways this book reminded me of Macbeth, as it was almost like the tale of a tragic hero forced into evil and driven by power over their heart. I will never look at The Evil Queen the same way, and I will never forget this terrifyingly real and beautiful book. It taught me how to leave t...more
Overall this novel had a lot of things going for it. The idea behind it, to tell the backstory of the Evil Queen in Snow White, is very interesting. And for the most part the plot works well. A lot of choices are quite clever, and it matches up well with the story that we are all familiar with from the Disney movie.
Most of the characters were intriguing. Snow White was a bit flat, as she was portrayed as the typical, perfect princess that we know from the movie. The King had a bit more depth tha...more
Most of the characters were intriguing. Snow White was a bit flat, as she was portrayed as the typical, perfect princess that we know from the movie. The King had a bit more depth tha...more
3 likes · like · see review
Aesthetically, this is a gorgeous book and truth be told, that was the main reason I picked it up. The jacket has the image of the wicked Queen from Disney's Snow White and when you remove the cover underneath is the image of the evil crone. I loved the symbolism there.
Fairest of All is the backstory, so to speak of the wicked Queen from the classic story of Snow White. The story, while closely based on Walt Disney's dramatization, pulls you into the mind of the Queen and the tragic events from...more
Fairest of All is the backstory, so to speak of the wicked Queen from the classic story of Snow White. The story, while closely based on Walt Disney's dramatization, pulls you into the mind of the Queen and the tragic events from...more
I picked this up on a whim on my recent Disneyland vacation over Spring Break. The cover initially caught my interest, but always being a sucker for wanting to know "the rest of the story", the summary of the book intrigued me as well. This was a fun, quick read. I loved how Valentino narrated the story in a fairy book format, especially in the beginning. I felt like a kid again, totally enthralled and enchanted with a storybook fantasy. As the Queen became increasingly evil, her dreams and thou...more
I cannot believe "Disney Press" actually attached their name to this book!! It was a pathetic attempt to rationalize the reasons behind the actions of the evil queen, but instead it made her seem like a victim instead of the truely evil and manevolent creature she is portrayed in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." The author even goes so far to introduce new characters in the form of triplet witches that are supposedly the King's sisters, and in actuality Snow White's aunts. It is these...more
2.5 Stars
A prequel to Snow White that starts strong but has a lackluster ending. I love the idea of back stories to popular books and movies, as long as they are faithful to the original. This book tells the story of how a (left nameless) young woman becomes The Queen right thru the events of the movie. We are given a glimpse into the factors that turn her from a loving person into the evil person shown in the movie. This was interesting and done fairly well, especially the origin of the Magic M...more
A prequel to Snow White that starts strong but has a lackluster ending. I love the idea of back stories to popular books and movies, as long as they are faithful to the original. This book tells the story of how a (left nameless) young woman becomes The Queen right thru the events of the movie. We are given a glimpse into the factors that turn her from a loving person into the evil person shown in the movie. This was interesting and done fairly well, especially the origin of the Magic M...more
Like most people I saw Snow White when I was a child, but unlike most of my little friends I didn't like her much. I was riveted by the animation on screen & by the story, completely amazed even, but I was completely disappointed by the character of Snow White. I liked her kindness very much, & her pretty eyes but not much else. I found her dumb & weak, frail & useless. I was curious to read this book as it is the story of how the Wicked Queen comes into her wicked ways. It was a...more
Mar 12, 2011
Allison W.
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
5th graders & Up
Recommended to Allison W. by:
Aaron Coutu
I love backstory/sideline stories and this one gave an interesting and enjoyable (while disturbing) explanation for the wickedness of the Wicked Queen from Snow White. It is a pretty quick read with syntax with is reasonable for most 5th graders and up to understand and appreciate.
I do have one major peeve with the story. The author, editor and even publisher could have, should have but didn't catch the etiquette problem of calling her "the Queen" prior to her marriage to the King in the beginni...more
I do have one major peeve with the story. The author, editor and even publisher could have, should have but didn't catch the etiquette problem of calling her "the Queen" prior to her marriage to the King in the beginni...more
Let's be honest: this is easily one of the top ten most bad ass covers I have ever seen. Kudos to jacket designers Adrienne Brown and Caroline Egan, because no matter what the story had been about, I don't think I could have left it on the shelf and walked away.
Fairest of All didn't grab me, with the result that it was a bit of a struggle to keep my focus. That's not a crime, considering I'm almost 27 and reading a book for a much younger audience, but what's much more off-putting is my strong s...more
Fairest of All didn't grab me, with the result that it was a bit of a struggle to keep my focus. That's not a crime, considering I'm almost 27 and reading a book for a much younger audience, but what's much more off-putting is my strong s...more
Reviewed for www.blueeggbooks.blogspot.com
Fairest of All is the perfect example of an average, 3 egg book. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. In fact, it was good but REALLY lacked in certain areas for me.
Before I go any further I should mention that I'm a die-hard Disney fan. I go to Disney World about 5-6 times a year, we are Vacation Club owners, I'm an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, and, oh yeah, I'm getting married at Walt Disney World. Needless to say, I consider myself to be somethin...more
Fairest of All is the perfect example of an average, 3 egg book. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. In fact, it was good but REALLY lacked in certain areas for me.
Before I go any further I should mention that I'm a die-hard Disney fan. I go to Disney World about 5-6 times a year, we are Vacation Club owners, I'm an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, and, oh yeah, I'm getting married at Walt Disney World. Needless to say, I consider myself to be somethin...more
The most poignant look upon a 'Disney' villain I have ever seen or read. This novel provides a bitter look at The Queen's life from her youth to her eventual end.
I found myself empathetic to The Queen as she was not an evil enchantress as many may perceive her through the movie but rather a human. She had her insecurities, her short comings; the only annoyance with the book is her lack of a name - though that can't really be helped.
The story also adds a much needed plantable view of Snow and the...more
I found myself empathetic to The Queen as she was not an evil enchantress as many may perceive her through the movie but rather a human. She had her insecurities, her short comings; the only annoyance with the book is her lack of a name - though that can't really be helped.
The story also adds a much needed plantable view of Snow and the...more
This book starts on the wedding day of the Queen to Snow White’s father and then moves towards the Snow White plot from there. At its heart, this book is a character study of one of the most infamous villians of all time. And like most villains — and most people for that matter — the Queen is neither good nor bad in the beginning. And as the book shows her descent into evil, she never is completely irredeemable. In fact, in the end, the main feeling for her is one of pity instead of disgust.
I wo...more
I wo...more
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Serena Valentino is best known for weaving tales that combine mythos and guile with her work on the comic book series GloomCookie and Nightmares & Fairy Tales published with SLG Publishing. Nightmares & Fairy Tales has earned her critical acclaim in both the comic and horror domain, where she is known for her unique style of storytelling, bringing her readers into exquisitely frightening w...more
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Aug 30, 2009 05:46pm