category: 
tag(s): 
book notes
title: Mirror Mirrorauthor: Gregory Maguire
published: 3.17.2009
publisher: William Morrow
source: bought
genre(s): folklore, reimagining
pages: 320
format: eBook
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | BookBub | StoryGraph | Goodreads
rating:
the blurb
A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, "Mirror Mirror" is set in Renaissance Italy, where Gregory Maguire draws a connection between the poison apple in the original Snow White story and the Borgia family's well-known appetite for poisoning its foes.
In "Mirror Mirror" Snow White is called Bianca de Nevada. She is born on a farm in Tuscany in 1495, and when she is seven, her father is ordered by the duplicitous Cesare Borgia to go on a quest to reclaim the relic of the original Tree of Knowledge, a branch bearing three living apples that are thousands of years old. Bianca is left in the care of her father's farm staff and the beautiful--and madly vain--Lucrecia Borgia, Cesare's sister. But Lucrecia becomes jealous of her lecherous brother's interest in the growing child and plots a dire fate for Bianca in the woods below the farm. There Bianca finds herself in the home of seven dwarves--the creators of the magic mirror--who await the return of their brother, the eighth dwarf, long gone on a quest of his own.
In the evocative style of Maguire's earlier novels, "Mirror Mirror" is a fresh, compelling take on a beloved classic tale.
a few notes
POV: multiple
setting: Italy
keywords/phrases: betrayal, corruption, family
tropes: chosen one, reluctant hero, quest, ancient artifacts, good versus evil
spice: 0/5
language: 0/5
my review
As a rule, I love reimagined fairy tales and folklore. But this one fell absolutely flat for me.
The story felt incredibly fragmented as it moved from one part of the plot to another in ways that were often jarring. It was also difficult to determine what the story was trying to be. A story of murder? A mystery? Horror? Fantasy? Historical fiction? The reimagination of it just felt like an odd, acid-trip stretch at times, less a reimagining of the Snow White tale and more of a reimagining of history. All of this wrapped up in a pace that felt far too slow.
The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say.
About Gregory Maguire
Gregory Maguire is an American author, whose novels are revisionist retellings of children’s stories (such as L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into Wicked). He received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children’s Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children’s Literature New England (a non-profit educational charity).
Maguire has served as artist-in-residence at the Blue Mountain Center, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Hambidge Center. He lives in Concord, Massachusetts.
| Rating Report | |
|---|---|
| the story | |
| the characters |  |
| the writing |  |
| the pacing | |
| the world-building |  |
| the conclusion | |
| Overall: | |
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2026 52 Books Reading Challenge
- 2026 Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge: Author Edition
- 2026 Fairytale Reading Challenge
- 2026 Linz the Bookworm & Logophile Reading Challenge
- 2026 Monthly Key Word Reading Challenge
Leave a Reply