The stepmother also warns her about the unspeakable intentions of Fairest’s husband, the prince, toward their daughter. Fairest visits her stepmother each month, when they share an apple from a magical tree (presumably grown from the poisonous apple of the tale) along with their latest idea of a gory, imaginative way in which to kill each other. And they have Fairest’s stepmother, imprisoned in their castle, along with the magic mirror that originally began all the trouble. They have a lovely, golden-haired seven-year-old daughter. In this “What happened next?” take on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” Fairest (Snow White) is married to her prince and living with him in his castle. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature: Very dark fairy tale retelling, free here on Tor.com. my wishes do not involve anyone having the skin melted off their feet, which makes me less vicious than a seven-year-old girl. i would be thrilled to read a whole collection of similar stories from this author, if we're putting wishes out there. This does all the things i love to see in fairytale retellings/reversals, and i just loved it. Which fact her stepmother is pretty quick to bring up at their most recent apple-feast.Īnd which ticks in snow's brain, where growing suspicion and maternal protectiveness drive her to find out the truth from an old talking mirror that once caused everyone a heap of trouble. Meanwhile, the prince has been a real disappointment, and all snow white really cares about is the daughter they created together, who is now seven - the same age she was when her husband kissed her without consent and made her snow wife. Well, turns out that stepmother didn't die, but she has been snow white's horribly scarred prisoner for many years, and once a month, the two meet to share an enchanted apple and exchange flowery death threats. 'dust,' in this case being 'when a man became so enamored of a dead child he found in a glass coffin that he kissed her back to life, whereupon she demanded that her stepmother be forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes until she fell down dead.' this most excellent free tor short is a glimpse into snow white's life a few years after all the dust has settled. There's nothing i love more than a story that goes beyond the 'happily ever after' curtainfall of a fairy tale. I will leave your fingernails until last and spit them into the snow when I am done. Blood will pool rich and red around your body. Before your skin can chap too badly, I will take a keen-edged blade and peel it from you as someone might peel an apple. I will lay you naked upon the snow, stretched between four iron stakes.

Perfections by Kirstyn McDermott