Despite mixed feelings about Curse of the Thirteenth Fey, I decided to give another Jane Yolen fairy tale retelling a try: Snow in Summer, a retelling of Snow White. And…I have mixed feelings! But in a very different way.

Snow in Summer (called Summer for day to day) lives in the Appalachians in the 1930s. Her mother dies when she is young, and her father retreats into himself, with little regard for his daughter or anything else. But at least Summer has Cousin Nancy, her godmother who looks after her in her father’s distraction. Until one day Summer’s father meets a mysterious woman and falls under her spell. Summer wants to love her new Stepmama, even if she calls her Snow, assigns chores, and bans Cousin Nancy from the house. But Summer’s father grows ever more listless, and Stepmama has plans for her stepdaughter.

There’s a lot that’s really intriguing here. Yolen played with the elements of the original fairy tale to create something that’s familiar and new. She weaves in the Appalachian setting and culture, while somehow making it work seamlessly with the presence of a magic mirror. Snow White’s father has always been strangely absent in the original, and Yolen builds that into a tragedy of a father who is physically present but emotionally inaccessible to his daughter. Continue reading “Book Review: Snow in Summer” →