Snow White and the Huntsman

Snow White and the Huntsman by Lily Blake (et. al)

Paperback, 240 pages

Published 1st June 2012 by Atom

My shelves: arc-or-review, books-i-own, currently-reading, fairy-tales, fantasy, magic, movies-or-tv, read-in-2012, young-adult

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Description via Goodreads:

A breathtaking new vision of a legendary tale. Snow White is the only person in the land fairer than the evil queen who is out to destroy her. But what the wicked ruler never imagined is that the young woman threatening her reign has been training in the art of war with a huntsman who was dispatched to kill her.

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My thanks go to Atom for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I confess that I'm a little wary of reading books based on movies as it seems a little unnatural - surely movies should be based on books? Still, I wanted to know what all the fuss was about surrounding Snow White and the Huntsman. To be honest, I lack the concentration span for films, so it was actually great to see that a novel was being released - I can use my own imagination and take it at my own pace.... but now, after reading the book, I do want to go and see the film version! 


I have read some fantastic fairytale retellings (Cinder) and some not so great ones, so it was interesting to see what this was like. Snow White is one of the most popular fairytales that I think almost everyone knows about. It's a little dangerous to mess around with something the world knows and loves, but I think that for the most part, the changes worked out okay. 


The story was vivid and it felt as though there was a lot of adventure, even though it wasn't particularly fast-paced. I think that if the pace had been a bit more rapid, it would have been more effective - I think that the blurb of this book makes it sound a little more action packed than it is, but the book remained simple, perhaps so that it is more accessible for younger readers.  


There wasn't really anything complex about this book - it was relatively short and a quick read, so there wasn't much room for depth, but I don't feel as though the story suffered for that - I still got a good idea about all of the characters and they were firm in my mind. Personally, I like to learn more about the emotions of characters, but even without this, I did have an idea of what the characters were feeling. Of course, more development could have been made but for the type of book this is, it wasn't necessary- it's just a reasonably quick, entertaining read and it's good that way - I think that it could've gone disastrously wrong if it took itself too seriously - the easy-to-read yet still quite beautiful writing is definitely a bonus for younger readers.  


I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by the ending of this book - there wasn't a huge climax in the story and the ending didn't really come as much of a shock, either. There was potential to notch up the tension a bit, but it never seemed to happen. I personally thought that the ending was a little boring and a bit of an easy way out of the story, though I guess it did tie things up.


Although this is a very simple and quick book to read, it was enjoyable and I am glad that I read it - just to see what the twist on this traditional fairytale was. The book does feel quite 'cinematic' at points and I feel like maybe the story could be portrayed in a slightly more exciting way on screen. However, I'm a firm believer in reading the book and seeing the film. If you like reading, for less than the price of a cinema ticket, I'd pick this up and give it a try.  

You should know that I need absolutely no excuse to flail over Florence and the Machine, but I actually have an excuse this time! Florence actually wrote and recorded a song called 'Breath of Life' which is the soundtrack to Snow White and the Huntsman and is absolutely amazing! Watch the video below to hear the song and to watch the video which has lots of shots of the film included!