Review: 'White as Witching' by Katherine Buel (prev. 'Heart of Snow')
Pub. Date: 10/04/2022
Publisher: ARC provided by Victoria Editing NetGalley Co-Op
A wicked queen. Dark magic. A heart as cold and fierce as winter.
The Selection is a lie. The five girls chosen each year do not vanish into a life of royal luxury, as most believe. Snow knows this because she knows her aunt Lyric—the Witch-Queen of Cresilea—murderess and usurper.
When the Selection comes to the remote village where Snow has hidden since her father’s murder, she puts herself forward, trusting in her scarred face to hide her identity, and enters the castle she fled seven years ago—a place now haunted by unnatural whispers and eerie shadows.
But more is at stake than Snow’s revenge, or even the fates of five girls, and she must learn all she can about Lyric’s magic—and her own—before it’s too late.
Rich and darkly enchanting, White as Witching takes you into a perilous world of fairy tale where you must break the first rule:
Do not go into the woods at night.
Do not follow the faerie lights.
Do not dance and do not sing—set no foot in the faerie ring.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is an interesting fairy tale, but it never really had a hold on me the way other fairy tales did. I did not know what to do with my secret admiration of the evil queen, nor my slight disappointment at the prince, etc. The seven dwarves also felt twee to me, admittedly because of the Disney adaptation. I guess my question was always what I was meant to take away from it, good housekeeping, kindness, quiet perseverance, or the curse of beauty? I've seen a number of film adaptations and read some short stories based on it, but it never hooked itself into my imagination the way other tales did. I think in this book Katherine Buel found a good way to adapt this tale that allows themes to emerge that a young audience can do something with. She also makes the tale her own, I would say. Throughout the reading I'd find myself surprised when an element of the fairy tale suddenly appeared, as I'd almost forgotten (in a positive way!) that I was reading an adaptation of it.
Snow, or rather, Gala, has been in hiding for years, scarred horribly so no one would recognise her as one of the two princesses who disappeared when the king was cruelly murdered. She is not just hiding her identity, however, but also her knowledge of what really happened and her magic abilities. When the Selection comes to her village, she gives herself up to it in the hopes to get closer to her aunt, the Witch-Queen Lyric, and do something about it all. Gala doesn't really have a plan, however, and much of it goes awry. She finds herself caught in illusions, making unlikely alliances, and learning the true meaning of loss and justice. I really liked the pace of this book and how quickly Buel managed to give us an idea of who Gala was. Much of it is expected, i.e., a female protagonist who has been hardened by her life but holds a core of hope within her, a female protagonist unsure about her looks and about love, etc. However, I liked what Buel did with it and how she riffs on the Snow White fairy tale! Some of the other characters aren't quite as worked out, but I didn't really mind as the story moved quickly and everything felt relatively coherent within the story.
I enjoyed a number of things about Buel's writing. I mentioned the pacing above, which I think is veyr praise-worthy. I've struggled through a number of fantasies, admittedly romantacies, which just felt endless. So much of the character development was stretched out to the point of nausea, but none of that is to be found in White as Witching. Buel allows for things to develop, but she doesn't drag it out. She also has a fun way of foreshadowing in the book, which felt fairy tale-esque, along the lines of "if only they had known that...". I thought that worked very well. Buel's descriptions of the various settings and fantasy/fairy tale figures along the way was fun. It reminded me a little of Dianna Wynne Jones' Howl's Moving Castle in how it played with tropes and gave a little twist to it, although it is not quite as deep as the latter. I will say that I am no longer, and wouldn't have been in 2022 either, the target audience for this book. I'd say it solidly aimed at YA readers, in how things are described and what is left out. There is romance, but nothing too explicit, there is danger and violence, but presented in a way that's suitable for younger readers. This meant that I easily raced through this book in three or so hours. I also noticed this in how the moral of the story is presented. Towards the end it felt a little too obvious to me, somewhat overstated, but I imagine this might not be the case for teen readers. While that affects my rating slightly, it is not a criticism of the book. I think White as Witching is excellent for a teen audience and I'm going to check Buel's other books to see if she has something for an older audience, as I would love to give that a try!
I give this novel...
3 Universes!
It is a three for me, mainly because I am no longer quite the audience for it. White as Witching is aimed towards a YA audience and I have entered my thirties. Had I read this when I was a teen, it would have undoubtedly been a 4 rating. I'd definitely recommend this to teen readers and adult readers with a sweet tooth for YA Fantasy.
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