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Mirror Mirror
A Novel
320 pages
A lush, shadowy reimagining of a classic fairy tale steeped in the opulent poison and political intrigue of Renaissance Italy.
What it feels like
Reading this novel feels like wandering through a dark, overgrown Tuscan garden where danger lurks behind every beautiful blossom. The narrative unfolds at a leisurely, deliberate pace, allowing the reader to fully absorb the opulent, shadowy atmosphere of Renaissance Italy. The prose is dense and highly sensory, demanding to be savored rather than rushed, as it weaves earthy magic with the cynical political machinations of the Borgia family. It is a deeply atmospheric experience that strips away the sanitized gloss of childhood fables, replacing it with psychological depth and historical grit. This book will thoroughly delight readers who crave dark, adult fairy tale retellings steeped in lush historical detail, moral ambiguity, and a lingering sense of eerie enchantment.
- Mood
- opulent
- shadowy
- earthy
- eerie
- Tone
- lyrical
- cynical
- sophisticated
- darkly whimsical
- Pace
- leisurely
- Themes
- corrupting power of beauty · loss of innocence · myth bleeding into history · political machinations
- The writing
- Dense, ornate, and highly sensory, the language weaves historical realism together with dark, lyrical fairy tale elements.
- The arc
- The journey shifts from a quiet, pastoral innocence into a dark, politically fraught awakening as a young girl learns to navigate a world of vanity and poison.
- Who it's for
- Lovers of dark, adult fairy tale retellings who savor lush historical detail, complex prose, and morally ambiguous characters.
Content notes
- child endangerment
- implied sexual violence
- poisoning
- murder
About the book
E-Book Extra: “Little Snow-White” by the Brothers Grimm (read the original version of the classic fairy tale)Think you know who's the fairest of them all? Think again. Bestselling re-imaginer of classic fairy tales sets the Snow White story in Renaissance Italy, where the madly vain Lucrezia Borgia plots a dire fate for seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada (a.k.a. Snow White).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.
Description from Open Library.
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