You may have heard of a little Broadway show called Wicked. It was originally created from a book by Gregory Maguire who has made quite a name for himself re-telling fairytales and classic stories. I have had Mirror, Mirror on my to-read list for several years and finally got to it over the holiday weekend.
The novel re-tells the classic story of Snow White. Maguire sets the story in the early 1500s with appearances by Cesare Borgia (the inspiration for Machiavelli's The Prince) and his sister Lucrezia. Though he brings in history (which he admittedly takes liberties with for the sake of the drama), there also is a layer of the fantastic when it comes to the dwarves. This re-telling was very entertaining and brought perspective to the tale we know so well as told by Disney. The way that the mirror, for example, works into the story - a creation by the dwarves with magical elements, but maybe not quite the same magic as we thought - makes Snow White fresh, and almost possible.
I've enjoyed each of Gregory Maguire books from the Wicked series to his retelling of Cinderella (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister). Finally getting to this one was worth it, both for the story itself and to remind me to keep up with Maguire's latest books.
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