Rating: 
Summary: irritating and disappointing
Review: I've loved several books in the Fairy Tale series, especially Tam Lin. I started reading this book ready to really enjoy it, but my assessment kept dropping as I went, and finally I put it down unfinished less than 2/3 through. The characters were completely unengaging, every relationship (and all the sex, including the stuff that was supposed to be fun) was depressing and sleazy, and the slightly adjusted mythological names were annoying (if you're going to use them, use them). I didn't care about any of the characters, and everything they did seemed like just another bit in a string of events, rather than a personally shaped life. Parts of the book seemed promising, but overall it struck me as a lengthy and pointless ordeal. I'm sorry to have liked it so little, and hope other work of Lee's is better.
Rating: 
Summary: Clever!
Review: Lee's "White As Snow" is an amazing mixture of two tales. If you check out the other reviews, everyone exclaims wonderment in the realization of how the tales "The Rape of Persephone" and "Snow White" were similar. She's woven these two "myths" into a dark enchanting cold world that works. This is definitely not a feel good book.
The idea is so fresh and different that it's a nice eye opener. Tanith Lee has talent to be able to think something like this up. The writing isn't boring, pretentious, or annoying. Once I got started reading this, it was easy to just get through it.
One "flaw," if you can call it that, is that her characters, although 3 dimensional, are distant. The main characters are cold and you never really feel sympathetic towards them. (although I feel that you understand them throughout. It's not real compassion but more like some rational thinking of "of course she feels this way.") I didn't get really involved with the characters. However, this taste works because it's so consistant throughout the book. I wonder if she did this deliberately.I know that personally, I love books that allow me to care for a character, gives me refreshing new ideas, and blows me away with the cleverness. Two out of three ain't bad though. I think this is one book definitely worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: A little too much for me
Review: OK. I must not be a fan of dark fantasy. Maybe that's my problem with this book. However, I am a fan of Terri Windling's Fairy Tale Series. I bought this book in hardcover because it was a part of the series--although the fact that it was written by Tanith Lee gave me some serious qualms. I can admire that Lee is a talented writer than can truly mine the depths of darkness to write a fantastic story. However, even while I recognized Lee's talent when reading this book, I was repelled by it. One of the professional reviews stated that she explored the sex and violence of the Grimm version of "Snow White." That's true. However, this book simply went too far for me. If memory serves me correctly there were at least 10 separate acts of rape. Very likely I'm underestimating that number. If you like dark fantasy and/or Tanith Lee, you'll think this book is fantastic. If you're at all squeamish about reading about rape, I recommend walking away from this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Tanith is a goddess
Review: People either love or hate Lee's barebones prose. I myself find it hypnotic.
Rating: 
Summary: The suffering behind "Snow White"
Review: People forget that "Snow White" and other fairy tales were never intended for children--or, rather, not the sort of children Disney envisions, unable to grasp any concept but the simplest, coached in equally simplistic terms. The oldest fairy tales were morality tales for adults, passion plays with a trenchant intent--and an emphasis on passion. The original Sleeping Beauty wakes up not to the kiss of the prince, but labor pains from the twins with which he's impregnated her slumbering body. And Snow White, as Tanith Lee reminds us, is the tale of the Devouring Mother, the mature woman who views her child as her supplanter and rival to be destroyed. In "White As Snow," the story takes place in an early-Christian-Europe setting. Arpazia is the daughter of a minor king, whose domain and life are lost to Draco the conqueror. Draco is a man whose life revolves around his desires for gold, power, and women. Arpazia is fourteen and an innocent. When Draco rapes Arpazia, she curses him--and to her horror the curse rebounds. "Black as the wood, white as the snow, red as your blood that under it flow--" The curse takes the form of her child, unwelcome, unacknowledged until its birth by Arpazia. Draco appears only a few times more in this story, which revolves around the traumatized Arpazia and the child Coira. Arpazia armors herself against the world in her beauty and finery as Draco's unwilling queen; Coira sees and loves her from afar until a chance encounter reveals to her just how little she means to Arpazia. From that moment the two circle each other, aware of each other's existence, but never seeking each other out--until Coira reaches her teens and Arpazia in her madness decides the girl must die. The seven dwarves still play a part in this tale. Given to a man who intends to kill what he thinks is some meaningless servant girl, Coira is befriended a troupe of dwarves who take the girl under their collective wing, but they are far from Disney's conception of fat, happy little people. They dislike "big people," even as they stolidly accept their mistreatment at their hands; Coira is nothing more than a freak to them, someone to be their token "owner" so they can work unmolested. Yet the relationship that develops between her and Stormy, the leader of the dwarves, is sweet and unexpected--or perhaps not completely, given that this is a Tanith Lee novel. Arpazia does come after her daughter; Coira does die and is revived by a prince; but Lee's version of this story is full of painful twists and insights. Arpazia is not wholly a villain; she is, in her way, still a child, bewildered and horrified by the violence wreaked upon her and by the world's insistence that she accept it as normal. And Coira is not entirely a heroine, in that she is a passive force almost to the end, save in her love for Stormy. Mother and daughter are halves of a whole, yet like matter and anti-matter the two cannot survive together. I wasn't satisfied with the ending of this novel, but I can accept that Coira intends to break the cycle of self-loathing she and her mother inflicted upon themselves. My only other complaint is that it's far too short. Lee could have written chapters more about the two, and still had an engrossing story. "White As Snow" is a tale of suffering and forgiveness, but the reader will have to bear a great deal of the characters' suffering before reaching the point of redemption. The cathartic intent of Lee's tale makes this more than a mere retelling of an old myth and bedtime story.
Rating:
Summary: Fairy Tale meets Mythology
Review: Probably, when the Snow White story was first told (before it reached the Grimm's ears) it contained elements that we lost-- for whatever reason. This book, by sci-fi great Tanith Lee, recaptures what I imagine elements of those "lost" stories must have contained. The story has classic "archetypes" that fit the mythology of the goddess stories-- virgin, mother, crone-- death & rebirth, purity vs. taint. I liked the way Lee makes us think of the "wicked stepmother's" perspective. I also like the introduction that tells us of the research she did in figuring out this version of the classic fairy tale. It AINT Disney-- but who wants to read that over and over again without some darkness?
Rating:
Summary: Shallow and empty female characters fill this hollow read.
Review: Shallow and empty female characters fill this thrown-in-a-blender mix of faerie tales. There were a few interesting uses of description and scenery, however, these small gems were few-and-far inbetween and ultimately weren't enough to be worth the ticket price. The lack of any actual thought or action on the part of the women leads, added to the utterly disgusting complacency with brutal (but crudely written) scenes such as rape, made this book a bitter disappointment. I simply couldn't tolerate the way the women had no connection to anything going on around them and how they moved through the sporatic plot mindlessly. A frustrating and ultimately hollow read.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! But Beware....
Review: Tanith Lee is one of my very favorite writers, and whenever she and the world of Fairy Tales meet, the result is always pretty explosive. But have caution: this book is certainly not for everyone.
This book is extremely dark and graphic, and has some of those uniquely "tanith-y" characters that are complex and not all that likeable. But they contrast nicely with the characters that are downright monstrous.
I like that she explores the issue of what, exactly would make someone like Snow White's mother act the way she does, and involves issues of magic in a way that does not solve problems, but causes them. The end is not so much "bittersweet", as "wrenching". I wouldn't reccomend it to someone who hasn't read any other Lee books.
I read the Orson Scott Card book, "Hart's Hope", and was struck be the similarities, not in the plot, but in themes, imagery, and questions posed. If you liked that book, this one is for you. Keep in mind, though, that this book is much more horror than it is fantasy, despite the Fairy Tale connections.
Rating:
Summary: Dark, Sensual...and Depressing
Review: Tanith Lee proved herself a master of gorgeous prose many years ago; having enjoyed the short re-tellings presented in her collection Red as Blood: Tales From the Sisters Grimmer, I was thrilled to see a full-length novel based on Snow White. Indeed, there are elements from the classic folk tale in White As Snow: the mirror (although rather un-magical in this novel), the dwarves, the flight to safety from the Queen...however, as a top reviewer mentioned, the novel is overflowing with metaphor and symbolism, some fairly accessible to the average reader and some obscure. In my opinion, Lee tries to dip her pen into too many inkpots in this novel - Greek mythology, Catholic doctrine, and God-Goddess rituals. Despite the help of a competent forward by Terri Windling, I think the general reader will be left confused by the numerous metapors, and ultimately indifferent. If you're the type who loves digging into every reference in T.S. Eliot's Wasteland, you won't mind the overload of images from different cultures, times and lands. What I think no reader will enjoy, however, are the characters in this work. I don't think there is a likable one in the lot. Our two females, mother and daughter, are both self-deprecating and exceptionally arrogant at the same time, so depressed and disinterested (apparently) with humanity in general that you just wish they would go away. They mope more than anything else. It is hard to muster sympathy for them or become invested in their fictional lives. I found I did not much care what happened to them at story's end. It's a tough read, not for the faint of heart. Pondering the numerous metaphors and symbols (especialy the symbolism of the mirror, I'd add) may be very rewarding for some and provide good discussion amongst readers. But if you're looking for a more old-fashioned tale - and by this I mean a story with strong protagonists, antagonists, and compelling plot line - you'd best look elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Fairy Tale
Review: Tanith Lee's dark, sensual re-imagining of the Snow White tale (with dashes of the Demeter/Persephone myth) is an enjoyable read. Few authors can master this kind of "adult fairy tale" with Lee's skill. If you enjoyed The "Snow White, Blood Red" series edited by Terri Windling (which included some Lee stories), you'll like this novel.
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