Saturday, September 03, 2016

Snow White: A Graphic Novel

Snow White. Matt Phelan. 2016. Candlewick. 216 pages. [Source: Review copy]

First sentence: What's the story here? Who is she?

Premise/plot: Those questions are asked by a New York City detective as he examines a crime scene--or potential crime scene at a department store. They provide the framework for Matt Phelan's newest graphic novel, Snow White. The book is a retelling of the traditional tale set in America, in New York City, for the most part, during the Depression.

Instead of an evil Queen of a stepmother, Samantha White (aka Snow) has dealings with the Queen of the Follies. Her stepmother being a Broadway star, a Ziegfeld girl. Instead of seven dwarfs, Snow is saved by THE SEVEN, a gang of street children.

My thoughts: I like this one a lot. I really enjoyed his artwork. I thought while both story and illustration were on the simple, understated side, it worked well for me. While the setting makes this one unique, the story is traditional. No further characterization has been done--for better or worse. I didn't mind this. As I said, it worked for me. I don't have to have "new" and "modern" twists and turns and complications for me to like a fairy tale retelling.

© 2016 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

5 comments:

Ana said...

Looks really interesting! Will try to get my hands on it!

Katherine Nabity said...

I haven't read enough fiction set in the Great Depression. This sounds wonderful!

Natalie~Coffee and a Book Chick said...

What an interesting twist on how to retell this story. Would love to see the artwork, as I've been really getting into graphic novels lately. Thanks!

Debi said...

This sounds really fun!

Anonymous said...

I really like the sound of this one - I love retellings and this sounds quite unique.
Lynn :D