by Serena Valentino, Illustrated by Fiona Marchbank (2023)
A Villains Graphic Novel
Adapted from Serena Valentino's book
(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)
This was a book on the shelf on the library that looked interesting. The author's name, Serena Valentino, looked familiar. As it turns out, I've read one of her books before, How to Be a Zombie, but that's not what I was thinking of. Maybe I've seen it online or just on other books in the library.
Speaking of other books, this was an adpatation, and it suffers a little for it. The chapters, particularly in the beginning, were quite short and a little disconnected.
The book is an origin story for the Wicked Queen and how she came to loathe Snow White. She started as a woman who caught the attention of the widower King. They married and became a loving family, despite the Queen's father claiming that she beguiled the King into marrying her. (We later learn that the Queen's father didn't want her and that her mother died in childbirth.)
We also learn that the Magic Mirror was not only created by her father but the spirt in the mirror is the soul of her father. He claims that he cannot lie, but we don't really know if that's true or if he just tells his daughter that out of his own hatred.
We also met the King's three cousins, who are a trio of Weird sisters who finish each other's thoughts and sentences. They scare Snow White terribly and are banished, but they return when the King is killed in battle. The sisters are the ones who teach the Queens magic.
From there it follows some of the story of Snow White from the Queen's perspective, mostly leaving out the dwarves, but there is some artwork used. The Huntsman plays a bigger role.
For this adaptation, I don't know why the color green mattered so much, but it is the most predominant color. In fact, some characters are drawn with green outlines and contain little or no black lines at all. It's seems more than just a "leitmotif", if I remembering the correct term from Film class. It was odd at the beginning, but not too distracting.
A check online says that the novel was the first in an interconnected Villains series. I don't know if more created as graphic novels. (Of note, the tale of Sleeping Beauty and Malificent was told as happening long ago.) This book doesn't seek to rehabilitate the Evil Queen nor does it shift all the blame for who she is onto her father and the cousins. It just lays out the beginnings to explain how the figure she was known as came to be.
It was an enjoyable book, and I wouldn't mind reading another in the series.
If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my new book series that starts with, 7 Flashes of Science Fiction, seven glimpses into possible futures for our world and the worlds around us.
Also, check out my other short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical fivesome of flash fiction and short stories. (Amazon only shows the first three books in the image. Go figure.)
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