Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick

Blood Red Snow White

by Marcus Sedgwick

The Russian Revolution. Fairy tale, spy thriller, love story. One man's life during the last days of the Romanovs, beautifully imagined by award-winning author Marcus Sedgwick. Shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award.

Set in the rich and atmospheric landscape of Russia during the revolution that sent shockwaves around the world, this is the partly true story of Arthur Ransome - a writer accused of being a spy.

Fictionalising history and blending it with one man's real life, Marcus Sedgwick expertly crafts this innovative and stimulating novel of three parts - a fairy tale full of wise and foolish kings, princesses, wishes and magic; a bleak and threatening spy thriller, and a love story . . .

Reviewed by readingwithwrin on

3 of 5 stars

Share
“There never was a story that was happy through and through.”

See reviews first on my blog

Lets get a few things straight about this book.
1. The main character is not a young adult.
2. This does have fairy tale elements, but it wasn't the main focus of this book.
3. I feel like I was supposed to get so much more out of this book than what I did.

Having said all of those things, I feel like I should also say that I really enjoyed the historical part of this book. The main character is based off a real writer who was actually in Russia during this time and did write several of the pieces mentioned. I found the parts mentioned about his actual work very interesting, especially how he would get the information for his stories.
When it came to his personal life, I just didn't really like him. He ran from his problems once he realized that the person he was oh so in love with wasn't who he thought she was. He ran from the child he so desperately loved, to a country that he had no real ties to besides the fact he wanted to live there. The new person he was so in love with I was constantly afraid was someone who was really just a spy or someone using him, so I never felt comfortable with the relationship.

As for the fairy tale element thrown in randomly throughout the story, sadly for me they just didn't work. They didn't bother me, I just didn't feel like they helped the story at all.

I am interested to read more of Sedgwick work though as it is so loved. Plus the writing in this one did keep me captivated the story itself just wasn't one I particularly loved.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 25 January, 2017: Finished reading
  • 25 January, 2017: Reviewed