Blanca & Roja

by Anna-Marie McLemore

[Witty and Sarcastic Bookclub]

See, here’s the thing: I really wanted to like this book. It’s a retelling of Snow White and Rose Red, with some Swan Lake mixed in. I love the Swan Lake story, so I was hoping for something at least a little entertaining. Unfortunately, this book didn’t deliver in my opinion.

It’s told from several different points of view, which I think really hurt this book. Because the chapters were so short (between two and four pages), having four characters narrate made it impossible to get to know any of them enough to care about them at all. At times I struggled to remember which point of view I was reading, because the character voices were all written the same.

Because of the nature of the magic, I expected a sense of urgency, which would have added to the book. It wasn’t there, and I was left feeling very bored a lot of the time. I almost gave up on the book, actually.

I did like that the familiar tale was remade with Latina sisters. I’ve never seen that done with a fairy-tale re-imagining, and it was really cool. The bits of cultural additions shone through because the author wrote those with confidence.

I felt that McLemore’s writing was very tentative, like she didn’t have confidence in her storytelling. I thought maybe this was her debut book, and she would gain faith in herself, but I’ve found out that she has several others which are award winners, so that must just be what I inferred from her writing style.

I guess when it comes right down to it, this author isn’t for me. I have a feeling that my opinion isn’t the popular one, though, so maybe I missed something.