With “Once Upon a Time” and “Grimm” deconstructing then reconstructing fairy tales and its iconic characters, David Meredith took a different route and took readers beyond the “happily ever after.”
The teaser asked, “What happens when ‘happily ever after’ has come and gone?” Meredith’s answer is actually the title of the book, “The Reflections of Queen Snow White
In here, we see an older Snow White, who is now a widow with King Charming dead. She has also lost six of her dearest friends, with only one of the seven dwarfs still alive. The Charmings only daughter, Princess Raven will be married in a few days.
But, Snow White who had been feeling very depressed since the death of her soulmate and love of her life could not share with the festivities.
This is the scenario that David Meredith created at the beginning of the story, preparing the audience for a very different Snow White. And though the storyline did not deviate much from the original theme of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Meredith also did not disappoint.
Deftly re-using all the characters and the elements of the original fairy tale, “The Reflections of Queen Snow White” became an adult version of the much beloved story. Though most kids did not think or ask how Snow White and Prince Charming fared after their wedding, Meredith answered it for us.
Going against the current zeitgeist of reinventing our favorite fairy tale characters, Meredith stayed true to the original characterizations and just added several more layers as he transitioned the readers from seeing a young Snow White to a more stately and more experienced woman.
A leisurely read, “The Reflections of Queen Snow White
“The Reflections of Queen Snow White
What happens when “happily ever after” has come and gone?
On the eve of her only daughter, Princess Raven’s wedding, an aging Snow White finds it impossible to share in the joyous spirit of the occasion. The ceremony itself promises to be the most glamorous social event of the decade. Snow White’s castle has been meticulously scrubbed, polished and opulently decorated for the celebration. It is already nearly bursting with jubilant guests and merry well-wishers. Prince Edel, Raven’s fiancé, is a fine man from a neighboring kingdom and Snow White’s own domain is prosperous and at peace. Things could not be better, in fact, except for one thing:
The king is dead.
The queen has been in a moribund state of hopeless depression for over a year with no end in sight. It is only when, in a fit of bitter despair, she seeks solitude in the vastness of her own sprawling castle and climbs a long disused and forgotten tower stair that she comes face to face with herself in the very same magic mirror used by her stepmother of old.
It promises her respite in its shimmering depths, but can Snow White trust a device that was so precious to a woman who sought to cause her such irreparable harm? Can she confront the demons of her own difficult past to discover a better future for herself and her family? And finally, can she release her soul-crushing grief and suffocating loneliness to once again discover what “happily ever after” really means?
Only time will tell as she wrestles with her past and is forced to confront The Reflections of Queen Snow White.
