Book Review by Aarene Storms: Six-Gun Snow White

Six-Gun Snow White  by Catherynne M. Valente

It's just what you think: the story of Snow White, reset into the American Wild West.

And yet, it isn't what you think at all.

A Nevada silver baron forces marriage upon a Crow woman, who dies giving birth to a half-native / half-white daughter. The child is hidden from sight until the king-like man marries again, this time to a beautiful but warped woman who tries to force her own idea of beauty onto the half-grown girl. When Snow White (ironically named for the skin color she will never attain) runs from home aboard a horse she names Charming, her stepmother sends a Pinkerton in place of the huntsman ... and from there, the story wanders even further afield.

With lush, poetic prose wrapped around a plain-spoken narrator, the story interweaves the folklore of the Brothers Grimm with the folklore of the gritty, gun-slinging west. The last chapters are unique and unexpected, but the journey to get there is complex and mesmerizing.

Rating:

Recommended for readers ages 12 to adult. Some fairy tale-esque kissing, some Wild West-esque violence (including a thwarted sexual assault), some cussing, and a surprising amount of blood. 

The events may not have happened; still, the story is true.  --R. Silvern

Aarene Storms, youth services librarian

Richmond Beach and Lake Forest Park Libraries, KCLS