Mar 16

Mar 16 Book Club: Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman

"Club."

WE'RE SO EXCITED. We (Noor, Ali Haji, Bader Shirawi, and Reem Aseeri) have decided to have our own little book club. Why? I don't know. Maybe we just like the idea of reading things together. We want to broaden our literary horizons together? We like the idea of more things to argue about.

The system we've come up with right now is to schedule reading a book every month within a randomly chosen genre (THANKS random.org).

This is our genre list for now:

Fiction (Broad term, no?)
Mystery & Thriller
Historical Fiction
Fantasy
Romance
Science Fiction
Horror
Humor
Nonfiction
Memoir & Autobiography
History & Biography
Business Books
Graphic Novels & Comics
Poetry
Music
Gay and Lesbian
Classics
Chick Lit (What a sexist genre name. Goddammit, Amazon.)
Manga
Philosophy
Psychology
Religion
Erotica (Yes. We went there. We want some quality shit too, not that 50 Shades nonsense.)

We were so excited that we decided to quickly jump aboard during the last week of February with

Neil Gaiman's Snow, Glass, Apples.

Snow, Glass, Apples is a short retelling of the classic Snow White. The version we read was the play adapted from Gaiman's short story, so we were already facing an interesting formatting choice. "Classic Retelling" is always a risky road to take with storytelling; it has to be far past mediocre to captivate the audience without getting them angry that you've tainted an already-concrete establishment.

The wording on that last sentence is a bit off, but I'm going to let it slide in an effort to accept myself for who I am.

We gave it: 4 STARS

We all agreed that the story is more than just "good enough" for us to let go of our hesitations about the retelling. The story is told from a completely different character's perspective, and the writing emphasizes repeatedly that it's a completely POV retelling, so you don't have to "believe" the character if you don't want to. The plot is realistically murky, which contradicts the bluntness and straightforwardness of the writing style. The formatting choice alone adds depth into the story, because playwriting often emphasizes sounds and music as an essential part of the storyline, which it certainly was in Snow, Glass, Apples.

When the story ended, we wished we could know more. We needed more information, more history, and more justice. I guess that's a good thing :(