You Can't Kill Snow White

Recommended by Holly:

This is a darkly brilliant retelling of Snow White. It is, of course, the story of a Queen, a Huntsman, a Princess and seven dwarves. It is also a story that asks the reader to look beyond 'good' and 'evil' and think about what it is to be human. Sometimes unsettling, sometimes beautiful, it is rich with emotion. Each illustration is layered and clever and nearly abstract, creating deeply storied characters and the world the tale plays out in.

Beatrice Alemagna has long been one of our favourite storytellers for the way she explores illustration in original and interesting ways, telling stories with incredible perceptiveness and imagination. To have an illustrated story created for older readers feels a special treasure.

About You Can't Kill Snow White:

In this dark adaptation of Snow White, acclaimed artist Beatrice Alemagna tells the story from the point of view of the jealous stepmother queen, to complicate the question of goodness and set into high relief the shadow side, with its capacity for evil, of human life.

Once upon a time, a child was born with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony: the princess Snow White.

She is possessed of beauty and innocence, but there in the shadows lurks a queen who will remarry her widower father, a queen who is as empty and envious, as narcissistic and fractured as is every life that gets stuck in the endless reflecting pool or mirror of the self.

Void of love, it is hatred that animates her.

But like all true fairy tales, this story doesn't ask us to judge and condemn the queen and her hatred, but rather to consider the kinds of behaviours and situations that invite evil, and where true innocence or goodness might lie.

Following the first-person account of the queen, this picture book for older readers illuminates her blinding obsession and insatiable jealousy, right up to the point of her violent undoing.

Told through a series of riveting, unsettling images as well as a bold adaptation of the Grimm's original text, this version of Snow White brilliantly puts us all in touch with the messy, shadowed, fraught, and fragile inwardness we each possess. 

This is the second book to appear under Unruly, an imprint of picture books for older readers, and will include an author's note and a short note to readers about how it continues to build this experimental framework of visually complex, sophisticated picture books for readers aged 14+.

Author/Illustrator : Beatrice Alemagna
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 96
Imprint: Enchanted Lion Books
Publication Date: 25/10/22
ISBN: 9781592703814