Name: Maggie Hotmer's review of Fairest of All by Serena Valentino
Item: Fairest of All
Rating: 3
Author: Maggie Hotmer

Serena Valentino

For anyone who’s seen Walt Disney’s Snow White, you’ll know that the Wicked Queen is one evil woman! After all, it’s not everyone who wants to cut out their teenage step-daughter’s heart and have it delivered back in a locked keepsake box. (And even if this sort of thing is a common urge, we don’t know many people who have acted upon it.) Now, for the first time, we’ll examine the life of the Wicked Queen and find out just what it is that makes her so nasty. Here’s a hint: the creepy-looking man in the magic mirror is not just some random spooky visage—and he just might have something to do with the Queen’s wicked ways! /DIVDIV

A Tale of the Wicked Queen

Fairest of All

ashwitherow

I've been interested in this series for a while. I thought this book was kind of mid. Honestly, at the beginning of the book, I was so confused as to how this was going to play out with her being evil at the end. I never really felt like I understood her; she felt like a really complicated character, but she was really manipulated as well. I didn't think it was fair that she was trying to keep everyone else from falling in love so they wouldn't get hurt. Just because she never moved on from her grief doesn't mean others couldn't. 

Maggie Hotmer

Riley Bell

I always enjoy a good fairytale retelling but this one was a bit lacking. I read the first 3 books of the series a long time ago and I believe the 3 evil sisters reappear. They are interesting and truly evil characters and I want to know more about them and why they fit into the story and where they come from (but maybe we will get that in the rest of the series). I decided to go ahead and reread the series from the beginning since the Cruella book has just come out. In this version of the Queen’s backstory everything feels a bit rushed. Years go by in just a few sentences. We could’ve started earlier in the Queen’s life to understand her pain instead of learning in the few pages of her explanation to the King. I do like that the ending was short and to the point because we all know how the story goes from the classic movie and we don’t need a drawn out version of what we already know. This book was a VERY short and concise way to explain the Queen’s descent into madness that I finished in about 2 hours. I still enjoyed it very much and feel some sorrow for the original compassionate Queen but there was some missed potential in what the story could’ve been.

This was a fun and quick read. The back story to what let the Wicked Queen to her path was a good one and decently believable. The Queen wasn't always wicked. She loved and cared but greed and sinister happenings led her to be what we know her to be in the movie. 

Sasha Mann

Happy to have a retelling of a villian origin story :) 

Tessa wendon 

Steph L 

A fun villain story

I really enjoyed this story. It’s not the Snow White story we know for most of the book. I loved the Evil Queen. 

I would recommend this for anyone who wants a fun light retelling. 

I picked this rating because some of the plot points and the characters, particularly Snow White and the sister’s could have been explained more. Not only their relationship with the queen, but the relationships with each other.

ReadwithZanariah 

I have always wondered how evil people become who they are today. Was there a reason for the Queen’s downfall? But some things remains the same; jealousy of her stepdaughter’s beauty.

Carol Bailey

An interesting retelling of Snow White from the perspective of the Evil Queen while keeping with the essence of the story.

Tatyana

I loved it. It was interesting to see how the wicked queen was in the beginning.

Caitlyn DeRouin

To be honest, I've never had much of an interest in Snow White. I like the movie, but she's never been my favorite Princess and it's not one of the movies that I've found myself wanting to constantly watch. I definitely picked up this book (and series) because I love Disney and some of my favorite books to read are retellings.

Let me tell you, this book 100% made me more interested in the story of Snow White, but most specifically with the Evil Queen. I absolutely loved the take on this story that Valentino took. The Queen's backstory was so interesting and she was very complex and I feel like the author brought so much more to this character which I loved. I also loved how much of the good we were able to see in the Queen and how we really got to see her go from a very loving and kind character into the Queen that we all know her as.

I had read the Beast's story before this one (I didn't know you actually should read them in order...oops...) and while I did enjoy that one, this one is my favorite out of the two. I'm looking forward to starting Ursula's story next!

Paige Green

Disclaimer: My hubby bought this book for me! Encourage more book buying!

Book: Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen

Author: Serena Valentino

Book Series: Villains Book 1

Rating: 5/5

Publication Date: August 18, 2009

Genre: YA Fantasy Retelling

Recommended Age: 15+ (addiction TW, inner beauty, murder)

Publisher: Disney Press

Pages: 250

Amazon Link

Synopsis: The tale of the young princess and her evil stepmother, the Wicked Queen, is widely known. Despite a few variations from telling to telling, the story remains the same—the Queen was jealous of the girl’s beauty, and this jealousy culminated in the Queen’s attempt on the sweet, naive girl’s life.

Another tale far less often spoken of is the one that explains what caused the Queen to become so contemptuously vile. Still, some have attempted to guess at the reason. Perhaps the Queen’s true nature was that of a wicked hag and her beautiful, regal appearance a disguise used to fool the King. Others claim that the Queen might have hated the girl for her resemblance to the King’s first wife. Mostly, the Queen is painted as a morally abhorrent woman who never loved another being during the course of her miserable life.

In fact, the theories about exactly what cause the Queen’s obsessive vanity and jealous rage are too numerous to catalog. This book recounts a version of the story that has remained untold until now. It is a tragic tale of love and loss, and it contains a bit of magic. It is a tale of the Wicked Queen…

Review: Okay, so this book was the best Villains book I’ve read so far. I think reading them out of order was bad on my end but whatever I’ll fix it when I reread them. The backstory of The Evil Queen was very interesting and heartwarming and I loved that the story touched heavily on addiction. The book also talks about vanity and inner beauty. The writing was amazing and the character development was superb as well.

The only thing I didn’t really like about this book is that the pacing was really quick. I would have devoured a 500 page dissertation of The Evil Queen and she’s always been my least favorite character. But yea expect to feel all the feels within 2 hours of your time.

Verdict: I stan The Evil Queen.

Faith Collins

Reviewed for www.blueeggbooks.blogspot.com

Fairest of All is the perfect example of an average, 3 egg book. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. In fact, it was good but REALLY lacked in certain areas for me.

Before I go any further I should mention that I'm a die-hard Disney fan. I go to Disney World about 5-6 times a year, we are Vacation Club owners, I'm an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner, and, oh yeah, I'm getting married at Walt Disney World. Needless to say, I consider myself to be something of a Disney expert. For these reasons, I expected that a book published by Disney Press that used official artwork would be really really awesome. But, it fell flat for me.

As usual, the good comes first: I really liked the three "odd" sisters-- they were creepy and honestly the best part of the book. I wish we had gotten to know more about them as they were byfar the most interesting characters!

I also thought the characterization for the King and Snow was good; it was believable but a little superficial. Snow as a little girl really reminded me of Snow in ABC's {amazing} show Once Upon a Time.

The story was interesting enough-- I felt some compassion for the Queen and liked her "backstory". It was exciting to watch her "go bad" and see how her experiences really shaped her into the Evil Queen.

I don't want to say too much about this but I thought the explanation of how the man in the mirror got to be there was great! Points for creativity, Valentino!

Finally, the ending was AWESOME. Yes, really. I love love love the last page or two of the book. Very creepy and makes you really reconsider the happy ending of the fairytale we all know and love...

And on to the bad!

The Queen did not have a name. She was referred to as "The Queen" the entire time {even before she was the Queen}. WHY? I really have a hard time caring about a character when they don't have a name. If Valentino did the slightest bit of research she would've discovered that The Queen did actually have a name...

Everything happened really fast and the logic didn't really seem to flow. The climax was sudden and I had a hard time believing the "change" in the Queen. I blame the writing {coming later}.

Normally I love me some detailed descriptions and usually whine if there aren't enough. Honestly, I think there was too much description writing. I mean, I really don't need to know THAT much about the dress The Queen is wearing today. Seriously- some descriptions of dresses lasted an entire paragraph. I know, I know-- who am I complaining about too much when I'm usually dying for more?!

My last and biggest issue with this book was the crappy writing. Yes, this is a YA book meant for people that are not my age but there are plenty of YA books with magnificent writing {two words: Harry Potter}. I have very little tolerance for unimpressive writing and I felt that it really dumb downed the book. To be really honest, I've seen better writing from my students and non-professional college kids.

The writing was the nail in the coffin for me; there is no way this book could ever get past 3 eggs for me and honestly if it wasn't for a few cool elements within the book I doubt I would've given it 3 eggs.

Overall, this was a really quick, kinda fun read. I would recommend it to a middle schooler and the average high school student. Heck, I'd even recommend it to a Disney lover simply because of the background story for Grimhilde... err, I mean "The Queen". Aside from those people, this is a YA book that I don't think many adult- YA lovers would enjoy.

Becca Futrell

that ending? i’m not crying, you’re crying.

Lisette Wijkhuijs

Very nice to read the story from the perspective of the Queen. It was beautifully told and a very fun read! If you are a fan of the fairytails you should definately read this book!

Charlot van Dijk

Mijn nieuwe verslaving, Fairytale adaptions. En dit boek heeft daar zeker aan meegeholpen. Wat een leuke twist aan het sprookje, en ook om dit dan eens helemaal vanaf de andere kant te zien! Heerlijk hoe Serena dit alles heeft verwerkt tot een prachtig boek.

Jesika

I thought it was a cool twist to the original story. The story telling was fascinating.
*******(SPOILER)*******
 I liked the back story on the Magic Mirror, but I am just wondering how the queen ended up becoming the Magic Mirror at the end of the book? Even though the queen is led by vanity she's still a complex character. The writing style was just okay. I felt there wasn't enough dialog between the characters in the story. Even though the story was from the queen's perspective it was written in third person.

Marissa

Vanessa Chavez

Aleeya Metro

Giorgia Vodola 

Lindsay D

For anyone who's seen Walt Disney's Snow White, you'll know that the Wicked Queen is one evil woman! After all, it's not everyone who wants to cut out their teenage step-daughter's heart and have it delivered back in a locked keepsake box. (And even if this sort of thing is a common urge, we don't know many people who have acted upon it.) Now, for the first time, we'll examine the life of the Wicked Queen and find out just what it is that makes her so nasty. Here's a hint: the creepy-looking man in the magic mirror is not just some random spooky visage-and he just might have something to do with the Queen's wicked ways!

ashwitherow &
Fairest of All by Serena Valentino

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