School Library Journal Starred Review (Tue Nov 01 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Gr 5–8— Alemagna can make charming pictures, lovely illustrations, sweeping landscapes, and sweet-faced children—but not for this book. Here, she writes and paints from the perspective of the bitterest, most evil of old queens, and so the perspectives are skewed, deliberately ugly, frightening, and Gothic. Snow White's beauty is left to readers' imaginations. The dwarves are costumed as bent half-birds, half-root vegetables. The result is a return to the story's grim origins, so that when the huntsman spares Snow White's life and brings back the liver and lungs of a wild beast instead, viewers are treated to panel after panel of the queen devouring the bloody mess. This is a picture book for older, ghoulish listeners, but they will be leaning in for every delightful word. The translation is bold, vividly hewing to the harsh actions outlined in both story and illustrations, such as the iron shoes and dance of death that greet the queen when Snow White marries her prince. The paintings, almost primitive, are worked out in a feverish palette, consistent with the narrator's warped view of events. VERDICT If there is but one fairy-tale purchase in the budget this year, this one deserves attention. Alemagna is inventive and enthralling.— Kimberly Olson Fakih

Kirkus Reviews

What was Snow White's stepmother really thinking?A retelling of "Snow White" from the queen's perspective, this picture-book for young adults more closely follows the plot of the original Brothers Grimm story than the sanitized Disney version. It asks readers to understand and sympathize with the desperation and desire that drive villainy. The layered paintings capture emotions in ways that go beyond what is evoked by the text, making the more violent and dark aspects of the tale hit home. Immediately recognizable while reflecting things beyond our world, this fairy-tale universe contains figures, objects, and landscapes that push at the bounds of the familiar. The queen's anguish is depicted through close-up images of her stricken face that dare readers to look directly at her. The book's greatest strength lies in its portrayal of the queen's fear and rage and the disproportionate cruelty of her punishment. Her treatment by the characters usually considered sympathetic is called into question without attempting to soften or excuse her own behavior. The art captivates: The beauty depicted in the story is almost sinister, and jewel tones are mixed with sickly greens and blacks. Collage and comic-style sequences enhance and add variety to the illustrations. The characters are depicted in a somewhat abstract manner and appear racially ambiguous.Visceral and surreal. (Folklore adaptation. 14-18)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In this unsparing variation on the Brothers Grimm story, Alemagna (Never, Not Ever!) embraces all the intensity and violence of the original. Narrating in the oft-villainized queen’s voice, the text contextualizes the woman’s position. “This girl is tearing out my heart,” she howls of Snow White, born to the king’s first wife; “I hate all that is better than me./ I drape myself with diamonds, and anger.” Blank verse lines appear sans illustrations, followed by multiple wordless full-bleed spreads in which beauty and horror intermingle. The loose, liquid images employ earth tones and electric pink to spotlight blood and hair, thorny undergrowth, angular rooms, and exaggerated features among the cast, portrayed with varying skin tones. The titular princess is nearly silent throughout, distinguished by flowing dark hair, while the queen is shown taking action: in one scene, the exquisitely coiffed woman devours raw the bloody boar’s heart that she believes is Snow White’s. As Snow White approaches marriage, death offers the queen release: “becoming everything, again..../ Becoming nothing” via blazing hot iron shoes. It’s an artfully produced volume that, per a preface, hints at “what is brutal, dark, and feral, as a way of telling the full story of childhood.” Ages 14–up. (Oct.)