One sentence plot summary: Blanca & Roja, a modern reimagining of the classic fairytale "Snow White and Rose Red," tells the story of a family, plagued by a generations old curse.
I haven't been reading a lot of fantasy lately, but boy am I happy I picked this up. I'm not even sure that I would classify it as fantasy: there are supernatural elements, but I would consider it more magical realism than fantasy. Either way, without splitting hairs, this was the most breathtaking book I've read in a long time.
For me, Roja drives this story. She's hard not to fall in love with: she's complicated, insecure, gets most things a little bit wrong, and sees the worst in most people, but she's also introspective, a bit fearless, loyal, and sharp. She is the opposite of a fairy tale character (but small spoiler: not the opposite of Blanca, no matter how much she sees herself to be), neither villain nor heroine. Those things are kind of a given with any good novel and any developed character, but something about the way it drives this tale makes it a little more special.
This is a fairy tale. And a family drama. And a love story. A really, really pretty love story. It's at once full of passion, but also innocent. Most of all, though, I think this is the story of finding your place in the world. It tackles issues like gender and race without ever making them feel politicized or like anything more than a small part of who a character is. To me, though, the theme that really drives this novel was finding who you are outside your family. As you can probably tell from the title, Blanca & Roja, the two sisters who are under threat from the curse, are at the center of things and as much as it's a fairy tale and love story, it's a story of finding out who blanca is without Roja and vice versa. As Roja reflects: without the glow iff her, no one ever saw me. Without her, there was no me. Snow-white on her own was still her own fairy tale, but Rose-Red, alone, was only half a story (McLemore).
I enjoyed reading Roja's struggles to find herself apart from Blanca and, even though this book switched between four perspectives (Blanca, Roja, Page, and Yearling), I couldn't help it feel it was more ROja's story than anyone else's. The others had beautifully written passages and were great characters, but part of me felt that they were less intertwined characters than people who contributed to the narrative of Roja's coming of age. Maybe that's unfair or reflects my own bias in ROja's favor, but there it is.
This was my favorite read of the year and, while it's only July, I can't see it getting much better. The writing was lyrical and poetic, the characters well developed, and who doesn't freaking love a fairy tale?
5/5.
Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for the ARC I received in exchange for a fair and honest review.
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