#22 Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire

On Sunday, the fabulous Miss S took us to go see Wicked for our early birthdays. What a better way to celebrate our wonderfulness by seeing a musical about a witch? Nothing I tell you.

I really want to like Maguire. I've always thought the retelling of fairy tales is fascinating even from when I was a little bit (Does anyone else remember the 3 Little Pigs book told from the wolf's perspective? He just wanted a cup of sugar!). This is the third book of his that I've read. All have interesting premises but fall apart, or never really get going. I think that Wicked is the best example of this. The first half is great but the second and third parts are like a totally different and not nearly as interesting book. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is best of the ones I've read. It's not as good as the beginning of Wicked, but it is consistent throughout, and therefore much less frustrating.

Mirror is the least interesting of the three. There's Biblical themes woven into it as well as historical figures but barely anything about Snow White, oh excuse me, I mean Bianca de Nevada. The silly Garden of Eden plot felt tacked on and took away from the rest of the story. I guess I was hoping that Snow White wouldn't be such a dim wit and not as perfectly pure, maybe even a bit wicked, however, she's just stupider in this version and the "stepmother" is even crueler than the one in the Disney version. Eh. I thought that Maguire was about filling in some gray but Mirror was still very much black and white.