We just got in an advance copy of his new book, due out in Oct., Mirror, Mirror, a take on Snow White (I went back and reread the original, and boy, they didn’t call those brothers “Grimm” for nuthin’!).
He’s also written the enjoyable Wicked (The Wizard of Oz, as told from the Wicked Witch’s perspective) and the self-explanatory Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.
Both books are great! I’ve used Wicked in a bunch of different classes and have thoroughly enjoyed it each time. Confessions didn’t grab me as much; I didn’t think that it was as well written, and the basic theme it’s exploring (beauty, as opposed to good vs. evil) wasn’t as interesting for me. Plus with the Witch, Maguire had one of the all-time great characters to work with. Based on both books, I’d eagerly pick up anything else by him, especially if it’s another reworking of a fairy tale.
Another fan, and how. Thanks, Eve; now I’m waiting on releases from both Byatt and Maguire. September will be one long night before Christmas.
I’ve reread Wicked about twelve times now, and I’m still finding new aspects to enjoy. Confessions and Lost are well written, too, but I think a lot of readers weren’t expecting the shift in narrative tone for each–and after the densely layered themes and beautifully extrapolated mythos of the first book, the next two can seem pretty empty in comparison. It was a hard act to follow. Looking forward to seeing what he’s done now.
I haven’t begun reading Mirror, Mirror yet, so all I know is what the cover copy tells me: it takes place in 15th-century Italy, and the Wicked Stepmother is Lucretia Borgia (!). The seven dwarves are apparently realistic and dark, not goofy. It could be very good or very bad, I will certainly dive into it.
By the way, in the original Grimm story, Snow White’s new hubby kills Wicked S.M. by forcing on her a pair of red-hot iron shoes and making her dance till she drops down dead. Yikes.
Lucretia Borgia! :eek: Cool! Thanks for the teaser, Eve.
The other Snow White story, Snow White and Rose Red, had a nasty dwarf for the villain. I wonder if Mirror, Mirror is pulling from there for the darker dwarves. Let us know?
Semi-tangentially, I just heard about the new Terry Gilliam film, The Brothers Grimm.
Gilliam and Grimm are a natural partnership. I just hope he finishes this one.
OK, I’m about 100 pages into the book, and it’s actually not bad at all—very atmospheric, and his character development is pretty good.
I was stopped dead on page two, though, by a wowser of a sentence: “My eye consisders the alphabet of light that spells its unreadable words on the surface of the river.” Yikes! If I ever write a sentence like that, promise to speed a bullet through my brain?
Eve, Snow White was always my favorite story as a kid precisely BECAUSE of the red-hot iron shoes! lol
I have read Wicked and Lost, and at least own Confessions, though I haven’t gotten around to reading it. I thoroughly enjoyed Wicked, with only the minor problem of feeling it was rather anticlimactic. But then, I guess I didn’t consider when I started the book that I already knew the end!
I didn’t really like Lost much at all, which is possibly why I haven’t read the third yet. In addition to being at least as anticlimactic as Wicked was, I just felt rather empty after finishing it. I just didn’t find anything within it that made me even remotely happy or interested, but it was a gift from an old friend, so I felt I had to read it.
But I’ll definitely get on board for Mirror, because the idea of Lucretia Borgia as the evil stepmother is just far too cool to miss.
Thanks, Eve! I read Wicked first and loved it. I enjoyed Confessions, and I was pretty neutral on Lost but I’m excited about Mirror, Mirror and will get a copy when it comes out. Let us know what you think of it–if it’s really good I’ll probably just order it instead of waiting for the library’s copy.
“Lost” starts out to be a Scrooge story, then wanders off into a ghost story, then stumbles into a Jack the Ripper plot. None of the stories are resolved. I disliked it.
“Confessions” and “Wicked,” on the other hand, I have reread at least five times each. Love them.