This Twisted Tale takes more creative liberties with the source material than most in the series, reading more like an expanded Brothers Grimm tale than the Disney animated classic.

But unlike the animated film, which didn’t portray any other servants or villagers in the kingdom, this version of the story features a fully realized kingdom living in poverty and terror under the vengeful queen. It then returns to Snow White as readers will remember her from the beginning of the 1937 animated classic film, a scullery maid in her own home cleaning the gardens of the palace. The book begins with a prologue during the story’s climax, with Snow White and a friend sneaking back into her kingdom to overthrow the Evil Queen and take back the crown.

But as the title suggests, her Magic Mirror is another major character and their first encounter and rise to power are slowly revealed through flashbacks. In this version, the Evil Queen is Snow White’s aunt, which adds a new level of vile to her wicked deeds and the treatment of her niece, Snow White. The narrative switches points of view between the Evil Queen, aka Ingrid, and includes much of her backstory. The premise of each book poses a question on the cover and for this story, it’s “What if the Evil Queen poisoned the Prince?” But that’s not the only twisted aspect of the Snow White story to be found within the pages of this story, which seems to take place in an alternate Disney universe. Disney’s Twisted Tale book series adds another classic fairytale to its growing list of altered fables with Mirror Mirror: A Twisted Tale by Jen Calonita.

A twisted tale series review