Gaiman likened the desired effect of his twisted retelling in Snow, Glass, Apples to that of a virus when he said, Good Princess, Evil Queen: Inverted—the queen is a wise woman trying to protect the kingdom from her evil, bloodthirsty stepdaughter. As he began to thrust inside me, I felt my hips raise, felt myself begin to match him, grind for grind, push for push. I moaned. I could not help myself. Face Death with Dignity: In the final moments of her life while being roasted alive in a giant oven, the queen decides not to scream and give her tormentors the satisfaction of hearing her in agony as she dies.

After some hours a clutch of dwarfs crawled out of the cave-front — ugly, misshapen, hairy little men, the old inhabitants of this country. You saw them seldom now.The story begins with a twist on the classic fairytale of Snow White, told from the perspective of the evil queen. The narrator is a young queen who marries an older king and is subsequently faced with an unusual problem. Her stepdaughter, Snow White, is not only beautiful but possesses an otherworldly charm that makes everyone, including the queen's husband, adore her. There was a hammering on the door. I felt afraid, but I am a queen, and I would not show fear. I opened the door. This is an adult graphic novel as it contain some explicit scenes and gore and it is dark! I can’t say much about the writing because I read the graphic novel version and that reminds me that I should use this opportunity to praise the artist who did the illustrations as she did an outstanding job! The drawings were creepy and were just perfect for the story! I am always mentioning that the illustrations in graphic novel are disappointing me, but not this time! Snow, Glass, Apples " is a short story by Neil Gaiman. It is a Fractured Fairytale of " Snow White" that flips the script.

Carpet of Virility: The monk that Snow White meets in the forest has "a body as hairy as a bear's." Snow, Glass, Apples” features a reversal of perspective, with a younger generation that is trying to wrest control from their relative elders. While Snow White’s father is absent from the Grimms’ tale, Gaiman introduces an ineffectual king who exercises his “king’s rights” over the narrator (the Queen), and substitutes her for his dead wife (106-107). In response, the Princess attempts to eradicate her father and this encroacher. In a manner, the Princess then becomes a phantasm of the King’s past marriage, haunting the new Queen. Therefore, Gaiman’s story eschews the traditional preoccupation with beauty and instead is centered around the Queen’s struggle for survival against her supernatural stepdaughter. This is reflected in the Queen’s less gratuitous and more practical use of the tool of the looking-glass, as her power struggle with the Princess leaves no room for vanity: “I covered the mirror in doe-skin, and told him that I would personally take it upon myself to make the forest safe [from the Princess] once more. I had to, although she terrified me. I was the Queen” (Gaiman 111). The conflict in “Snow, Glass, Apples” revolves around both the Princess and the Queen attempting to navigate their new family unit and find their places within it. In both the traditional tale and Gaiman’s retelling, it is the intergenerational conflict between the Princess and the Queen that allows for each version’s most intriguing events to unfold. But what makes Neil Gaiman’s story starkly different is the subversion of the characters and their motivations. The story then becomes brand new, even with familiar characters and story plot. Turning the stepmother into the protagonist, Snow, Glass, Apples introduces a young woman who falls for a widowed king. Their love and passion are unmatched and they rule the kingdom well. But as her stepdaughter grows, so does the child’s dark influence over the king, to the point where the queen must take matters into her own hands.Riddle for the Ages: Even in-universe, no one knows how Snow White, a vampire child, was born to two parents who by all appearances are perfectly normal people. Over time, the King also begins to succumb to the Princess' bites, wastes away and eventually dies. The Queen remembers that he had only one scar during his youth but just before his death was covered with scars, including ones on his thighs, testes and penis. After the King's death, the Queen has the Princess taken into the woods and her heart cut out. The Queen hangs the still-beating heart in her room with rowan berries and garlic bulbs to protect her from the Princess' evil. Straying Baby: As a maiden, the queen found a lost child who had strayed from her mother by staring into her mirror. As the story unfolds, the queen uses her magic to gain the upper hand over Snow White, but her attempts only bring about unintended consequences. The queen's obsession with defeating Snow White drives her to make increasingly darker and riskier choices, including using the power of a frozen apple to turn the tide in her favor. Downer Ending: The queen is burned alive in an oven, knowing the kingdom will fall to ruin into Snow's carnivorous rule.

I don't want to say that I am becoming a fan of Neil Gaiman's work, but so far I really enjoyed the few books by him that I have read - the last being 'Stardust'. His award-winning works stand to reason for his unique, macabre flavor and his incredible talent in the storytelling craft is superb. I did not eat it: I hung it from the beams above my bed, placed it on a length of twine that I strung with rowan-berries, orange-red as a robin’s breast; and with bulbs of garlic. You can ride through the forest for a dozen days and never see a soul; but there are eyes upon you the entire time.” What’s interesting is that Neil Gaiman doesn’t touch or alter the story structure. You have the same characters: the king, stepmother, Snow White or the stepdaughter, dwarfs, and the prince. The same passionate courtship of the king and the stepmother, or the stepmother’s magical mirror and powers.Glamour: The queen uses one to disguise her poisoned apples as rosy and lush ones. She also casually mentions that she used a glamour to enhance her own appearance when she met the king. Did they take his gold willingly? Or did they look up to see his men on their horses, with their sharp swords and their spears, and realize they had no alternative? They brought me her heart. I know it was hers — no sow’s heart or doe’s would have continued to beat and pulse after it had been cut out, as that one did.