Rating is 3.5 stars but since we don't do half stars here....

I'm of mixed feelings about this book. Like I don't necessarily get, the extreme love or hate for it and maybe a re-read in a year or so would change my mind one way or the other. The first thing that set me off on this shaky path had to do with my own assumptions that Boy was Black, not white. While it was never called out one way or the other, and one could guess based on the synopsis she was, it wasn't apparent to me until the job opportunity for her that called for a blonde girl. I had to readjust my thinking after that.

Then as I read through the first part, her distaste towards Snow seemed to come out of nowhere and be based on how others treated her. She seemed to harbor an underlying feeling of resentment towards her because Snow looked white and was treated better than Boy who was white. Or she was worried on some level that kind of treatment wouldn't set her up properly for how people would treat her in the real world. Or maybe she was just a psychopath. Either way reading her sections were a challenge because Boy wasn't very likeable.

Bird was a bit more but at least her nature made sense because she was a child who had been born into a family that treated her differently because she as dark-skinned. She knew her mother loved her and would fiercely defend her against anyone even her sister which, truth be told, as really Boy's only redeeming quality. I enjoyed the letters between Snow and Bird since it helped to develop their relationship even though they didn't seem to mingle a lot when Snow came for the holiday. It showed ho similar they were even though they didn't grow up together.

The last section seemed almost unnecessary. I would have liked to have heard things from Snow's point of view but maybe that was one of the points since in other re-tellings of Snow White, which I believe this was, it's all about Snow. And with this we heard from other points of views which was nice. But this section served no other purpose except to have a tense reconciliation between Boy and Snow. The insert of the rat catcher served no purpose. Without getting into spoilers, it seemed like a twist thrown in for shock value. It did nothing to further the already convoluted plot of this story.

Again, I didn't hate or love this book. I enjoyed it and there are snippets from it that I feel I will randomly think about over time. I did enjoy the consistent thread of mirrors and how they play part in a person's development. I think it would have been stronger if we had a little section from Snow, outside of her letters to Boy and Bird and that the part about the rat catcher could have been cut completely. Quite frankly that character could have stayed in the first section and never been mentioned again and it wouldn't have had any bearing on the story.

This is a book that would be good in a high school AP or college class because I think if I had discussed parts of this with other people while reading it, I would have enjoyed it more. Which isn't to say I disliked it. My feelings towards it are very neutral.