Sorry this has taken a little longer. I've been so focused on narrowing my study, I forget to tell you all about the wonderful findings I've gained from my reading.
As I've been narrowing my field of study, what seems to be a strong
aspect of YA "fantasy" is this flexibility and multi-dimensionality of
characters, settings, and the immense power that gives the reader. You
find yourself disappearing into the story rather than the story making
an impact on you. That may seem like a bad thing, but it allows the
reader to unconsciously make connections to the story, rather than
consciously focusing on the themes that relate to them. It's a strange
kind of freedom, that lets you escape into the novel--which is the one
of the large draws of most leisure reading--but allows the reader to
maintain a working relation to the lessons and/or commentaries being
presented under the guise of entertainment. Sophie Masson's Scarlet in the Snow definitely falls into this category, almost forcing you to stop thinking so hard.
All right, I'll admit: this is one of my favorite fairy tales and as such I'm biased to like it. But "Beauty and the Beast" has been revisited so many times in a variety of different ways over the years, one more shouldn't make much of an impact. But in Scarlet in the Snow, everything you may have thought about the tale before is blown into oblivion. Okay, that may be exaggerating a bit, but you can't read it and expect the traditional storyline, because there really isn't one. Sure, you have traditional elements that distinguish it as a B&TB story: a curse, the magical castle, a disturbingly intelligent man-beast, and the plucky beauty determined to break the spell. And the rose. Always the rose. However, in the entire 318 pages of the novel, the traditional story begins and ends within the first quarter of the book, leaving the rest to completely turn the story inside out. Just because the spell has been broken doesn't necessarily mean the beast has been saved/redeemed/etc. In fact, THAT moment is when the story really turns into a quest for truth, redemption, and love.
A brief summary--as I don't wish to give anything good away-- is needed since this is not traditional for a revised fairy tale. Natasha, the youngest of three daughters, lives with her painter mother in Ruvenya, a somewhat Russian feeling country. One night, after delivering a requisitioned painting, she is caught in a terrible blizzard, where wolves chase her to the gates of a grand mansion where the blizzard ends within the grounds. Wandering through the empty halls, she finally comes upon a garden, where she sees a single miraculous red rose blooming. When she reaches out to touch it, it withers and dies, summoning a very angry beast to punish her. Instead of her death, however, she is to repay her debt by replacing "a joy for a joy" and remaining at the mansion until her debt is repaid. Clever as she is, Natasha quickly figures out that the beast is under a dangerous and powerful spell. She determines to break it and help him in whatever way she can...until she is told marriage is the key. After about three days, the Beast, who she has decided to name Ivan, refuses to keep her there against her will and sends her home, giving her a parting gift: a petal from the rose, which will connect them should she ever wish to return. While researching the Beast's past, she is confronted by a pawn of the sorceror responsible for the curse. To save her, Ivan appears and consents to give himself up to the madman. As he does so, the spell is broken and both men disappear. Natasha, who has fallen in love with Ivan, makes it her mission to track him down and save him from the evil plots of the sorceror. She travels through many different countries, meeting many strange allies along the way, and eventually discovers her beast. But saving him will be the hardest part of the journey, requiring her to face magic so evil and powerful that it is banned by humans and fae alike.
One of the things that I found most interesting about this novel was the nebulous setting of the events. In later English studies, we learn that there is a lot of symbolism associated with the city and the country as general settings, and this story is no exception. While Natasha, our beauty, is primarily with her family on a modest estate in rural Ruvenya, the tone of the story mirrors that of most fairy-tales, meaning you think older eras (maybe 14th or 15th-century) with dark forests, witches/demons, sleighs and horse drawn carriages, and where nightfall never bodes well for those caught outside. And for the most part, that feeling is upheld by the actions and people who live there. But there are details that belie that assumption: an alarm clock Natasha turns off, electricity, an "underground train" I assume to be a subway system, and a highly advanced fingerprint scanner used as a lock. While the alarm clock and electricity are present in Natasha's home life, the city tends to encompass everything else modern, which also makes sense. But the way that the author incorporates these two highly different eras is either very sloppy or ingenious. I'm never entirely sure. When in the country, as a reader, I find myself drifting into the mystical mindset of olden days but then, just as suddenly, can come face to face with a reminder that this is at the very least a fairly modern setting. In the sense of this belonging to a fantasy genre, it has more than enough to recommend it, magic and fantastical creatures specifically. But to also mix modernity with the supernatural makes it difficult to discern what the rules are for this world. We aren't allowed to wipe the slate clean as with most fantasy worlds, knowing there's an entirely different set of rules and limitations than the real world, but real world structures and boundaries exist simultaneously. This novel also places a huge emphasis on the arts, literally and figuratively. The story revolves around paintings and artists, but also shows the importance of the humanities in society through the characters and their situations.
All in all, besides making my new favorite book list, I would give this story a 4.5 stars, based on the imaginative and engaging plot, ingenious(or crazy) use of setting, and for generally refreshing the reader used to the same old story.
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