Review: Poisoned by Jennifer Donnelly

Beautiful Sophie, with lips as red as blood, skin as pale as snow, and hair as dark as night, is about to come of age and inherit her father's throne. But Sophie's stepmother wants rid of her - beautiful she may be, but too weak and foolish to reign. And Sophie believes her, as she believes all the things that have been said about her - all the poisonous words people use to keep girls like her from becoming too powerful, too strong.

When the huntsman carries out his orders of killing Sophie, she finds a fire burning inside her that will not be extinguished, and sets off to reclaim what was taken from her.

Jennifer Donnelly turns her feminist eye to this most delicious of fairy tales and shows Snow White as she's never been seen before.

This is a retelling with a difference. Think you know the villain of Snow White? Think again. Like with her previous novel Stepsister Jennifer Donnelly takes the fairytale characters that we know and love and puts an entirely different spin on their stories. Here we still have the huntsman, the seven 'brothers' and the poison apple that are classic Snow White, but beyond that the characters are given a new lease of life. Snow White, in this case Sophia, learns that she doesn't need a handsome prince to rescue her, that she is more than capable of fulfilling her destiny by herself, with the help of a few dear friends along the way. But be warned, this is no Disney story. There are darker forces at work behind the scenes. This is a Grimm fairytale in every sense of the word. Poisoned is a fresh take on a classic story, a fairytale for young women everywhere. A story of feminism and friendship - although thankfully the conventional happy ever after is in there too!