Rating: 
Summary: Maguire at his less than best...
Review: Gregory Maguire has always had a wonderful writing style, even in this novel there is no doubt that he his able to produce amazing works of art with his talent. This novel has his writing going for it... but when all is said and done it is a dissapointment considering what he has proven he can write, "Wicked" being the jewel in his crown. The biggest problem with this book is a problem (I hear because I haven't read it yet) that he has in "Lost". He gets bogged down trying to figure out what story he wants to tell. It's almost as if there is a bump of another story in the middle of the novel and then he returns to Snow White for the end. It should be read by all Maguire fans because it is an interesting take that he always is known for. If this is your first Maguire novel I would suggest starting out with "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" or (as you may know) "Wicked". Then read this. The good thing is it is a quick read by comparison to the other novels and it adds to the impact he has already made on literature. I still can't wait to see what's next
Rating: 
Summary: A new slant on an old fairy tale
Review: Gregory Maguire has put a most clever twist on this incredibly rich and creative retelling of the classic story of Snow White. In a seamless blending of history and fairy tale, the story takes place in 16th century Italy. Snow White is personified as Bianca, the beautiful and naive daughter of a Spanish expatriate who manages the Montefiore farm. Lucrezia Borgia, the decadent, beautiful, and manipulative murderess, replaces the role of the wicked stepmother as Bianca's caretaker. The seven dwarves are creatures far stranger than any I have ever seen depicted before. Part man, part rock, and wholly surreal, they move through their own dimensions of time and space. The poisoned apple is plucked from the fabled tree of knowledge.The language is lyrical and evocative of far away times and places. Objects ranging from the mirror to the dwarves' cottage are painted with detail so realistic yet magical that the reader is immersed in the off-kilter and eerie world of fantasy. Colorful secondary characters such as the cook, priest, and gooseboy add humorous contrast to the evil machinations of the Borgias. Take a trip to Montefiore and revisit a fairy tale reflected in a mirror of history, myth, and magic.
Rating:
Summary: '...shadows offer more.'
Review: Gregory Maguire states in his most recent adult fable; Mirror, Mirror, that the 'light catches our eyes, but shadows offer more'. Perhaps he should have pulled his story from the shadows, because this one is certainly lacking. Don't get me wrong, I really love this man's writing style, and his prose....his imagination is incredible; his ability to re-tell an age old story and breath fresh life into it is amazing. Snow White; Renaissance Italy; the Seven Dwarves, and all the lore that goes along with them;...a magic mirror, poisoned apples, and Lucrezia Borgia as the Wicked Queen of this tale? WOW!!!!! So; why is it less than 300 pages long? I loved every word of this book...I loved the concept...I loved the twist on the Snow White tale...I loved the literary liberties Maguire took....it isn't what IS there that I didn't love...it's what ISN'T there.... Bianca De Nevada is the consummate Snow White...innocent, beautiful, obedient...Lucrezia Borgia as the 'wicked queen' is perfectly cast....and the supporting characters are equally as likeable...there just isn't enough of them... I don't think it necessary to take up space with a 'synopsis' of the Snow White story...it's been around for years...and I highly recommend further reading on the Borgias...there is a wonderful study of them called 'The Fall of the House of Borgia' by E.R. Chamberlain if you can get your hands on it. But Maguire's re-telling has left a lot to be desired...granted it is his story, not mine, but....with such a wonderful cast to work with, and so much story...this is a feeble offering at best. HOWEVER...if you are a Maguire fan...read this book...his story-telling capabilities are in full bloom...just hope that next time he gives you a little more of what you love.
Rating: 
Summary: The Italians call it "Merda"!
Review: Having enjoyed and just finished reading "Wicked" for the second time to prepare for seeing the Broadway musical, I had half finished reading "Mirror Mirror" when I found ot that Maguire was to appear at a local bookshop. What a disappointment! He read passages as if to a group of kindergarteners, and was very vague and defensive about answering questions about mistakes in the text of "Mirror" and just seemed to want to bask in the obsequiousness of the small group of fawning admirers who had gathered for his signature. The book is muddled and poorly plotted with mostly flat undeveloped, uninteresting characters who are weird for the sake of weirdness. The prose is turgid, pretentious, overblown, with lots of show-off Italian phrases in italics . Unfortunately, anyone who thinks Daniel Handler is a good writer is already suspect in my book. I don't think I will waste any more money on his books, not with so many other more capable writers around. By the way, Greg, Queen Isabella died before Columbus,not after, and in the early years of the 16th century, it was not called the Atlantic, but, among other titles, the Ocean Sea. You need an editor you can trust, someone who will hand your manuscript back and say, "This needs work!"
Rating:
Summary: Intelligent but not really entertaining.
Review: Here lies a version of the classic fairytale of Snow White set in the early 1500, in Tuscany. While many elements of Snow White could be found in this tale, it pits the non-fictional Borgia family as the proverbial "evil witch", though their part in the story itself was very loosely based on their real lives. While it is evident at the beginning of the book that the author intends to delve on the philosophical and read-between-the-lines aspects of the base fairytale, it fails to entertain. Oftentimes it is tedious and in truth, I wish that the author would just skip these parts and tell the damn story. However, I cannot discount the fact that these are all intelligent observations, boring though they are. It becomes more evident as the pages go by that the author is more interested in telling a story about the Borgias, particularly Lucrezia, than he is of Bianca, otherwise known as Snow White. In terms of the Borgias' lives and interactions, this could pass as a good fictional account, but as a version of Snow White... not that it failed, just that perhaps it would have been infinitely more compelling as a short story rather than a drawn out novel. Many parts of it were, I could only assume, allegorical. The symbols and fancies could boggle ones mind, mainly because the story started out so realistically then tumbled into magical gobbledygook. I should have expected it, knowing it was a fairytale after all, but it came out too weird, and adjustments and reminders in perception had to be made. Ultimately, it's tiresome to try to understand the meaning of Bianca, the dwarves, the mirror, Vicente's quest, the apple, the coffin, the deer come to fetch Lucrezia... The verses in the book were wonderful, though. I enjoyed how it gave the characters more volume and how it set the mood. For all this, I give this book a two and I wouldn't hastily recommend it. I'm still deciding on who would best be served by reading this. Perhaps someone who wishes to make a thesis on the fairytale of Snow White or the Borgias. Who knows?
Rating:
Summary: A bit of history
Review: I am reading this book for a book discussion group and I really enjoyed the book. I am planning on reading the book twice before the group meets. I love the way Macguire writes. i find that I have to give the prose a lot of thought- especially his poems. I really liked how he tied the book into a bit of history. I like his contrast between good and evil. I have also read "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" and "Wicked". I did not enjoy "Wicked" after half way through the book. It seemed to drag on and on. I did not like how the story kept changing settings. If you like fractured fairytales, this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: Bleak
Review: I can't decide whether I like this book or not.
On the one hand, Maguire's prose is always a treat, and Lucrezia Borgia makes a perfect "wicked stepmother" with all her poisons. I love the mythical, biblical twist on the magical apple. And I always love fairy tales dropped into historical settings, especially if they're done well, as this is.
Yet on the other hand, this novel left me feeling horribly depressed. All is bleak. The scene near the end of Bianca's father and the dwarves was heartbreaking. The scene of Bianca's awakening was also troubling, as I came away feeling that the best man had not necessarily won. I don't have a problem with sad endings. My problem is with books where almost *nothing* happy or pleasant or uplifting happens at any point in the story. A tragedy can be uplifting and numinous--but this book isn't so much a tragedy as it is a 300-page cloud of gloom. The semi-happy ending doesn't really dispel it, for whatever reason.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as his other works
Review: I have previously enjoyed Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly stepsister but Maguire's last two novels, Lost and now Mirror Mirror have been hugely disappointing.
First off the 'dwarves' confused me. They developed as inanimate blocks of stone to somewhat dwarf-like as a result of Bianca's (Snow White) humanity, thoughts, projected imagery and expectations rubbing off on them. I'm not sure what their real 'purpose' was in the story and kept waiting for some big revelation as to why they were even in there (besides the fact that they are in the original Snow White) Maybe there's more symbology to these "stones" but I didn't get it.
Then the father gets sent off on a life-long journey to fetch a branch from the tree that resulted in the banishment of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. MUCH more could have been written to develop this plot-line but it didn't happen.
And the "evil witch" - this plot line didn't make sense to me why the daughter of the pope, from a family of royalty, ended up on this lone farm away from the glitz of the court and high society that she craved.
In summary I agree with one of the other reviewers that Maguire wasn't sure which story-line to fully develop. I was very disappointed but not as disappointed as Lost which I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
However, I still look forward to this author's next works as he is a skilled writer who just hasn't been able to recapture the success and originality of his previous two novels.
Rating:
Summary: Unique entertainment puzzling at times
Review: I read all of this author's books and I saw the musical version of "Wicked" in San Francisco when it had its trial run. I enjoy his sly, witty and clever retellings of classic tales. This male author writes women quite well - he has a lot of female characters to deal with because woman are usually the ones having something done to them in fairy tales. I thought this book was very good; I looked forward to returning to it each day. I loved how he made "the wicked stepmother" Lucrezia Borgia (and not the stepmother at all). She doesn't just have things done to her but she DOES. That being said, I was puzzled by the inclusion of the mysterious holy relic, the Apples of Eden. I understand he included this because in that period of history certain people were very interested in obtaining these types of relics, but what these Apples were doing to the dwarves and others who ate of them, and what exactly they did to Bianca (Snow White) - I didn't quite follow. I didn't quite follow what the dwarves were supposed to be like, either. At first they seem to be little more than stones; later they become more like humans. It's just a little puzzling that the author is making it a point to cast classic tales in a historical, believable light for adult readers, obviously researching the time period in detail and including real historical characters - then he puts in elements that aren't believable anyway. You're not sure how you're supposed to take what you're reading. At one point one of the dwarves is described as a headless stone dog and even Lucrezia Borgia doesn't blink an eye at his/its appearance. A bit puzzling. Still, better than the average read. I'll be back for the next one.
Rating:
Summary: Unique entertainment puzzling at times
Review: I read all of this author's books and I saw the musical version of "Wicked" in San Francisco when it had its trial run. I enjoy his sly, witty and clever retellings of classic tales. This male author writes women quite well - he has a lot of female characters to deal with because woman are usually the ones having something done to them in fairy tales. I thought this book was very good; I looked forward to returning to it each day. I loved how he made "the wicked stepmother" Lucrezia Borgia (and not the stepmother at all). She doesn't just have things done to her but she DOES. That being said, I was puzzled by the inclusion of the mysterious holy relic, the Apples of Eden. I understand he included this because in that period of history certain people were very interested in obtaining these types of relics, but what these Apples were doing to the dwarves and others who ate of them, and what exactly they did to Bianca (Snow White) - I didn't quite follow. I didn't quite follow what the dwarves were supposed to be like, either. At first they seem to be little more than stones; later they become more like humans. It's just a little puzzling that the author is making it a point to cast classic tales in a historical, believable light for adult readers, obviously researching the time period in detail and including real historical characters - then he puts in elements that aren't believable anyway. You're not sure how you're supposed to take what you're reading. At one point one of the dwarves is described as a headless stone dog and even Lucrezia Borgia doesn't blink an eye at his/its appearance. A bit puzzling. Still, better than the average read. I'll be back for the next one.
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