The Best Fairy Tale Rewrites: Snow White Retellings

Disney's recent release of the live-action Snow White has us reflecting on the age-old tale of beauty, moral goodness, and purity. As Maria Tatar points out in The Classic Fairy Tales (Norton, 2nd edition, 2017), nearly every critical interpretation of the tale "identifies a stable core that turns on some kind of rivalry between mother and daughter" (Tatar 85), which further suggests "not just a generational divide but also a moral, ethical, cognitive, and aesthetic standoff" (86) endemic of Western culture.

With its Biblically provocative poisoned apple and its magic mirror of "fairness" (i.e. beauty, but also goodness), it's a timeless tale that's been retold and recast in every form of media, and varies from culture to culture. In America especially, it's easy to mistake Snow White as a Disney original—perhaps because it was their very first feature-length animated film, released in 1937. But Disney didn't invent Snow White (same goes for many of the fairy tales that the enormous conglomerate has absorbed into its films, attractions, and merchandise). Snow White's most famous literary origin was the Grimm Brothers' 1812 collection of tales, Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales), compiled and shaped by (predominantly) German folktales. It's important to note that scholars have pointed to a lack of rigor on the Grimms' part, who did not carry out an exhaustive, romantic journey through the countryside to collect lore, as we might imagine. They relied instead on the stories and information supplied them by a few select women in their lives. (As this is not a scholarly article, we encourage you to do more research if this history interests you; an absorbing, entry-level starting place might be The Fairy Tellers by Nicholas Jubber.)

For literary retellings of Snow White, take a look at the below recent titles and the historical list that follows.

A Mirror Mended by Alix E. Harrow

The second book in the Fractured Fables series, A Mirror Mended is a Snow White retelling that reintroduces the Zinnia Gray character from A Spindle Splintered. After an epic princess-rescue mission, Zinnia is ready to settle back into her own life. However, it's not long before the Evil Queen's face appears in her mirror to plead for her help in escaping from a story she never chose to be trapped in.

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi 

Flax Hill, Massachusetts is the last stop on the bus route a girl named BOY takes from New York to escape her abusive father. It's here that BOY meets a girl named SNOW. In this deeply moving and provocative tale, themes of race, family secrets, identity, and evil stepmothers play out in 1950s Massachusetts. While this isn't a book you can share a lot about without giving spoilers, Boy, Snow, Bird is loosely based on Snow White and Rose Red. A disclaimer: there are themes of transgender identity in this book, but it's not an altogether comforting read on that front.

Snow & Poison by Melissa de la Cruz

In this 2023 retelling of Snow White's tale, red-lipped, raven-haired Sophie is ready to be introduced to Bavarian high society at the ball celebrating the marriage of her duke father to a woman named Claudia. When Sophie falls in love with the engaged heir to Spain's throne during the ball, forces of love, magic, and conflict threaten the peace of the kingdom. Snow & Poison is Cruz's follow-up novel to a best-selling 2022 retelling of Cinderella's story called Cinder & Glass.

History of Snow White Rewrites

The below is a list of adult fiction to broaden your cultural and literary research, or at the very least, stoke your Snow White fandom: