I liked this book. I stuck with audio only this time. My only complaint is that the 'idea' kind of just trailed off to the small puff of smoke at the end. I may try the ebook next time. Maybe it will make more of an impact. ( )

This is an excellent retelling of Snow White set in the Weird West. It's a serious and heartfelt rendition full magical realism and really fun wordplay.

Six-Gun Snow White is reminiscent of earlier, non-sanitized, pre-Disney versions of the tale. Mr. H, Snow White's father, buys her mother, Gun Who Sings, from her tribe. Gun Who Sings dies in childbirth and things are as good as could be expected until the second Mrs. H moves in. And Mrs. H is an abusive stepmother who has no love for the half breed child and makes fun of the pale skin she'll never face (hence, snow white). So when Snow White has had enough of her wicked stepmother, she goes on the run in the Wild West. Eventually, a Pinkerton is sent out on her trail and she heads out to hide in various territories in the Northern plains that will offer her safe harbor. Yet, Mrs. H will stop at nothing to find her stepdaughter.

Valente really made me care about Snow White's hardships, both before she went on the run and after. The ending is quiet sad, tragic, and beautiful. Valente's prose was really wonderful, in fact, some of her prose was so "charming" and fascinating, I was giddy as I read it.

This is worth a read if you like fairy tale retellings as well as weird westerns and indigenous folklore. This would pair well with work by Neil Gaiman. ( )

I’d been hearing about Six Gun Snow White for years, but when I finally got around to reading it, I found it to be thoroughly unmemorable. Some parts of the story were good, some parts I didn’t care for. I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, I’d almost forgotten that I’d read it until I found a note. ( )

An interesting and odd mix of western and fairy tale. Snow White retold set in the west. Snow White has a white father and a native American mother. Her step-mother call her Snow White to mock her for not being able to have white skin. Beautiful magical descriptions and imagery. ( )

Oh, oh, oh. I, seriously, never know what to say about Cat's book. It's like all my million words fall out of my head and I just want to flap my arms at people and tell them to go read it. To start now, to stop looking at me and wasting the air on waiting for me to understand and just start reading the first two or three chapters already. Because that is what will tell you if you are one of her reader's or not.

I love everything Cat's written, never regret my mailbox subscription to her monthly short stories, or every post on her her journal, and this new publication is no exception.

This is gorgeous, magical, and bloody-sharp all at once. The words are luscious and bite to the bone in spinning turns, at the chime of a hand crank in saloon room. I love the background given to 'Snow White,' to her mother, her father, her brother. I love the descriptions of growing up, and the descriptions about what is to become a woman and a wife and a mother. What it costs. The price you pay. The involvements of magic, and what that costs, what price that takes.

I love the pinkerton detective as "the huntsman" and what that all means in the end for her brother. How they are all linked. How the challenges of Snow White facing her mother take place at that door, and with all those other women. The power of repetition. I, even, sort of loved the jaded dozy, just going forward ending. There are so many quotes in so many chapters that I highlighted in this novel on my kindle, but always remember ---


You can't kiss a girl into anything. ( )