A wretchedly dark and grim re-telling of the old “Snow-White and Rose-Red” fairy tale (not to be confused with the Disney Snow White), in which teen mom Liga takes her two daughters (begot by incest and gang-rape) into an alternate reality to raise them away from the world. Far too many nasty goings-on and penis references for my taste.
I was really excited to read this book because I love fairy tale retellings. This is a fairy tale retelling of Snow White and Rose Red.
Tender Morsels isn't a young adult book. Not because it's too graphic and horrifying and the poor innocent babies can't handle it.
Remember the lonely hut at the edge of a dark wood? Some will be familiar with the `The Ungrateful Dwarf' by Caroline Stahl which was reworked by the Brothers Grimm into `Snow White and Rose Red'.
I read this novel in the period of two days. This is the sort of tale that draws you into the very world of the characters.
Once upon a time Faerie Tales & Folk Tales were for adults. Tender Morsels fits nicely into that category of tale.
This was bound to be a book that would alienate some readers. It is harsh, visceral, painful, and utterly gorgeous.
I love this book. It's one that keeps coming back to me and I am going to re-read it.
In Fear Itself: Reasoning the Unreasonable, Laura Hubner discusses Del Toro's musings on fairy tales when interviewed about their influence on Pan's Labyrinth. "Del Toro discusses the film's debt to fairy tale, and recounts at some length his attempts to remain faithful to fairy tales' 'simple' ingredients: 'I always felt that the power of a fairy tale was that it was at the same time very simple and very brutal.
Brutal does not even begin to cover it. Liga's life with her father is a nightmare.
I don't know HOW an author could produce a book like this and feel good about it. WHY an author would write such a book is unknown to me.
Evidently, Tender Morsels is a modern retelling of Brothers Grimm's fairy tale Rose Red and Snow White: A Grimms Fairy Tale. If I have to look for an analogy among better known fairy tale retellings, Tender Morsels is closer in its audacity to Anne Rice's version of Sleeping Beauty - The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty than to Robin McKinley's Spindle's End.
I'll be honest with you, it took about 200 pages for me to really start getting into this book. As was my habit, I really didn't read much about the story (although in hindsight I should have reacquainted myself with the original Snow White and Rose Red), so I wasn't as prepared as I might have normally been for some of the most disturbing, dark scenes I've read in a long time.
This book was astounding. I couldn't get enough of it in every way possible, despite the fact that it isn't full of sunshine and rainbows.
Very captivating, good descriptions, couldn't put it down. Loved it!
