From my LJ entry:

No, I'm not vain (well actually, yes, I am, but that's not the point). I read the book Mirror, Mirror, by Gregory Maguire. That's the dude that wrote Wicked. And you know, I really enjoyed the first third of Wicked, and then he wandered off into some heavy philosophical stuff that I just didn't get. Then I read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which looked promising, mainly because it was a heck of lot shorter than Wicked (geez, that sounds shallow. But if you read Wicked, you can probably relate). Confessions wasn't bad, but I felt that Maguire kept alluding to things I just wasn't getting. And, why do all of his stories have to be really far out versions of fairy tales? He really doesn't need the fairy tale part, in my opinion. So I wasn't going to read any more of his stuff, but my mom gave me Mirror, Mirror for Christmas, and I decided to give him one last chance. But I ended up with the same feelings. And additional feelings of bafflement as to why Lucrezia Borgia and Cesare Borgia had to appear in Snow White's story.

I'll be sending this off to avanta, who actually liked Wicked...go figure. ;-)
Happy reading!

Arrived in today's mail, along with a nice note and an absolutely gorgeous bookmark. Thank you, softdrink!

I finished this last night. I''m glad I read it, but I didn''t enjoy it nearly as much as the other Maguire novels I''ve read (yes, I loved Wicked and thoroughly enjoyed Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister). Once Bianca was taken to the woods, the story got choppy and disconnected -- rather like Bianca''s existence, I suppose -- anyway, it was difficult to stay "in" the story when the author hopped from this point of view to that with little connection between the POVs. Awkward awkward awkward transitions.

Still, I loved Maguire''s concept of the dwarves, and was disappointed by their limited appearances. I wanted more dwarves, dammit!

I''ll find someplace to set this free in the near future.

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