Stitching Snow Book Review

To be honest, I was skeptical of Stitching Snow before I read it. The title and cover spoke of a YA “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, despite the back blurb’s assurances that this version was not your classic fairytale.

I’m glad the back blurb did not disappoint. The plot accelerates and excites beyond a level that Snow White could ever dream of in her glass coffin. Each part of it foreshadows the next in such a way that most readers can’t pick up on it after the technique has been used multiple times. The revelations within the story have different levels of difficulty that entertain the reader while improving their self-confidence; they can feel good about solving an easy surprise before it’s revealed while still having the “mind-blown” effect given from one harder to pick up on. Not surprising, the majority of these revelations sprout from the characters. In most stories, including too many characters with minor roles clutters the piece; in Stitching Snow, Lewis found a way of taking an incredibly large cast--not to mention remembering the names, characteristics, and cultures of the planets--and breaking it up into manageable chunks. Lewis also tends to keep each minor character within a respective chunk of text, which allows the reader to follow the story without flipping backward trying to catch the description of someone who showed up for a page seven chapters ago. The main characters are exempted from that, as they should be. What ingenious, memorable main characters! From intelligent, fiery Essie to resourceful, clever Dane to Dimwit, who messes up everything except what’s important, they delight as well as create a relatability amidst the sci-fi setting. Their characterization is slower than a typical story’s but also more believable. That characterization, along with many plot points, brings about two major themes throughout Stitching Snow: looks can be deceiving, and not every path is a straight line; sometimes the meandering means more than a path with a destination in sight. I doubt I’ll read anything as shocking and clever as Stitching Snow within the next month.

“‘So far, I [Essie] have got six drones upgraded--seven if you count Dimwit, which I don’t.’...Six drones scuttled and skittered, exploring the hall--seven if you counted Dimwit, which I definitely did.”

Recommended for anyone who wishes for a bit of the old and new merged together.

-Grace Nask