Reviews and Comments

The blurb sells this as a take on Snow White and the Snow Queen. I started it out of my childhood crush on the latter, but I don’t think the novel is at all close to these tales, in characters or themes. Rather, it deals with topics one sees more often in sci-fi: What it feels like for your body to be artificial, constructed; what it feels like to be dehumanised for it; being built differently; being told that because of your nature, you're unable to love; being a mother but just a substitute. Probably the most accidentally trans novel I’ve read in quite a while.

One fairy-tale archetype that is explored in depth is that of the social-climber stepmother, of the world pushing women against one another. I came for the lesbians, stayed for the mother-daughter relationship.

It was a quick, light read and I enjoyed it.

If Audrey Coulthurst thinks she can get me to read her whole fantasy series with bait like ‘nerdy princess blushing wildly as she ties the laces on the dress of her hot riding instructor’, she’s completely right. She has my number. I’m ~so~ here for this. There’s no way I wouldn’t binge on the whole thing.

OFaS is a romance novel, more than fantasy. Plot development is slow and the worldbuilding is cursory. What makes it work is the buildup of the relationship, the abundance of meaningful moments. Also horses.

(Book #2 and especially the prequel flesh out the world, but beware—do not read the prequel before the other 2, it is highly spoilerish.)

It’s no secret that I read fantasy for the lesbians, but cute though Denna/Mare may be together, the really interesting relationship for me was Mare and Nils’. I feel like friendships in general are undervalued in our culture; treated (unfairly) as less important or meaningful than romance. Under comphet, this gets ten times stronger for heterosexual friendships. It sometimes feels as if writers were constitutionally unable to allow a woman and a man be good friends; straight ppl seem to expect that if Sherlock means anything to Irene, if Mulder means anything to Scully, then the girl ought to prove it with kisses.

Nils’ friendship is fascinating to me because not only he’s Mare’s bff, he’s her ex. They already did the kissing. It was good. They grew out of it, and the resulting friendship has that level of intimacy and trust that often develops among lesbian exes, and I wish was common with male exes too. I was moved by the scene where Nils helps Mare choose a nice dress to go see Denna because, while aware of the risks, he knew she needed a push out of her comfort zone, that her best life lay in that direction. I want more of this particular kind of representation.

I think it is meaningful that this is a world with no homosexuality stigma. It makes sense to me that male/female friendships would safely grow deep when neither side is being especially marked as a unique sexual object in potentia by virtue of gender. The damage that comphet wreaks on queer relationships is obvious, but it also has negative consequences for m/f relations in general.