Look, I really like T Kingfisher’s work in general, so I’ve had this on hold essentially from when it was available to go on hold. I read it in a single day, I think in a single sitting (although this latter part not that surprising as I think I was on a train and therefore not much else to do). I also really like fairytale retellings, even the ones that aren’t Beauty and the Beast. But this book just wasn’t it, and I think it’s because the world of the fairytale became more engaging than the fairytale it was telling (and, if we’re being honest, from the plot itself).
Our main character isn’t from the actual tale being spin (Snow White) but ancillary to it–Anja, an older woman (hallelujah!) who has a keen interest in poisons in a world before the advent of advanced medical science. She’s experimented her way into an understanding of certain techniques like adrenaline to raise a heart rate, emetics to induce vomiting, fluids, etc, but doesn’t fully understand what or why these things do what they do. She lives far away from royal intrigue, but as it often does it finds its way to her–the King shows up, worried about the life of his daughter who is showing signs of being poisoned, and asks Anja to come and try to heal her. Also, his prior wife went nuts and murdered their eldest daughter by cutting out her heart, so you know. There’s that.
Despite the clear downsides of walking into a viper’s nest, Anja agrees and even brings with her a viper of her own (who makes the adrenaline-type substance). Flip forward a bit and she eventually realizes that the prior queen, who came from a nationstate famed for its mirrors, was also hiding a secret around said mirrors which are hung everywhere. If you eat a bit of mirrored food, you can step into a mirror–through which is an entirely different world that has its own rules and monsters and people and issues.
This, unfortunately, is where the story sort of goes off the rails. Anja is a scientist at heart, as we know from her experiments with poison. But that same scientist mindset drives her to make what feel like endless trips to the mirror world to figure out its rules, its limitations, etc etc etc. It’s so monotonous, and frankly confusing (descriptions of mirrored motions being viewed from the perspective of the mirror and the mirrored abound) that at this moment I can’t even remember what the big reveal was. I appreciate that Anja can have her own priorities and interests even when in the palace, but I kept wishing she’d get back to the mystery at hand and then solve the mirror mysteries later.