Blood Red Snow White is a work of historical fiction focusing on Arthur Ransome, a children's author and wartime journalist residing in Russia at the time of the Bolshevik Revolution. This book suffers from an identity crisis. It claims to live in fairy tales, but none of them are fully told. The title and fairy tale chapters imply that this story will involve a retelling of Snow White, but this is not the case. There are no parallels between the classic children's story and this one. The narrative feels disjointed; Arthur writes fairy tales, but also war correspondence with varying levels of accuracy as he jumps through hoops to be with the secretary he loves, not his wife and child. I did not connect with Arthur or understand his motivations for leaving his daugher and wife so often despite the attempts to explain. I wish there was more to do with the fairytales, especially the bear, and less with the amount of traveling all over that Asia and Europe Arthur did.

I requested this several years ago and I don't think it's a book for me anymore. So I will not be reviewing at this time, but if I do read it, I will update this review. Thank you for the opportunity.

The price I pay for not reading the description before requesting the book. Thought it was a fairy tale retelling...and this is definitely not something I would choose to read, but that is personal preference. I cannot attest to the authors writing because I didn't read beyond the first chapter when I realized it was not what I was expecting.

First off, I think the title is a bit deceiving. The title makes you think that this going to be a fairy tale retelling but it is not. It is definitely a historical fiction that is a retelling of the Russian Revolution. I found this story to be quite dull and wasn't very interested in the character or what was going on. I think this was a very bad case of the its not you its me situations.

Really enjoyed this book it was mesmerizing and enjoyable to read. I love reading about Russian history and this had a lot of it. I love how it wasn’t just a retelling of a fairytale it was a lot more. I can’t wait to read more of this authors books.

I cannot rate this highly enough or understand why it took so long to reach the US when it was published in England back in 2007. It tells the backstory of fairy tale author Arthur Ransome's involvement in the Russian Revolution and explores the rumors that he acted as a spy. It reads like a thriller while depicting the Revolution very realistically. It has broad appeal to fans of writers, thrillers, historical fiction and non-fiction, and mysteries.

I'll admit I thought this was going to be a completely different book than it was but I also happen to love historical fiction about soviet russia so it worked out!

I typically don't read mysteries or thrillers so this was a fun departure. Sedgwick is awesome at dropping little hints and tantalizing without spoiling. I loved it!

I'm going to be honest, I thought this was a completely different book from the title and cover. So color me a little shocked when I read the description right before starting the book and found out it was more historical fiction set in Russia. And while this book wasn't my normal cup of tea, I found myself completely sucked into the beginning. This wasn't my first Sedgwick book, but it had been awhile since I read him and I had forgotten how different his writing is. He has a way of putting you into the narrative rather than just watching from the sidelines.

Now let's talk about the book. I find it interesting that so many people classified this book as YA. The main character is much older and the subject matter a little more heavy. This book focused heavy on war games and espionage. But that wasn't how it started or what captivated me. The book started off with a young man who wanted to write down Russian fairy tales so other cultures can experience them. So the whole beginning of the book was like a fairy tale come to life as we navigated this new world. Then the war grew and the plot and story changed becoming more serious and spy gamey.

What I found a little offputting with this book was how good the first part was and then as it went on, I found it growing a little monotonous and dragging. It's almost like it was two separate books. I also never really connected with any of the characters and didn't understand why Arthur continually kept leaving his child and I didn't feel his relationship with Evgenia and why he was so in love with her. I don't know. Nothing really clicked for me character wise.

What I did enjoy, aside from the beginning, was the description of the time period and location. I know very little about Russia and their internal wars so this was a nice little look inside. But I just didn't love it.

Thank you for the chance to review this book, however, unfortunately, I was unable to download this title before it was archived

I fell in love with this retelling of Snow White with a twist put upon it. With the blood and gore really got me in the mood for this one. I couldn’t put it down for a second, had to see what happened next in the story. Boy I wasn’t disappointed with this one.

Okay... let me first say that I tried three different times to read this book. I eventually did get through it after I checked it out from the Cloud Library and it was still slow going for me. It was not the book itself nor the author or the writing. The subject matter just didn't appeal to me as I was reading it. The plot sounded great when I requested it but once I got into the book I just could not get through it. I think that many others will enjoy it. The book was just personally not for me.

No matter how many times I picked up this book, I just could not get into it. I have loved previous books by Marcus Sedgwick, but this one just did not grab me. I am not saying this is a bad book, just that I was the wrong reader for this book.

This title was intriguing to me as it followed the life of a real writer through quite an extreme time in history. The character of Arthur Ransome was portrayed as a man trying to find himself in the midst of the Russian Revolution. It is a whirlwind of a story that shares factual information mixed with a great story to relive this era in Russian history.
The settings given in this novel are detailed and wonderfully written. They paint a picture of Russia and Britain and allow the reader to follow along easily. Names of cities and areas are used that could easily be looked up on a map for further research and discussion.
The characters throughout the story are real. Ransome’s insights to these characters are both fact and fiction. Each character is masterfully brought to life for the readers to experience the behind the scenes of the revolution.
I enjoyed the way that the writing was put together to resemble a story at times and somewhat of a biography at others. It mirrored Ransome’s life beautifully and made the novel approachable and interesting.
As a whole, the novel was wonderful to me. It gave me insight into a time I did not have too much knowledge on and gave me incentive to research some more after I was finished. Unfortunately, I do not see this story being check out from the Young Adult section in our library. Although there is some interest in historical fiction, without characters that they can really relate to, I see this as more of an assigned reading for school. I will keep it on my radar, yet do not plan to purchase just yet.

I wanted to like this book. I really did, but I just couldn't get into it and was unable to finish it. It's not that it was a bad book, it was just a style that I couldn't adjust to.

I don't understand how anyone could walk away from such an intriguing book! It's this strange blend of fairytale and historical fiction that works so so so SO well. I was engrossed from page one, and it left me wondering, "Why don't more authors write about the Russian Revolution?" I mean, this is a time period rife with mytsery, intrigue and adventure! Yet we have hardly any historical fiction (much less YA historical fiction) on the topic. This proves how great a book on the Russian Revolution can be. I was tugged along with Arthur for every step of his wild ride, and I held my breath to the end waiting to see what his fate would be. I can't believe it's based on a true stroy! Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

I'm not gonna lie, I requested this book without actually reading the description, assuming it was a Snow White retelling, and boy was I surprised when I figured out it was about Russian history--but it was a happy surprise! I've never actually read anything outside of my History class about Russian history, so this was a very interesting read for me. I thought the author did a fantastic job in setting the scene and giving fantastic, vibrant descriptions through out the entire book. Arthur wasn't my favorite main character--he had his flaws--but there wasn't anything too bad. The only things that I truly disliked was the jumps in time. I found them confusing and unclear. Overall I like Blood Red Now White, but it wasn't my favorite. I feel like this would be a good book to study/teach in an educational environment.

I love the cover. I like the time period. But I didn't really enjoy this book. It was confusing and hard to read and finish. The beginning sounded like a fairy tale being told. The middle was a nonfiction story about the Russian Revolution. The end was my favorite. You actually learn about the characters and start to like them but by that point I didn't care. It had a lot of potential but it just couldn't live up to the expectation.

I was highly anticipating Blood Red, Snow White because it was going to be the first Sedgwick novel that I’d ever read. He is an author I am constantly hearing about, so I was very excited to read this book. And although I did enjoy it, I didn’t love it as much as I truly wanted to.

This novel is told in a fairytale writing style. In the beginning, I was in awe of it. I thought it added a sense of magic to the entire story, and it worked well with the symbolism that was in place for the Russian Revolution. But as the whole novel continued on, this writing style seemed a little annoying, and the too short chapters became frustrating. I just wanted it to be written a normal writing style and get on with the story. And sure enough, the further into the novel I got, the more the writing style seemed to fade away, almost as if the author was done with that illusion too.

The plot was decently good. It was grounded in the history of the Russian revolution, and then in the world war that followed it. Arthur is a journalist who gets caught up in the political and violent Russia which he has fallen in love with. We get to see a lot of horrors unveiling, but the author keeps us slightly distant from them as he is keeping this a friendly novel than one full of graphics to scare away young readers. I liked the plot well enough.

The characters were decent. We have Arthur, our passionate and slightly clueless main character. He has a child and a wife who he has left behind in England, and then he falls in love with Eva in Russia. Of course, romance in Russia is hard because there are sides, and Eva and him are on different ones. Also, Arthur does love his daughter, although he doesn’t love Ivy anymore. He struggles between the family man and wanting to be with the one he really loves. Although there wasn’t a character I disliked, I didn’t really feel that invested in any of the other characters either.

When it comes down to this novel, I did like it, but I didn’t have a sense of depth when reading this novel. I didn’t care about it enough to love it particularly well. I fell in love with the cover, but that’s as far as my emotions go for the novel itself.

This review and others can be found on Olivia's Catastrophe: http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2017/01/blood-red-snow-white-book-review.html

This book was great but I kind of struggle at describing it. The Romanovs, Rasputin and the Russian Revolution come to light in this tale, along with a love story of Arthur Ransome, a British journalist and writer on the hunt for fairy tales, who finds love in Russia. The two tales come together as the world changes forever.