This last installment of the "Snow White & Rose Red" Trilogy focuses on Fish and Rose. It deals with dark matters and weighty isssues, but very deftly and subtly. It is a beautifully written book, with amaxing and utterly believable characters.Not to mention, it has knights and nuns. Fires and fairy-godmothers. Escapes and rescues. Dragons and demons and darkness and death. True Love. Miracles. ( )

I liked the plot and the story in this book almost as much as I hated the author's callous and wrongheaded treatment of my alma mater. Good first - it is a neat story, with interesting characters you will come to care about - a retelling of the story of Sleeping Beauty, completely translating every element of it into a parallel situation that was moderately believable in the world today. From fairy tale, to Robin Cook thriller with more sympathetic, multi-dimensional characters. The author took a controversial stance on homosexuality that is probably out there for some (she is uber-Catholic), but you had to really be paying attention to even notice that that was, in fact, what she was talking about, so for me, anyway, it didn't really interfere with my enjoyment of the book. Everyone in the story was very Catholic. Again, this worked for me. In all fairness, so am I. But not since birth, and I thought that it made for an interesting look into a culture, plot points aside. In the same way that, say, All-of-a-Kind Family would tell you what it was to be a Jewish family, or Persepolis would offer an insight into life as an Iranian family. Literature and cultural study almost always combine well, as far as I'm concerned.

But as for the bad - most of the characters in her book attend a place called Mercy College, which the author states in the acknowledgments is a fictional place. It is so well described that you do feel you'd recognize it if you found yourself there. But when she uses a REAL place, in this case the University of Pittsburgh, it is apparent that she didn't ever feel the need to set foot on the campus before setting it up as an easy target for unfair maligning of the 'evil big city'. Apparently everyone in Pittsburgh hates Catholics, which is interesting since as a great big town with a significant Polish, Irish and Italian population, there are a ton of Catholics living there. I met more Catholics during my four years at Pitt than I have in all the time since, unless you count each and every member of my own parish. And at the time I attended Pitt, I was Lutheran - the religion of my birth. The hapless character Doman forces to attend Pitt thinks it's a shame he can't get to church any more since, in his own words, "there isn't a chapel close to campus." Apparently he has overlooked the existence of the Heinz Chapel, a very, very nice chapel which sits RIGHT NEXT TO the building where I, as an English major (like the aforesaid character) had most of my classes. And where I witnessed one of the most beautiful Christmas masses ever, my first year at school. Apparently, the guy has also overlooked the existence of the Newman Center, named after Cardinal Newman - a very active organization which serves Catholic kids on campus. Doman also mentions how Pitt, which she oddly persists in calling the University of Pitt, a sure sign she's never been there, "has its own protesters, he [Fish] thought of the grafitti by the campus goldfish pond". Campus goldfish pond??? Where? There is a very nice fountain outside the Frick Fine Arts Building, and a little grotto with a pond inside Phipps Conservatory (which is not part of the campus, but is closeby - and not filled with fish, to the best of my knowledge). But the campus is really mostly grafitti free, though if she wanted an example of student protest, the campus socialists who invariably hand out pamphlets in front of the library would have done nicely.

Doman also takes care to describe a student society called Cor - a lot of boys whose attitude is a throwback to the days of chivalry, and whose idea of good clean fun involves swords, martial arts, and Japanese films. She thinks that it's too bad societies and people like this don't exist outside of wholesome Catholic colleges. The funny thing is - MOST of my friends in college, at Pitt, were like this. Most of them belonged to the Society for Creative Anachronism, an organization where swordplay and chivalry play a large part. Many of them were even Catholic. I admire Doman's eagerness to translate her ideals to the page in a readable way. But I think she needs to do her research. She seems to have made herself a box of religious provincialism that doesn't wholly suit her. It seems to me that she has concerned herself too much with telling a tale that will hold its readers to the straight and narrow path, without allowing that if you are looking, God can be found everywhere. ( )

amazing!

will write more when I have time. ( )

An amazing modern retelling of 'Sleeping Beauty'. It will keep you on your toes to see who saves the princess! Definitly a must read, along with it's companions 'Shadow of the Bear', 'Black As Night', and 'The Midnight Dancers'. Any teenager will love it!

Innuendo: Not a problem at all. (one of the reasons I love these books... they're SO clean)

Violence: Mention of some suspected murders. Other things happen but I can't give away the plot.

Swearing: Not a problem

Drinking, Drugs, or Smoking: Not a problem -this book is about medicine and hospitals but it's so important to the plot that I can't say what happens.

Age Appropriate: Probably not for those younger than 13 or 14.

Similar/Better books: There is nothing like this series ( )