The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah had an intriguing premise, but the execution fell flat. I was especially excited for the eerie Snow White retelling, but it never fully delivered on its potential. The atmospheric writing and haunting forest setting had promise, yet the story meandered without clear direction, making it difficult to stay engaged. The protagonist’s emotional struggles felt repetitive rather than compelling, and the pacing dragged, diminishing any real sense of tension. While the book aimed for a haunting, introspective tone, it ultimately lacked the depth needed to make the characters or their journey truly memorable.

I knew The Wildest Things was going to be another 5 star read from Andrea Hannah, and I was right. She has this way of telling a story that sucks you in from the first few words and keeping you captivated until the very end. There was never a dull moment.

The world building is incredible. I could imagine every place where the characters visited. She did an amazing job at creating scenes where the senses were included. It felt as though I was there with them. The descriptions of the forest, the cottage, the castle, and the characters themselves were all phenomenal.

I found myself laughing, nearly crying, and angry. I felt their tender moments, their joy, and even the betrayal.

I love Andrea Hannah's work. It's female-centered, and shows how strong women are in the face of adversity. In the face of men trying to control them and the world around them. She shows her readers that women don't need men to survive, and that perhaps, it's the other way around.

DNF. Just about as dull and forgettable as the author’s last book, And worse, this was mismarketed…the sapphic “romance” is barely present in the bit I got through, and apparently isn’t all that prominent at all, based on other reviewss,

The Wildest Things is a dark Snow White retelling. Snow wakes up in a shattered glass coffin to find that the world has changed. She soon discovers that she has been asleep for twenty years and a blight has overtaken the land, causing the vegetation to rot and the animals to become deformed. Snow must find a way to eliminate the blight and restore her kingdom.

Based on the synopsis, I thought there was going to be this relationship between Snow and the Evil Queen’s daughter, but they don’t have any interaction until the end of the book. They hardly have any interaction at all.

I couldn’t get into this story. The pacing felt too slow and I was not interested in what was happening. I didn’t like any of the characters and there were animal deaths that made me sad.

Overall, this was not the book for me. You might enjoy this story if you like dark fairytale retellings.

I generally love fairy tale retellings, especially LGBT ones. However, this was a bit too gruesome and creepy for me.

I was all-in based on the description of this one: a Sapphic retelling of Snow White? Yes, please.
But it fell so totally flat for me. The story starts with Snow waking up in her coffin and then goes on to a lengthy and rather boring world-building without much character development. Were we supposed to know who she was as a human based on the fairy tale? But the dwarves were actually trees? And the few that were left when she awoke turned against her?
And don't get me started on the chapters written from the magic mirror's perspective. Ugh. I really tried.
This one just fell really didn't do it for me. But I much prefer character-driven stories. You may enjoy it if expository world-building is your thing.

I received this ARC from @netgalley and publisher @stmartinspress. The opinions are my own.

The Wildest Things will be released on February 25, 2025.

Fairytale retellings will never get old for me, especially if they're sapphic, and the magic in this book was so cool!!!

This is a "retelling" of Snow White, but really it just takes the concept of Snow White and creates a new story from there. The book starts with Snow White sleeping in the glass coffin and then waking up. Some of the background of what happened before the glass coffin are changed from the "original" story, for the reader to find out along the way. But you do not need much background to understand what is happening from the get go.

This book was advertised as having being a sapphic retelling and it felt like a marketing ploy. In this book, Snow White spends a significnant amount of time with Henrick, a man, who would have been a much better love interest than the Evil Queen's daughter. Not because Henrick is a man, but because we spend time with him and we get to know him. There is nothing about the love interest (whose name I do not know) that makes her likeable other than she is (apparently) very beautiful. I would like to think that people fall in love for reasons other than that. It was actually angering when the love interest remained the love interest at a certain point, because there is no misunderstanding to her evilness or power grabbing, she is purely a character we should hate and there is no reason for us to see otherwise.

The plot of this book was... nonexistent. There were people trying to attack/hurt Snow, and she was trying to avoid them. But I didn't know what they were trying to DO other than get away from them. I was bored, and it didn't help that Snow wasn't a very likeable main character. This book ended in a way that suggested there might be a sequel - I will not be reading it.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Everyone knows the tale of Snow White. Poisoned by an apple given to her by her evil stepmother. Then laid to rest only to be awoken by true love's kiss. But this is a different kind of story. After 20 years of laying in her glass coffin Snow White finally awakens from her poisonous slumber. But the land she left is not the same one she wakes up to. The blight has taken over. The kingdom of Roanfrost is filled with mutated animals and plants that could kill. On top of that the Evil Queen’s beautiful daughter will stop at nothing to have and keep her power. It’s up to Snow and Snow alone to leach the poison out her land and recover what she once lost.


Regrettably, I didn’t love this book as much as I wanted to. The premise had me. A gothic, dark and sapphic retelling of Snow White? Sign me up. However, I felt like the book I wanted to go into was not the same book I read.

To start, I couldn’t stand Snow White as a main character. I could understand she was asleep for twenty years and that she woke up to a world she didn’t know. Of course she would be afraid and off balance but all she did was whine, cry and have other characters fight battles for her up into the end. She made it hard to have compassion or empathy towards her. Secondly, I didn’t like the pacing. Ultimately, I felt like I was trudging through mud to get to the last 75% of the book where all the action happened at once.

My main gripe with this book was that I wanted a sapphic romance and didn’t get one. Snow had more chemistry with Henry, her “best friend” than she did with the main love interest - the Evil Queen’s daughter. They barely interacted until the last twenty-five percent and even then they were barely interacting with one another. I understand that this is not a romance book but I feel like it is mismarketed as a sapphic romance when there isn’t really one at all.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed. I liked the dark and gothic elements but wasn’t too impressed with the plot or the characters.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Wildest Things Is a Beautiful Beginning to a Dark Retelling. I loved Snow in this book. She is still the sweetest, fairest of them all, but she is tougher and smarter. She will help the Land she has always loved, now ravaged by a plague. She will face off with a new foe. Here, there is some confusion for me. This may not be the sapphic romance I was expecting. Yes, the vibe is there. Yes, they do share kisses. I don't know if there was enough in this book for it to be a romance. That said, the Fantasy aspect was perfect. I love the Forest! This is a series that will get better with each book. As more Characters are given, the Spotlight and their Stories come out. I want to know more.

Thank you to NetGalley and St, Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an Honest Review.

Overall enjoyed the book. Love a good Disney retelling. Would recommend to the right audience. It was whimsical, entertaining and so fun

Andrea Hannah’s The Wildest Things is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of nature, grief, and the raw edges of human emotion. Set against an untamed wilderness, the story follows a protagonist grappling with loss and finding solace in the untamed forces of the natural world. Hannah’s lyrical prose captures both the beauty and danger of the wild, mirroring the emotional journey of her characters. A poignant and atmospheric novel for readers who crave introspective and deeply evocative storytelling.

This one was not for me.

I found the information dumps to be quite a slog, I think the world building could’ve been done a little better. I found the characters to do things that were so out of character from what we were told about them, and a lot of it just didn’t make sense.

This was a great retelling of Snow White! After waking up from eating the poisoned apple, she discovers that the forest is completely changed by a blight. I loved the moss folk and their connections to nature (instead of the seven dwarves). The world building was amazing and I loved how the mirror also had a POV in the book.

I loved the way this story started, from the pov of the magic mirror giving us some history and worldbuilding. It was a unique way of being introduced to this world, it’s politics, and it’s magic in a way that absolutely nailed the fairy tale vibe.

The writing was a strong point for me. It was beautiful and descriptive and captured that feeling of the original Snow White tale; beautiful and ethereal but with a dark, sinister undertone. I love the feminist themes that the book explored, from ageism and inflating beauty with moral virtue, to the trap that is being a “good girl”. I really love nature body horror (think House of Hollow) and this story had great elements of that.

I struggled to get through this one. The idea is an interesting take on Snow White, but it just dragged on so much for me despite not being a terribly long book. I didn't feel any attachment to the characters, and the romance was based on nothing except a passing attraction which made it feel like it came out of nowhere. And then the book ends without really resolving much of anything while also creating a cliffhanger for an entirely new plot.

I received a free copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press; all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

This was definitely the dark and twisted retelling of Snow White that was promised, but I found the sapphic romance element somewhat lacking. If you love a twisted fairy tale and aren't too invested in the romance element, it's a good read! If you're looking for a dark romance, I'd say the interactions between the characters are a little too limited to be quite fulfilling in that regard.

For sensitive readers, this book contains violence, body horror, grief, betrayal, animal cruelty, abuse, neglect, and just a whole bunch of awful things happen a lot, I can't remember all of them honestly.

I found myself not being able to read this story, it just wasn't for me. Sadly this doesn't happen often but it did with story. I'm sure other readers will enjoy it. I was intrigued because it's a retelling and I do love retelling.

"The Wildest Things" sets the high fantasy bar high. Andrea Hannah's edgy retelling of the classic "Snow White" is a gift for women everywhere. It is an intriguing and creative look at the other side of the mirror, where good and evil aren't always easy to explain. The story is a must read for every "good girl" who longs to have that break through moment when smiling, be polite, and not causing a fuss is no longer the rule or even a suggestion . I was enchanted by all of the characters and hope there are more stories coming from Andrea Hannah's imagination very soon.

Snow wakes up in a coffin of shattered glass. Not only that, the land around her is dying, the animals are changing, and she has no idea who or what to trust. In the twenty years that Snow has be entombed, Roanfrost has gone from beautiful to blighted. Snow wants to save her land, but she is unsure if she has the ability to become the Seasonkeeper. With the help of some unexpected allies, and a lullaby her mother used to sing, Snow learns that there is much more to being the fairest of them all than just a pretty face. I enjoyed this retelling of Snow White, but it did end on a cliffhanger.