Crimson Crown by Heather Walter

25 Mar, 2025

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

Date completed: March 14, 2025

Heather Walter writes great retellings. I was introduced to her writing through her Malice Duology, a Maleficient retelling. She seems to be exploring these retellings through the lens of the 'villain' instead of the stereotypical hero/princess as the main character trope.

In this series (it is a duology, something I did not know till I was bout 2/3 into the book haha), Walter decided to go with a Snow White retelling, with a focus on the evil queen instead. As I only have the Disney cartoon movie as a reference, I don't think I'm qualified to speak on how it compares to the OG story. However, compared to the Disney movie, I would say that it is very different from it and you shouldn't be reading this if you're looking for an almost 1:1 plot.

The main character is Alycent, the second daughter of the current ruling witch of a coven¹. In the story, we learn that being a witch is illegal and when outside of the coven areas, witches try to blend in as much so they don't get burned. In the quest to bring back her elder sister who passed away, Alycent had to venture into the King's castles disguised as a sort of handmaiden.

Throughout the series, we also have a romance subplot. Jacquetta, Alycent's childhood romantic partner, turns up with suspicious motives. An event happens that causes Jacquetta to invite herself to join Alycent on her journey to the castle, and we get to see the two banter and explore their pasts (in not-so-pleasant ways).

I would say that the politick-ing in this one is better than the previous books from Walter. I just felt like it was less frustrating and had more depth and twists that I didn't see coming. Though I'm not much of someone who would constantly guess or try to connect the lines on purpose. The mystery of Jacquetta's true intentions being around Alycent as well as some of the other characters like the King and Alycent's mother was plenty enough to keep me intrigued.

Although I felt like the book was trying to push for an enemies-to-lover vibe between Alycent and Jacquetta at first, it turned into quite a tame and chill reconciliation.

Overall, I had a good time with this one. I do think the ending felt a tad rushed? The time between the climax of everything and when Alycent becomes the 'evil witch' is super short. However, I liked how dramatically the author ended it (there's a whole scene where she says the infamous line: mirror mirror in the wall, who is the fairest of them all).

I will be reading the second one as I'm quite curious to see how this will go!

Highlights

I kinda liked the author's sense of humor, and decided to highlight a few sentences to illustrate that!

Branches snag at my hair and clothing as the forest blurs past me. I'm probably going to die, my head knocked off by a low-hanging tree limb.

By the Spirits, I think I will burst into flame.

But the sound of the claws has abruptly vanished. The invisible tether attached to my left ribs slackens. "What are you talking about?" The princess peers into the shadows. "Wait, did you see a ghost?" I'll be upset if I missed it. I knew this place was haunted."

[35/100] for #100DaysToOffload

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