Alex Flinn’s latest book is new take on Snow WhitePopular young adult author Alex Flinn, who has a dozen novels out and is a resident of Palmetto Bay, regaled fans gathered at the signing for her new book, Mirrored, at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in West Kendall on Sept. 15.
A No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, Flinn’s latest book is a modern and mysterious retelling of Snow White, in which beauty is in the eye of the beholder and true love doesn’t necessarily mean Prince Charming. It was a book that might not have happened.
“I really thought long and hard about writing Snow White because I really didn’t like Snow White,” Flinn said. “She didn’t do a lot in the story. She went to live with the dwarfs. She cooked and cleaned their house. She ate a poisoned apple.”
But she thought there was potential in the tale none the less. Set in the present day instead of a fairytale past age, Mirrored is told from the points of view of Violet, Celine, and Goose, with lots of magic and mystery. And finding Prince Charming in Miami is never easy.
“People judge you because of how you look,” Flinn said. “Violet is not liked because she’s ugly and Celiine is not liked because she’s so beautiful.”
Flinn’s special retelling of the traditional story has many of the same elements, but approached in a fresh way. And although connected to several of her earlier books, Mirrored is a standalone novel that is different in style from her previous ones.
“I always try to take a different approach to each fairytale,” Flinn said. “Beastly was totally in one viewpoint, whereas some of them have been in different viewpoints. This was the first one that spans a bunch of years. It goes from 1982 to the present, so there’s about a 30-year space.”
Fllin said she thought that was interesting because it showed the character of Violet evolving.
“In young adult novels the viewpoint character has to be a teenager,” she said. “I start with her as a teenager and then I switch to the other characters who are teenagers, but you can still see how she goes from being this kind of nerdy awkward but normal girl who goes from that to being obsessed about her beauty. One of the characters describes her as being like a Marvel Comics villainess that’s beautiful but a little crazy.”
Mirrored is available at most bookstores and at online dealers as well, as a print book, an eBook and an audio book.
