Although this trilogy does begin once upon a time and end happily ever after the pages in between are a far cry from the safety of a traditional fairytale. The stories deal with some dark material including the violent rape of Alice in Watching the Roses.

In The Tower Room, Megan is the Rapunzel in her tower who catches the eye of the young Science teacher, Simon Findlay. However, the analogy to the fairytale is loose and although Simon does climb up the tower (aided by scaffolding) this is the weakest of the three stories, essentially being a romance. Geras skilfully explores passionate first love, but as with each of the books, it is an idyllic love based on physical attraction alone and can seem a little shallow.

The second story is a dark and haunting tale of treachery, narrated by Alice as she finds her own path to recovery from the rape at her 18th birthday party. In each book the character narrating consciously and ably expresses her deepest thoughts and feelings through writing; Alice goes further in acknowledging the cathartic power of such writing in enabling healing. This book is steeped in the imagery of Sleeping Beauty and, although I would only recommend it to mature readers, it is an optimistic tale of the resilience of the human spirit to overcome even the most horrific of events.

The third story  Pictures of the Night, is an exciting retelling of Snow White complete with a wicked stepmother, Marjorie, and seven dwarfs in the guise of Pete and the band. It is also a thrilling insight into the bohemian world of 1960’s popular culture. Although Bella may look like Snow White, it is Carmen that she is constantly compared to and her beauty is the source of much jealousy from her stepmother. As well as dealing with an unwanted relationship and unexpected love-at-first-sight Bella also finds herself wandering if Marjorie is trying to kill her. Geras builds a magical suspense surrounding Bella, a mysterious white cat and several shadowing figures who all seem to remind her of Marjorie, however this side of the story is never fully concluded and the reader is left wondering if it was just a case of an imagination running wild.

This final story not only focuses on Bella and her summer living with the band in London and Paris, but it also continues the story of all three girls bringing us the expected perfect conclusion as each princess finds her prince and lives happily ever after.

2007-12-30