** spoiler alert ** 
 Wow... 
 Stupid book made me cry. 
 So, despite my eagerness to read this one, I was a little unsure. The reviews seemed to be pretty polarized. The people who loved it REALLY loved it, otherwise the reaction was weirdly lukewarm. People seemed/claimed not to have understood the book's reveals and points it made near the end (there are one or two things you might do a double take with and need to read twice, but personally this level of confusion seems extreme to me). 
 It is, in fairness, a weird little book. From the cover/title it seems to be a "Snow White and the seven dwarfs" retelling; though most reviewers have spotted more similarities to "Snow White and Rose Red" than the former. The correct answer is it is both and neither at the same time. It borrows elements from both fairytales but with certain moments (rather long stretches of the book) where it is completely original and has nothing much in common with its source material. Wonderfully, though, it ties everything in beautifully at the end to the point where I was so shocked as a reader that I cried as I read the last few pages. 
 It's Snow White and Rose Red with vampires (sort of) and witches and just a bunch of weird stuff that probably shouldn't work so well but DOES. 
 I found Rowan, the main character annoying at parts but by the end I liked her a lot. Jude was probably my favorite, and while I understand how other reviewers were baffled by the other characters' unfair hatred of him, it didn't faze me because in some families, that actually happens. One kid gets hated on for no reason. Kind of rare to see this shown in a book without an excuse as to WHY, so that was neat. Tom was annoying, but I got the feeling he was SUPPOSED to be, so that didn't bother me and I still managed to feel sorry for him at the end. Towards the start Fiona was one of my favorites, more so than Rowan before she grew on me. I liked how Fiona's character changed to almost but not quite a villain and her hear breaking redemption at the end; she was such an tragic figure. 
 Also, the twist was pretty neat. Somehow I saw it coming then the fake-out twist made me think nah that's not it... Then bam. Real twist. Aka the little girl was the witch/villain. Well done. Had me going. 
 Great book. Highly recommended.