The Fairest of Them All (34 page)

We rode through the forest, her arms around me, until the sound of hooves behind us faded, and then we
kept riding, past where the rapunzel grew alongside the river, past Mathena’s smoldering cottage and the tower that was just visible through the treetops. Above us, two falcons soared through the air.

I breathed in everything, took all of it in, because the world
was wild and open and beautiful and the moment was full and it
existed,
it was happening right then, and for once I did not want to
think about anything that had come before or anything that would come after. Here, right now, we were together and we were flying.

I
sit here now, in my workroom, writing this down as quickly as I can, while outside my chambers the palace rejoices.

I am the true queen, the rightful heir to the throne—though no one will ever know it, and soon enough not even I will remember it. And as the true queen, I have made one decision. It will be my sole decision, but it is the best thing I can do for my kingdom, and it is
enough.

It was at the inn at the edge of the forest that Snow White and I learned that King Josef had died in the fighting that had broken out just beyond the castle walls. With no male heir, I was named queen regent, a title I would carry until Snow White turned twenty-one and took the throne. Lord Aubert was acting as regent in my stead. With both me and Snow White gone, the whole kingdom was
in disarray

I sent a message to the royal council that Snow White and I were safe, and that in the interest of peace for the West, I would step aside to name her, Snow White, daughter of the West and East, sole ruler of our kingdom.

When I told her what I’d done, she looked at me with that same serious look she’d had as a child, and nodded, and I did not need magic to see the combination of
grief and strength and beauty that she will become known for in years to come. There was nothing I could do to console her, except use all my power and everything in my heart to wish her well, so that she might heal herself, and our kingdom.

The next day, we rode to the palace as the people ran from their houses and cheered us along, and in a simple ceremony Snow White took the throne. A new
peace treaty was signed, and the fighting ended as quickly as it had begun.

I do not regret my decision.

She will be a good queen. One day, she will be a great one.

T
he apple sits next to me, gleaming with rapunzel. Behind it, the mirror, reflecting the apple and the room beyond it.

I ask the mirror one last time:
Who is the fairest of them all?

But I know the answer.
Of course I know. It is her time now, and it will be someone else’s time after. Her daughter’s, her daughter’s daughter’s. She will have many daughters and sons—I have had portent of it.

In a moment I will put down my quill, and I’ll lock these pages away for someone else, someday, to find. Because all of this happened once, and things that happened should not be erased from the earth completely,
even when they’ve been forgotten.

Gilles waits for me outside. He’s forgiven me, after everything. I am grateful that he disobeyed me. We will leave this
kingdom tonight, and venture out into the world beyond it. He assures me that such a world exists, that he will love me no matter what happens next, and I hope that he is right.

My bags are packed, I have a pouch full of gold, and there is
only one thing left for me to do.

The apple could almost be a heart.

I place my hands over it and feel it beating.

I want to express my eternal love and gratitude to my editor, Heather Lazare, who really pushed me with this book, as she did with the last two, and to my agents, Elaine Markson and Gary Johnson, who were always ready to brainstorm and read a new draft and discuss plot twists over takeout in the office. It’s such a gift, to have people that smart and generous on your side, and
I appreciate them more than I can say.

I also want to thank Jeanine Cummins, Mary McMyne, JoAnn Mapson, Jill Gleeson, Joi Brozek, and Morgan Grey, all brilliant authoresses and friends who gave me invaluable feedback throughout the writing of this book. I want to thank Jeanine, too, for dropping everything to read a draft at the last minute while I made monsters out of Play-Doh with her kids.

Thank you to Lance Cheuvront, who told me about hawks and falcons, and to Erika Merklin, who spent a long phone conversation telling me all about her Alaskan garden, and compost teas, and the wonders of bones and feathers and ash. And I want to thank my father, Alfred Turgeon, who let me barrage him over the course of an afternoon with questions about crops and blight. I’m also grateful to him,
and to my mother, Jean, and my
sister, Catherine, for being so patient and supportive through this and every project.

Finally, I want to thank Steven Berkowitz, who spent hours and hours listening to me talk about this book, and came up with more than a few of the twists and turns inside it. I love you.

TOUCHSTONE READING GROUP GUIDE

THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL

An exploration of what happens when fairy-tale heroines grow up and don’t live happily ever after,
The Fairest of Them All
brings new life to the stories of Rapunzel and Snow White.

Living in an enchanted forest, Rapunzel
spends her days tending a mystical garden with her adoptive mother, the witch Mathena. When Rapunzel’s beautiful voice and golden locks attract a young prince, even Mathena’s considerable power cannot stop him from climbing Rapunzel’s hair and falling into her arms. But their afternoon of passion is fleeting, and the prince must return to his kingdom betrothed to another. Years later, the prince
is now a king, and his wife, the queen, has died under mysterious circumstances, leaving him with a young daughter, Snow White. At last free to marry the woman he has never stopped dreaming of, the king returns for Rapunzel and makes her his queen and a mother to Snow White. But when Mathena’s wedding gift of an ancient mirror begins speaking to her, Rapunzel falls under its evil spell, and
the king begins to realize that Rapunzel is not the beautiful, kind woman of his dreams.

1. How is
The Fairest of Them All
different from the fairy tales upon which the novel is based? What are some of the similarities?

2. Many fairy tales have omniscient narrators, yet this novel is told from the point of view of Rapunzel. Why do you think the author made the decision to give us Rapunzel’s perspective? How did this influence what you felt about
Rapunzel’s choices?

3. Many of us dream about living in a world of princes and princesses, where magic is real and a part of life. What aspects of Rapunzel’s and Snow White’s lives were appealing to you? What are some of the challenges you didn’t expect them to face?

4. Talk about what it’s like to revisit fairy tales you were familiar with when you were younger. What were some of your favorite
fairy tales? What other “updated” fairy tales or myths have you read or watched recently?

5. Princes, kings, princesses, and witches are all common characters in fairy tales, and all exist in
The Fairest of Them All
. How do the characters in this novel compare to the stereotypical princes, kings, princesses, and witches in other fairy tales? When did their actions surprise you?

6. Love of beauty
and the complications of aging are important themes in
The Fairest of Them All
; the king and Rapunzel are particularly obsessed with beauty. Discuss some of the pitfalls of a life lived in luxury and the need for everything to be beautiful.

7. At the end of the novel, Rapunzel thinks of Snow White: “She will be a good queen. One day, she will be a great one.” Why do you think Snow White would
make a good queen? What made her father such a bad king?

8. Describe Snow White’s character and the changes she goes through over the course of the story. What did you think of her initial rejection of Rapunzel? How did their relationship evolve?

9. Although Rapunzel and Mathena know a great deal of genuine magic, much of their knowledge is simply an understanding of the earth and of the uses
of nature. Why do you think this is associated with witchcraft? Recall some of the magical elements in the novel and their relationship to Mathena (for example: the stag and the magic mirror).

10. Death and rebirth are important themes in the novel. Rapunzel herself says, “. . . out of death comes life. Always.” What do you think this means in the context of the novel? Do you think this is also
true of the world in which we live?

11. The conflict between religion and magic is one of the central issues of the story. Why do you think the church is so opposed to witches like Mathena? Why is everyone at the palace suspicious of Rapunzel, when (at least at first) she is helpful and kind?

12. Rapunzel’s magic mirror is what ultimately pushes her to attempt to have Snow White killed. Is the
mirror evil and corrupting, or is it only a scapegoat for Rapunzel’s jealousy? Why?

13. Like many fairy tales,
The Fairest of Them All
is largely about love, true love, lust, and infatuation. Unlike most fairy tales, it is also a story about heartbreak, loss, and violence. What do you think about the book’s take on love and infatuation? How does the novel’s more realistic take on these themes
impact the power of the fairy-tale elements?

14. The revelations at the end of the story are foreshadowed early on. Did you catch any of these subtle hints from the stories Mathena told Rapunzel? How did the ending affect the way you viewed the rest of the story? What about how you viewed Mathena?

1. Do some research on the original Brothers Grimm stories of Snow White and Rapunzel. You can find them here:
http://www.worldoftales.com/fairy_tales/Grimm_fairy_tales.html
. Are they the same as you remember? How does reading the originals change your interpretation of
The Fairest of Them All
?

2. Write your own fairy tales! Using existing tales as a starting point, or
starting completely fresh, come up with a brand-new story to share with your group.

3. Have a movie night with your book club! There are many great movie adaptations of classic fairy tales. If you like animated movies, try the Disney version of Rapunzel,
Tangled
, or go classic with the original
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
. If you’re in the mood for something different, try
Mirror Mirror
or
Snow White and the Huntsman
, two recent adaptations with a creative take on the story.

Have you always been interested in fairy tales, or did you come to them after becoming a writer? How did you come up with the idea to combine Snow White and Rapunzel?

I actually have always loved fairy tales, their combination of light and dark, the glitter and shimmer along with all that hatred and jealousy and eating of hearts! That’s kind of my aesthetic
generally, beauty and darkness mixed together. My biggest literary influence was magic realism, though; I read
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez as a teenager and that very much influenced the kind of writing I wanted to do. I came to fairy tales with my second book,
Godmother
, mainly because my first had been so hard to plot and figure out, and I thought it’d be so cool
to go into a known story like Cinderella and bring it to life, with all the weird psychology that you know has to accompany things like being a fairy godmother or having a prince come to the rescue when you’ve been abused and alone for so long. And I’ve written three more since then! I like how much you can explore through them, using these archetypal female characters.

The Fairest of Them All
is the first time I’ve taken two well-known fairy tales and combined them. I guess I was thinking about all those gorgeous, damaged young women in fairy tales who end up with the dashing prince, and also all those older women who are evil stepmothers or queens or witches. And it occurred to me that these are the same women, grown up. How
else are those gorgeous young girls going to turn out, especially
in worlds that value them for their youth and beauty above anything else? And when I fit Rapunzel and the evil stepmother from Snow White together, it made sense. They’re both beautiful, they’re both witches (Rapunzel is raised by a witch, so how could she not be one herself?), and presumably the stepmother was once young and in love and the fairest in all the kingdom. And what we don’t
see in the original Rapunzel story is what happens later, when she gets older and is a little less dazzling than she was before.