As White as Snow
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: NetGalley (Released 5th March 2015)
Lumikki
Andersson is backpacking in Prague, where the weather is scorching hot. A girl
approaches her in a small café and claims to be her half-sister. Lumikki’s parents
seem to be hiding a secret concerning the family’s past, so the girl’s claim
rouses Lumikki’s interest. Despite her erratic behaviour, the girl manages to
persuade Lumikki to join a religious family community. Lumikki gets acquainted
with the streets and graveyards of Prague when she is forced to run for her
life to prevent the tragedy. The religion of the cult is not pure; and
innocence is not as white as snow.
As White as Snow is the second installment in the As
Red as Blood trilogy, originally written in Finnish by Salla Simukka. The
review of the first book can be found here.
The book starts and Lumikki is in Prague on vacation
from the chaos that had happened in Tampere in the first book. When she arrives
there, a girl approaches her and tells her she’s Lumikki’s half-sister. She
spends time with her sister and starts to believe that the story this girl is
telling her, could in fact be true. She then discovers her sister is part of a
cult and the leader of the cult has something horrific planned for them all; it’s
amazing what people will do for money…
I warmed a lot to Lumikki’s character in this book;
I think this is because we are told more about what makes her who she is today.
You also find out more about the mysterious relationship she spoke so much
about in As Red as Blood. I must admit, when that secret was revealed, I was
genuinely shocked. It was something I really wasn’t expecting. Anyway, I’m
hoping Blaze (Lumikki’s ex) will appear in the last book, it would make it much
more exciting.
Again, much like the last book, I feel as though
this could have been a singular book. Although there’s the same central
character of Lumikki, the stories are completely different and are linked in no
way whatsoever. If you were expecting to find out more about the Polar Bear and
Elisa, you were wrong. Elisa gets a brief mention at the beginning and she’s
not spoke of again. I feel if the storyline from As Red as Blood was spoken
about more in this book, it would have received a 5 star review from me but it
just wasn’t quite what I had envisioned.
One of my criticisms from my review of As Red as
Blood was that we weren’t told much about Lumikki and her past. My prayer was
answered in this book and her family, relationships and past were explained in
much more detail.
As White as Snow was just as fast-paced and action
packed like As Red as Blood; everything you could want from a book. The book
was only 224 pages which is relatively short and meant I’d finished it within 2
hours, which isn’t ideal. I love chunky, detailed books that I can really get
my teeth into. I did really enjoy it though and it was a step up from the first
book!
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