As White as Snow Review

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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