"Tender Morsels" by Margo Lanagan

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

I wanted to read it because a) it's based on the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red and b) it is one of the 2009 Printz Honor books (the Printz award is for excellence in young adult literature).

After reading it, I'm not sure what to think about it. This book is certain to cause upset for some people. There is incest, rape, and forced abortions all before you are even 100 pages into the book. I think a lot of people who pick this book up will never get past that part.

Liga's mother died when she was very young, so she lives alone with her father. He sexually abuses her, impregnates her three times in total, and goes to a local witch to get herbs and teas to terminate the pregnancies - all the while, Liga does not really understand what is going on with her. The first time, she did not know she was pregnant. The second time, she did not know she was pregnant until she lost the baby and it actually looked like a baby. The third time she was pregnant, she figured out that she was before her father did, so she pretended to have her period for several months before her father figured it out. He never makes it back to their cabin after another trip to visit the witch - his head is bashed in by a horse on his way home.

The truly uncomfortable part of the book is not over yet though. Liga lives alone and gives birth to Branza (the Snow White character), and is so happy and amazed that she could be blessed with such a lovely, good, sweet little baby even if she was created in such a horrible way. Some town boys see her with the baby and make assumptions about what kind of girl she must be to have a baby and no husband. They take turns sexually assaulting her, and it's almost too much for her to handle. She tries to kill her baby afterwards and plans on killing herself as well.

She is saved by what she calls a "moon baby," a baby made of light who gives her two gems, a red one and a white one, and tells her to plant them near her house and then go to sleep. When she wakes up, everything is the same, but it's not. It's how she would imagine a perfect world. It's safe for her and her child, no one speaks of her father. The boys who raped her do not exist. Everyone is nice and helpful. Nine months later, she gives birth to a second girl; this one has a fiery temper and she names her Urrda (the Rose Red character). Liga raises her two beautiful girls in this perfectly safe, perfectly kind world.

Everything is wonderful until a greedy dwarf finds a way in to Liga's heaven world, and then a succession of Bears make their way in as well.

This is the story of Liga as she learns to heal from her past. It's the story of Branza and Urrda as they grow up and eventually learn to cope with the harshness and realities of the real world they truly belong to.

It's definitely a powerful and well-written book, but I can't say that I enjoyed it.