READING GROUP GUIDE TO STEALING SNOW BY DANIELLE PAIGE
In brief Love, passion, prophecy and treachery loom large in this reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, in which a seventeen-year-old heroine discovers extraordinary truths about herself, and must commit extraordinary acts in order to defeat an evil king and save a magical realm.
In Detail Snow has lived in a high security psychiatric asylum in upstate New York since she attempted to walk through a mirror when she was five. She’s never felt like she should be here, but at least she has Bale, with whom she’s madly in love, even after he attacks her. ‘We had different monsters,’ Snow remarks. ‘Mine was my icy anger ... Bale’s was his love of fire’ (p.14). But after the attack, they’re separated. As Snow’s strange dreams and incredible drawing abilities intensify, a handsome stranger appears. He calls her ‘Princess’ and announces that her medication is ‘hiding you from your destiny’ (p.35). And so Snow breaks out of the asylum, follows the stranger’s directions and crosses into another world. In Algid – a magical realm of snow wolves, witches and dazzling, deadly robbers – Snow is hailed a princess, the all-powerful progeny of brutal King Lazar and a witch. And only Snow, with her formidable ice magic and enchanted lineage, possesses the power to ‘choose the path for Algid’.
About the Author Danielle Paige is a graduate of Columbia University and the author of the New York Times bestselling Dorothy Must Die series and a sequence of prequel novellas. Before writing young adult literature, she worked in the television industry, during which time she received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She currently lives in New York City.
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Website: daniellepaigebooks.com Twitter: @daniellempaige Tumblr: stealingsnow.tumblr.com
Discuss the book 1) What was your first impression of Snow? Did it change during the course of the novel? Was she an empathetic character?
2) ‘First kisses sometimes wake slumbering princesses, undo spells, and spark happily ever afters. Mine broke Bale’ (p.1). What does this opening line reveal about Snow’s sense of self? Do you think she’s to blame for breaking Bale?
3) Can Stealing Snow be considered a coming-of-age novel? What does Snow learn about herself during the course of the novel?
4) ‘I see what you are now,’ says Bale (p.2), before he breaks Snow’s wrist. What do you think he saw? How did you feel when he did this? Did your opinion of him change as the novel progressed?
5) ‘I was not the type to be mushy. But he was not allowed to joke about this. Not ever this’ (p.2). Snow asserts near the opening of the novel. How does this self-analysis set up her character?
6) What are the challenges of writing a novel or story that melds the real world with an imagined fantasy realm? How effectively does the author do this?
7) Why might Snow have wondered if Magpie had deliberately created a distraction so she could leave the asylum? (p.58) Were you surprised when Magpie's background was revealed in chapter twenty?
8) Are there any parallels between the worlds of Whittaker asylum and Algid?
9) Discuss the author’s use of foreshadowing. Consider, for example, when Dr Harris says, ‘We will keep you here, where you belong’ (p.32), or when the River Witch says, ’Ora has not protected you and has kept you ignorant’ (p.79).
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10) ‘I didn't know where I belonged, but it wasn't here’ (p.33). Do you think Snow finds where she belongs by the end of the novel? To what extent is finding where you belong a theme of the novel?
11) ‘She [the River Witch] wanted me to make a choice? Damn the prophesies. That was my choice’ (p.88). At this point in the novel, why do you think Snow decides to go after Bale rather than work to defeat the corrupt King? What does it reveal about her character?
12) ‘Sometimes trust is a choice’ (the Duchess, p.313). What does she mean? Do you agree? Or do you agree with Snow when she remarks, ‘I thought it [trust] was earned’ (p.313)? Discuss the role trust plays throughout the novel.
13) ‘Everyone lies everywhere’ (Jagger, p.201). Do you agree? How intrinsic is lying to the human condition? ‘Most people ... lie to make others feel better’ (Jagger, p.269). Do you agree?
14) Were you surprised when the link between Snow and the Duchess was revealed (p.314)? How does the author heighten readers' experience of this revelation?
15) ‘The point is that I do love someone, but I love my people more. The world is bigger than us’ (the Duchess, p.323). What does this reveal about her character? How different or similar are the Duchess and Snow?
16) Why do you think Snow persists in denying that she possesses extra-human powers despite, for example knowing that ‘everything I'd drawn had come true’ (p.104)? Why does she insist, ‘I was not special in any way, shape or form. Except for my snow super powers’? (p.122) What does this reveal about her character?
17) ‘My kiss with Kai had everything to do with my missing Bale and nothing to do with Kai. I was sure of it. But just almost’ (p.144). Is Snow being honest with herself? Are you convinced that her love for Bale is as strong as she professes?
18a) ‘You don't know how power can poison, child’ (River Witch, p.84). Discuss this statement in relation to the novel and the real world.
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18b) ‘Love is easy. It comes and goes like the River. Try power. That is much harder to find’ (the River Witch, p.124). Do you agree?
18c) Love or power: which is the greatest motivator in the novel?
19a) ‘This was not a fairy tale,’ Snow remarks as she faces very real danger in Algid, but to what extent is this novel a fairy tale? How does the author use the fairy tale form? Why do you think writers and filmmakers are drawn to re-telling fairy tales?
19b) Stealing Snow is based on The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen. Read the original and compare and contrast the two works. What themes are common to both?
19c) ‘No one was coming to save me’ (p.116). Does this novel subvert any fairy tale conventions?
20) ‘Power trumped beauty,’ Snow observes (p.207), but does beauty wield power? Discuss both in relation to the novel and the contemporary world.
21) Compare the author's portrayal of female characters (such as the River Witch, Gerde and the Duchess) with her portrayal of male ones (such as King Lazar, Kai and Jagger). What kinds of words are used to describe them? What are their respective defining traits? Did you notice any commonalities between how the characters in each gender group are represented?
22) ‘If I didn't know better, I'd say that Robbers have a lot in common with heroes’ (p.264). Do you agree? What does she mean? What does it mean to be a hero?
23) ‘… she [the Duchess] was right. I wasn't a hero. Far from it’ (p.326). Do you agree?
24) ‘Mirrors reflect what we want to see, or sometimes they reveal what you really want. You have to be very careful with a mirror’ (the River Witch, p.124). What does this mean? Why are mirrors such powerful objects in fairy tales?
25) ‘Help me,’ I said, clinging to her. ‘You will help yourself,’ she replied, holding me closer’ (p.120). Does Snow ‘help herself’? To what extent is helping yourself a theme of the novel?
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26) Discuss how the author creates tension with reference to two pivotal episodes in the novel.
27) How effective was the novel’s conclusion? How does the author set up the next book in the series? What do you think will be explored in the second novel? What do you hope will be explored?
Beyond the Book - Further Reading Novels and novellas by the same author Dorothy Must Die series: Dorothy Must Die The Wicked Will Rise Yellow Brick War The End of Oz No Place Like Oz The Witch Must Burn The Wizard Returns The Straw King Heart of Tin Ruler of Beasts Order of the Wicked
Stealing Snow series: Before the Snow Queen Rising
By other authors The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine Barefoot on the Wind, Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter, Fairest by Marissa Meyer Red Queen, Glass Sword, Cruel Crown by Victoria Aveyard The Sin Eater’s Daughter, The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, Forest Born by Shannon Hale
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Rose Daughter, Beauty, Spindle’s End, Deerskin by Robin McKinley The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell
Non-fiction about fairy tales Once Upon a Time by Marina Warner The Uses of Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim The Irresistible Fairy Tale by Jack Zipes The Witch Must Die by Sheldon Cashdan
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