HUNTSMAN is a fairytale reimagining of Snow White. This story is definitely NOT your Grandma’s version of Snow White unless she likes all types of villainous characters, ranging from dark to darker to darkest. The key storyline revolves around a very powerful and violent matriarchal mafia family, the Mwuaji.   I really loved reading about all the powerful women portrayed in this book.  Be ready for your heart rate to spike immediately as the story starts out with an amazing bang.    I devoured this book in less than 24 hours, even though fairytale reimaginings (and retellings) are not my typical genre.  I have it on good authority that the narrators for the audio book version are very good, so this will be one of those rare books that I have completed reading that I plan to listen to as well.

The female protagonist, Eshe, is a key figure within the Mwuaji organization.  In spite of the challenges Eshe faces throughout the book (or maybe because of those challenges), she totally owns her shit.  Even though this heroine is a total badass, she accepts all facets of herself and is not afraid to show her sensitive side when it comes to her mother or her seven closest friends, her kapteni.  She proudly accepts her brand of ‘affection’ toward the male protagonist of the story, the Huntsman.  Eshe and the Huntsman have a complicated and unique relationship throughout the entire book, making for a very enjoyable read.  The chemistry between Eshe and the Huntsman leaps off the page at their very first meeting.  I felt like all the supporting characters showed just as much depth as the main characters.

I really liked that the author gave a nod to Africa by using some mafia terms based on the Nigerian, Swahili / Zulu languages.  Why yes, yes, I am one of those readers who googles any words in a book with which I am unfamiliar.  I was not particularly fond of the liberal use of colloquialisms in the book, but it did jive well with the storyline’s mafia backdrop.

There are key elements from the original fairytale well- woven into this story (the queen, the princess, the huntsman, the seven dwarves, etc.).  There will be no spoiler alerts from me, but I will drop a hint that there may be one or two elements from another well-known tale.

Did I mention that Eshe is totally unapologetic about her entire being - physically, emotionally, mentally - totally worth mentioning more than once!

Please check out the trigger warnings BEFORE you decide to read the book.  If you are good with what you will experience, I highly recommend you ‘take a walk on the wild side’ and read HUNTSMAN.