After receiving As White as Snow from Gyldendal, I took one look at it and then completely forgot about it for months. I was going to read it, eventually, I just didn't know when. I kind of judged it for being written by a Finnish writer, and didn't even read and process the blurb enough to see that it in fact took place in Prague and not Finland.* It probably sounds like I'm against Finland, but I'm really not. Honestly, I just don't know anything about it, despite it being one of my neighbouring countries. I know where it is on the map, how its flag looks like and that Isaac Elliot is from there.

So I saw it, thought hmm, Finland? Interesting and then it disappeared from my mind. But then, as I'd just been in Prague and wanted to read/feel/hear/see more about it, I turned to goodreads' list of books set in Prague and SURPRISE!, As White as Snow was there! I have rarely run that fast for a book before as I did at that moment.

But after reading and closing the book I was slightly disappointed, despite having been so eager to absorb its words like a sponge. First off I'm not such a fan of cult books. That isn't the books fault though, so I guess I can't really remove any points for that. I read it willingly, didn't I? And so what, it was set in Prague. That would make up for it.

Except....
It didn't. I was expecting AT LEAST a couple of descriptions. Maybe how all the fresh pretzels from the street bakeries made her tummy growl, or how beautiful the red-tiled brick buildings looked, or how the Charles Bridge was lit up in the night majestically *swoon*. I could marry that city.

Back to the point; this book could have been set anywhere. There was some random name-throwing of some places in Prague, but other than that it might as well just have been in Finland, or America, or wherever really. It didn't capture the feel or the atmosphere of the city, not even a tiny bit.

That was one HUGE disappointment, and it just made all the other problems I had with the book more prominent. The fact that it was a cult book, as I said above. And also Lumikki's bland character, not-so-interesting plot, how it was really slow in the beginning and rushed at the end. It just didn't do it for me. The thing is, all those things wouldn't have bothered me so much as they did if the prose and setting had been better.

It's such a bummer, really.


* Yes, I can see that Prague is on the cover. *facepalm* I dont even know what I was thinking when I received that book. How could I not have realized where it was set, when it was on both the cover and the back? Wow, I must have been tired that day.