New Book: As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) by Salla Simukka

As Red as Blood (The Snow White Trilogy) by Salla Simukka (Author), Owen Witesman (Translator), the first book in a trilogy, was released this month in the U.S. The series is inspired by both fairy tales--Snow White--and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. So if you like both, this book may interest you. It is marketed as YA (young adult) but it is gritty, dark, etc. to the point that some are protesting that marketing choice. The reviews are all over the board for this one for that reason. Lumikki, by the way, is Finnish for "Snow White."

Book description:

In the midst of the freezing Arctic winter, seventeen-year-old Lumikki Andersson walks into her school’s dark room and finds a stash of wet, crimson-colored money. Thousands of Euros left to dry—splattered with someone’s blood.

Lumikki lives alone in a studio apartment far from her parents and the past she left behind. She transferred into a prestigious art school, and she’s singularly focused on studying and graduating. Lumikki ignores the cliques, the gossip, and the parties held by the school’s most popular and beautiful boys and girls.

But finding the blood-stained money changes everything. Suddenly, Lumikki is swept into a whirlpool of events as she finds herself helping to trace the origins of the money. Events turn even more deadly when evidence points to dirty cops and a notorious drug kingpin best known for the brutality with which he runs his business.

As Lumikki loses control of her carefully constructed world, she discovers that she’s been blind to the forces swirling around her—and she’s running out of time to set them right. When she sees the stark red of blood on snow, it may be too late to save her friends or herself.

About the Author
Winner of the 2013 Topelius prize, Salla Simukka is an author of young adult fiction and a screenwriter. She has written several novels and one collection of short stories for young readers, and has translated adult fiction, children’s books, and plays. She writes book reviews for several Finnish newspapers and she also writes for TV. Simukka lives in Tampere, Finland.