Review of Black as Snow by Nick Nolan

Black As Snow
Nick Nolan
Amazon Encore
392 pages
ISBN 13: 9781612180052

Sebastian Black has known he was different from a very young age and with his mother Kitty’s guidance went from strange kid who heard voices to Telepathic Evangelistic Susperstar. He’s rich, he’s handsome and he has fans literally throwing themselves at him on and off stage. Kitty sees nothing wrong with this and has in fact encouraged it, so much so that Sebastian has throw away one night stands at every venue. After a tragedy at the ripe old age of nineteen he’s having a crisis of faith, in himself, in Kitty and in what he believes. In his search for answers he comes across people willing to give him solace and sanctuary, he’s found links to his past and hints at his future but the closer he gets to the truth he’s also unbeknown  to him getting in the crosshairs of a fanatic religious group out to put an end to his ministry and his life.

This is described as loosely based on the story of Snow White in my opinion the focus has to be on the loosely, because Sebastian is no innocent flower. Our author has given us a tale of a misdirected youth who leaves home for soul searching and self discovery. He does this with legible and understandable dialogue and an narrative that is strikingly colorful and animated. And although at times that dialogue tends to limp it doesn’t disturb the reading enjoyment. He gives us characters who will run the gamut from girl next door to lesbian couple to ex-drug addict, to overbearing cigarette smoking mother, in other words eclectic to the nth degree, but they will never the less reel you in and keep you turning pages to learn the outcome of this twisted tale of Snow White the dwarves and the evil Queen.  His characterization of Sebastian will make you hate and love him, mourn and curse him for his more than apt humanness and for his piety warring with his depravities. The other characters both minor and major are definitely worth getting to know and you will because Mr. Nolan intimates us to them all.

This is a coming of age story, it’s a love story, it’s a dysfunctional family drama, it’s a story about friendship about diversity about tolerance and about intolerance. It’s a morality tale, a good vs evil story and a lesson in compassion and kindness that we could all use a little more of.
Buy the book here.