MY beautiful

Camille Anseaume

(Calmann-Lévy, 247 pages, 2022)

An insightful contemporary twist on the Snow White fairy tale, My Beautiful reveals the unspoken hardships that stepmothers too often experience.

Erwann falls head over heels for Irène, a gorgeous woman with a perfect body and features. They seal their love by having a daughter, Blanche, who turns out to be the mirror image of her mother’s beauty. But their relationship is not meant to last happily ever after. Bored of Erwann’s inability to ever disagree with her out of excessive adoration, Irène leaves him.

Though initially devastated, Erwann eventually falls in love with Louise, who constantly compares herself to the pictures of Irène left throughout the house, and battles against her own body image. As they alternate between weeks of taking care of Blanche, the new couple experiences polar shifts in dynamics at home, where one week is filled with romantic moments and the next is replaced by the gloomy presence of Blanche. Each time Louise proposes a conversation starter or family adventure, Blanche uses the opportunity to make Louise feel ugly and unwanted. Meanwhile, Erwann is not troubled by Blanche’s silence and isolation, blinded instead by her awe-inspiring beauty. As the story unravels, Louise tries to come to terms with her complex role. How long will she last?

My Beautiful gives voice to members of stepfamilies who have grappled with similar issues, revealing that there is much more to the Snow White narrative than commonly recognized. While the stepmother is villainized in the fairy tale, shouldn’t the father also be held responsible for his obliviousness—his inability to see the harmful dynamics between his daughter and his new wife? Camille Anseaume provides a poignant commentary on the effects a father’s emotional absence can have on a daughter’s upbringing, when a father only reinforces the norms that his daughter is immersed in. This novel’s feminist tone provides a valuable commentary on discovering one’s personal worth as a woman, along with overcoming detrimental comparisons that contribute to so many women’s negative body image.

Camille Anseaume is a journalist and writer who has published three novels prior to My Beautiful.