Title: Troll
Author: Jane Yolen
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Villains
Pace: Medium
Format: Short story
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: But Troll, having no imagination, could not fathom what that splash and crash meant.

Troll is small and doesn’t have much imagination. But that doesn’t stop him from making sure he has a decent meal every once in a while.

There’s something about trolls that is always… I guess amusing. Probably because they are often cast as dumb, lumbering and far south of thoughtful. And, this short story really doesn’t do anything to dispel those ideas. What it does do is take a creature that is traditionally gross and smelly and making him… well, kind of cute.

Although Troll is still kind of a villain in this story (he keeps eating others), it’s hard to dislike him. That very cute, dopey characterisation makes him seem like just a happy bystander to the eating of the goats and other creatures. It doesn’t make it feel like a story in which there is really a bad guy or a good guy. Rather a young fool trying to survive, and a heap of other fools who keep going near him…

<- The Boy Who Cried Wolf Review

Castle Othello Review ->

Image source: Amazon