The ramblings of a bibliophile.
I’ve just finished reading Lee’s Red as Blood collection. So I was kind of expecting something much, much darker than this story. It was incredibly lustful and intense in some ways, but it definitely wasn’t something I would call dark. There was also a point at the end which hints that they could, in fact, live happily ever after.
This is the second feminist collection of fairy tales I’ve ever read. And I don’t know if I like this or Angela Carter’s version better. What I do know is that I love both of them and I will read them again and again. They’re fun, kind of brilliant and super dark. Much more likely in our lives than the pretty Disney-versions that I grew up with.
As an ending to the Red as Blood collection, this short story was completely on point. It was, interestingly enough, also the only romantic story in the whole collection. So, I kind of liked that it ended on this note. Don’t get me wrong, it was still super and dark like all of the other fairy tale retellings in the collection, but the romantic aspect made it a little more bittersweet and somehow nostalgic… I slightly (but only slightly) softer note to end on.
I’ve been enjoying Beauty and the Beast retellings lately. I have never read one which is this intense though. And a SciFi version to boot. And it was just a short story! Beauty is brilliant, fun and gives an entirely new take on an old classic. Unlike most short stories that I fall this in love with though, I actually was happy with the length. I didn’t feel like it had to be expanded and added to. I didn’t think that it actually needed to be longer, it was kind of perfect all on its own.
Unlike the rest of the short stories in the Red as Blood collection, this is not a retelling of any fairy tale that I recognise. Yet, there was still that lilting, fairy tale feel to the tale that made me feel like almost, almost this could be a story which I’ve read before. If I could just remember it… that’s how it felt anyway.
This was a really cool Red Riding Hood retelling. Not the kind I was expecting, but certainly an enjoyable one. I kind of totally adored this and was really sad that it was over so soon. I could imagine an entire saga created about this version of Red Riding Hood. And I would most definitely read it.
I absolutely loved The Isle of the Lost, but I did get a little confused at the beginning of this. I was expecting the story to pick up where the first one ended. But, I’m thinking that the movie is the middle story to the two stories. Since at the end of the first novel, the four are still on the Isle. And at the beginning of this, they’re in Auradon Prep, have boyfriends and girlfriends and a life of their own. I actually checked online multiple times to make sure I had the right book. It was. And once I got over my confusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this story.
Read more Return to the Isle of the Lost by Melissa de la Cruz
One of the things about the more traditional fairy tales that I don’t love is the fact that the women always want a husband, and that husband always ends up being the one rescuing her. Not so in this story. She gets in trouble because she’s trying to find out who it is that she’s going to marry in the future. The answer is certainly not one that she wanted… and there’s a certain level of trickery which leads to quite a tragic ending.
This short story is a creepy, dark and kind of devilish version of Rapunzel. The prince doesn’t climb up the tower to reach her. In fact, there isn’t really any prince. But there is still a seduction of a form and a woman who keeps a foundling child trapped for some nefarious reason. The nefarious reason in this story is just far more intense and dark than other versions I’ve read of this tale.
This is a super, super dark retelling of Cinderella. One that made me question my own beautifully well known Disney version (and other happily-ever-after retellings). Not necessarily the version I would be telling my children, but definitely one that I seriously enjoyed and look forward to picking up again and again.
