Tag Archives: Fairy tales

Little Red by Wendy Wheeler

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: Little Red
Author: Wendy Wheeler
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales,
Villains
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: I wish you would buy me riding boots and dungarees.

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Synopsis

In this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, the wolf is far more terrifying than the original. There is a far more modern setting. And the grandmother is just a lingering memory watching over the horrors of her granddaughters life.

Thoughts

This short retelling of Red Riding Hood lost half a point because of the creep factor. The creep factor still made the story thoroughly enjoyable and a perfect addition to a series of adult fairy tale retellings. But I didn’t like the feelings I got when I finished it. Hence the deduction of half a point.

I actually really enjoyed the shifting of a wolfish predator from traditional fairy-tale land to a modern day setting. Not only did it work immensely well, but it increased the sense of warning and horror that I’m sure the original story would have had. After all, the original fairy tales were not happily ever afters and nice. They were horrible, ended with some pretty intense torture and murder half the time and were mostly designed to show you how wrong your reality can go if you don’t heed the warnings.

And this story did exactly that. It showed the horrors of the modern world and what one person’s downfall can do to another. How predators and wolves lurk around every corner, and even with the thin veneer of civility, you can still be in a lot of danger. Did I mention that there was a pretty high creep factor in this story?

 <- Snow-Drop ReviewI Shall Do Thee Mischief in the Wood Review ->
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Puss in Boots, the Sequel by Joseph Stanton

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Puss in Boots, the Sequel
Author: Joseph Stanton
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Poetry
Pace: Fast
Format: Poem
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: that his former master barely discerns

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Synopsis

Why didn’t such a smart cat outsmart his owner? Well, maybe he did.

Thoughts

I don’t think I’ve read the original tale of Puss in Boots. Although I have read a few retellings over time, and I thought that doing new take on an old classic using a poem was a quaint and attractive way in which to do so. This was quick, sharp, shiny and straight to the point. It was also well written, fun and great at highlighting the triumph of beast over man.

One of the things that I love about poems is the way in which a single page, or a few lines can quickly get the point across. If this tale was told in prose form, it would take at the very least a few pages of writing, not the quick, and descriptive wording that is conveyed in poetry.

 <- The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces ReviewThe Boy Who Cried Wolf Review ->
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Snow-Drop by Tanith Lee

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: Snow-Drop
Author: Tanith Lee
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling) & Redder Than Blood (Tanith Lee)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales,
Villains
Pace: Slow, Medium, Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: However.

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Synopsis

Tanith Lee provides an alternate (and slightly disturbed) take on Snow White that will leave you thinking about it, and feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

Thoughts

Not all fairy tales have a happy ending, and in the case of Snow Drop, there is most certainly not a happy ending. At least for Snow Drop… I’m still not sure whether the ending was happy or just twisted for Cristena…

I honestly thought by the name of this short story that there would be an innocent at some point throughout. Whether it was the reworked Snow White, the reworked step mother, or some vague bystander. I thought that in some way, there would be a purity and innocence to this story that would contrast with the darkness.

I was wrong.

So very, very wrong. There is no innocence in this story. There is no purity, and the depths of depravity throughout the story just kept on exceeding my expectations. Not that I minded… it was just enough “huh” to make this story impossible to put down and even more impossible to forget.

 <- Stalking Beans ReviewLittle Red Review ->
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Castle Othello by Nancy Farmer

Book Review, ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Castle Othello
Author: Nancy Farmer
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Easy reading, Fairy tales
Dates read: 17th February 2019
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: His skin –

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Synopsis

When a strange man comes to town, one sister thinks that she’s found the answer to her happily ever after. But, all is not as it seems and it may take the gumption of her sister to help her escape the trap she has set for herself.

Thoughts

I haven’t yet had the chance to read the original Bluebeard fairy tale (I don’t think). But I did thoroughly enjoy Angela Carter’s retelling. So it was kind of fun to read a far more innocent and simpler retelling. One in which the villain suddenly becomes something completely different and offers an entirely new perspective to an otherwise dark and twisted tale.

Where Carter’s retelling is about the woman triumphing in a way that she wasn’t able to in the original, Farmer’s is about retelling the story from an entirely different point of view. She almost Disney-fied the tale. And sometimes that just frustrates me, yet this worked kind of beautifully. Not only by intertwining historical facts, but also in keeping to many of the key themes that seem to run through these two stories.

Castle Othello is a completely innocent story. One that, surprisingly, instead of frustrating me was thoroughly enjoyable. And I was actually quite sad to turn the last page on such a sweet, happy ending.

 <- Troll Review‘Skin Review ->
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The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces by Ellen Kushner

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces
Author: Ellen Kushner
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Family
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: I couldn’t be responsible for all those men, as well as my horrible sisters.

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Synopsis

Sometimes being the eldest really sucks. Especially when you have eleven younger sisters who are determined to dance the night away. That is, until the “responsible” one finds a way out of their situation.

Thoughts

I’m an older sister. And it doesn’t matter how old my younger sister and I are. It doesn’t matter where life takes us. I will always be her big sister. And I will always feel responsible for her. And protective of her. So it’s really nice to read a short story that reminds me that I’m not the only one in this position. That is uses the story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses just makes it all the more fun and engaging.

Although this short story is in a collection about villains, I didn’t really feel that there was a villain in this story. after all, the oldest sister is just trying to watch out for the younger ones. Alright, they’re kind of bratty… but no one was truly evil. Or really cast as a villain in the story. But, mostly, I love the fact that although you can understand why the sister does what she does… everyone ultimately gets a nice ending and happiness.

 <- Up the Down Beanstalk ReviewPuss in Boots, the Sequel Review ->
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Stalking Beans by Nancy Kress

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: Stalking Beans
Author: Nancy Kress
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Villains
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: The hay is thick and yellow in the fields of the manor house.

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Synopsis

Was Jack really the innocent that he seemed to be? Nancy Kress provides an incredibly different take on this traditional fairy tale, one that doesn’t shed the most flattering of lights on Jack’s adventures up the beanstalk.

Thoughts

It wasn’t until reading this story that made me seriously question the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. After all, it’s a great little fairy tale that we’ve all grown up with. Until you really start to think about the what he actually does. He breaks into a giant’s house, steals his belongings and kills the man. Alright, in the fairy tale he is trying to eat Jack, but what if that’s all a figment of his retelling? What if he was actually just a bit of a douche?

In this retelling, Jack is an adult, and he really doesn’t make any good life decisions. Slowly, but surely, he weaves himself a web of lies and deceit that entangles and ensnares. Leaving him not only the bad guy of the story, but sad, alone and really not in any position to judge others. Yet, there is still a sense of sympathy that you feel for Jack as he becomes the villain of his own story. An ability that I’ve only been able to find in the best of writers – feeling sympathy for the fool who is the creator of his own downfall.

 <- The Frog Prince ReviewSnow-Drop Review ->
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Up the Down Beanstalk by Peter S. Beagle

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Up the Down Beanstalk: A Wife Remembers
Author: Peter S. Beagle
In: Troll’s-Eye View (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Comedy, Easy reading, Fairy tales
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Firebird Fantasy
Year: 2009
5th sentence, 74th page: The things they believe about us down there!

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Synopsis

We all know about Jack’s journey up the beanstalk – but what really happened up there? The giant’s wife reveals all!

Thoughts

I love different points of view on fairy tales. And Jack and the Beanstalk is an incredibly well-known tale. The fact that this story is told with him as a kind of villain made this thoroughly enjoyable. After all, if you think about it… how does the good guy end up killing someone and stealing things? There is nothing very virtuous and “good” about this at all.

Although Jack is mildly cast in the role of villain… he is also looked upon with favour by the giant’s wife. After all, it is all from her point of view, and the frustrated affection she feels towards her husband (ew, who is called Harvey?) highlights her independence and intelligence. The fact that Jack is as quick-witted and quick-footed as the giantess and an equal match for her just made everything all the more entertaining. Especially when you consider the brilliant ending of this story.

 <- Rags and Riches ReviewThe Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces Review ->
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The Frog Prince by Gahan Wilson

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: The Frog Prince
Author: Gahan Wilson
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Comedy, Easy reading, Fairy tales
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: Sometimes, lying there, he wondered if he was making visible rivulets and pools beneath himself on the surface of the couch.

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Synopsis

Everyone needs a shrink sometimes… even a frog prince.

Thoughts

I really enjoyed this story – it took the well-known trope of a frog prince and turned it around a little. For starters… the frog is still a frog… for another thing, his entire story is told in a weird, dream-like state.

There’s something about therapy offices that have a very distinctive feel. The couch that the characters lie on (I never did this in therapy, but it always seems to be in the media…), the stress…. And in the case of the frog prince, the constant sweating. It added an extra sense of realism and an increase in the stakes of the storyline as the amphibian royalty unfolds his latest dream.

Originally I thought that this short story was about the frog prince’s happily ever after going a little skewy, but, as it turns out, it is more about a loss of hope and trying to find one’s dream…

 <- The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep ReviewStalking Beans Review ->
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Rags and Riches by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Book Review, , ,
Overview
Image result for troll's-eye view book cover

Title: Rags and Riches
Author: Nina Kiriki Hoffman
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: The water looks so call and fresh.

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Synopsis

Nina Kiriki Hoffman retells the old fable of the Goosegirl… from the villains point of view.

Thoughts

I remember the story of the goose girl from my recent reading of Grimm fairy tales. But, it took me a little while to connect that storyline with Hoffman’s Rags and Riches. I just thought that this was a story that halfway explains the cruelty of a maid. It wasn’t until the end that I recognised her punishment and the actual storyline.

This was one of those villain stories that makes you understand why the bad guy starts down the path that she does. But, it reaches a certain point where she crosses a line and you loose all sympathy. I also loved the way in which Hoffman is able to explain how she pronounces her own punishment. I too have never understood how the villains in many of the early, early fairy tales don’t realise that it is their own crime being repeated back. Finally, Rags and Riches manages to help explain this. In a way that wasn’t tedious, frivolous or irritating. But a way that actually made sense.

 <- Faery Tales ReviewUp the Down Beanstalk Review ->
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The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep by Charles de Lint

Book Review, , , ,
Overview
Image result for snow white, blood red book cover

Title: The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep
Author: Charles de Lint
Series: Newford Companion
In: Snow White, Blood Red (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling)
Rating Out of 5: 5 (I will read this again and again and again)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Urban fantasy
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Signet
Year: 1993
5th sentence, 74th page: What needs to be done.

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Synopsis

Sophie keeps having dreams that feature the moon and passion. But, are they real, or just a figment of her imagination?

Thoughts

I actually read this twice before writing this review, each reading about a week apart. I loved it when I first read it, but there was something haunting in the refrain, and I couldn’t get it out of my head. Almost like it haunted my dreams as in the story. So I read it again, which helped to dispel that lingering feeling of haunting and confusion that was lingering around.

One of the things that I often love about fairy tales is the surreal beauty that permeates them. And de Lint was able to enhance this to the extreme. Using the iconic thematic sense of the moon and mixing this with dreamscapes and a desire to know oneself, there is a beauty and completely unreal feeling to this story. I loved the imagery, and it was because of this that I found it so hard to put down. And so easy to read twice in a row.

 <- Like a Red, Red Rose ReviewThe Frog Prince Review ->
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