Tag Archives: Smoke and Mirrors

Snow, Glass, Apples by Neil Gaiman

Book Review, , , , , ,
Overview
Image result for by blood we live book cover

Title: Snow, Glass, Apples
Author: Neil Gaiman
In: By Blood We Live (John Joseph Adams) & Smoke and Mirrors (Neil Gaiman)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Fairy tales, Horror, Retellings, Vampires
Dates read: 31st March 2021
Pace: Slow
Format: Short story
Publisher: Night Shade Books
Year: 2008
5th sentence, 74th page: He rode with a small retinue: large enough to defend him, small enough that another monarch – myself, for instance – would not view him as a potential threat.

Synopsis

This is the true story of Snow White… one that will leave you feeling seriously uncomfortable.

Thoughts

I’ve read quite a few theories that state that Snow White is a vampire. Which seriously makes a deep, dark, twisted kind of sense. Apparently Gaiman feels the same. And this completely supported the theory in the creepiest most disgusting of ways possible. I’m glad that before I started reading this, there was actually a bit of a warning… it definitely helped prepare me for the ick factor that this awesome short story had.

Not only does this short story deal with vampires, and snow white. There is also necrophilia and all sorts of hints of bad things that I don’t necessarily want to think about. Again, seriously glad that there was a disclaimer at the beginning. But it didn’t stop me from being unable to put the story down and stop thinking about it.

This retelling is dark, twisted and truly glorious. I have not been able to stop thinking about it since I finished it. Which is probably one of the many reasons why I loved it so much. That, and, you know, I just tend to love everything I’ve read by Neil Gaiman.

<- By Blood We LiveThe Master of Rampling Gate ->

Image source: Fantastic Fiction

Tastings by Neil Gaiman

Book Review, , , , ,
Overview
Image result for sirens and other daemon lovers book cover

Title: Tastings
Author: Neil Gaiman
In: Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers (Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling) & Smoke and Mirrors (Neil Gaiman)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Fantasy, Lust, Twisted romance
Dates read: 25th March 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: EOS
Year: 1998
5th sentence, 74th page: You’re very beautiful.

Synopsis

A male escort and a famous woman are spending one evening together. But what they want from each other is a little more than anticipated.

Thoughts

Any story that starts off talking about an escort and a famous woman is going to be a little interesting… especially when it’s in a collection such as Sirens and Other Daemon Lovers. Then you just know that there is going to be FAR more to this story that initially assumed… after all, it’s a collection about lust and romance in the shadier sides of the supernatural world.

As soon as I saw that this was a Neil Gaiman short story, I got quite excited. There is just something about his writing that I absolutely adore and it draws me in immediately. I didn’t expect the way that this story would go at all though. To start with a male escort who has the powers of mind reading and then switch that to the woman who then completely turns the tables on him… it was a very different approach. And one that I just completely lapped up. I was actually incredibly disappointed when it was all over. I wanted to keep reading about this incredibly weird sexual couple.

The use of a succubus was kind of expected for the collection that I read this in. But the double use of this power and the different ways in which it was manifested was something of a surprise. It was also intriguing when I’m fairly certain that one of the couple was killed at the end… it’s not outright stated. But that’s how I like to imagine the ending of this story.

<- A Wife of Acorn, Leaf, and RainThe Sweet of Bitter Bark and Burning Clove ->

Image source: Goodreads