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karawhipple's review against another edition
4.0
Lots of bizarre going on but I like this as an overall project. Only one of the stories was straight boring and I drudged through on principle. Per my interests, this is more ⭐️⭐️⭐️ but like I said I dig the intent and collaboration behind the whole thing.
servemethesky's review against another edition
3.0
Phew!! Finally done with this behemoth. Can’t remember the last time I’ve read a book over 500 pages. This is a hard one to rate since it’s short stories and an anthology—short story collections are hard enough since they can be uneven, but this is 40 different writers, too!
I mostly picked this up because awhile back, I’d been working on my own retelling of The Wild Swans and I heard there were a few retelling of it in here. Honestly I didn’t love any of them! And it was refreshing that my take on it was very different from theirs.
Some absolute favorites in here were: Dapplegrim by Brian Evenson, The Brother and the Bird by Alissa Nutting, and The Color Master by Aimee Bender. The first two were delightfully dark and fun, the third was very beautiful and moving.
Other stories in here I just did not get or hated the style, as you might expect with an anthology like this. Very interesting overall!
I mostly picked this up because awhile back, I’d been working on my own retelling of The Wild Swans and I heard there were a few retelling of it in here. Honestly I didn’t love any of them! And it was refreshing that my take on it was very different from theirs.
Some absolute favorites in here were: Dapplegrim by Brian Evenson, The Brother and the Bird by Alissa Nutting, and The Color Master by Aimee Bender. The first two were delightfully dark and fun, the third was very beautiful and moving.
Other stories in here I just did not get or hated the style, as you might expect with an anthology like this. Very interesting overall!
saevers's review against another edition
2.0
This book ultimately earned a "meh" from me. It started out with one star, nearly redeemed itself with a handful of five star stories, and went back downhill at the end. There were enough really good stories that I'm not entirely sorry that I read it, but I wouldn't read it again or recommend it as a whole body of work to someone else.
It wasn't this book's fault, but I was also disappointed that the Kelly Link story was a republished piece I'd already read in another collection of hers.
It wasn't this book's fault, but I was also disappointed that the Kelly Link story was a republished piece I'd already read in another collection of hers.
books_blackcats's review against another edition
2.0
With a title as horrific as this one, my expectation was that the stories would be spooky and dramatic. However, they lacked atmosphere and did not hold my attention.
cursedartichoke's review against another edition
This short story collection is not, I think, meant to be read all at once—giving each contained story room to breathe by not immediately crushing with the next tale is key to its richness But, by doing that, it came due at the library before I could make my way through very many of its tales. will absolutely come back to it.
chrispy's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Rape
trulybooked's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to love this book and I'm not sure why I didn't. It may just be that it has the normal problem with anthologies where some of the entries are beyond incredible which makes the average ones seem even worse by comparison. There was something about this whole collection that left me feeling blue-balled. I won't deny that it's brilliant and worth your money, but I felt ambivalent when I finished it. Maybe that's the problem of working with fairy tales as your baseline. They're interesting, but they're overdone. There were no reimaginings that were as bold as the ones done by Angela Carter in the Bloody Chamber and somehow, the change in tone from stories that set to emulate fairytales to the ones that tried to modernize them could be jarring. Still, I would recommend reading it simply because there isn't much like it out there.
rustedtrains's review against another edition
Kindle got ruined by someone else, lost book and all progress. Going to go through and re-highlight and finish!