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baileyjane1's review
3.0
This was definitely an interesting read! Some of the retellings and new stories gripped me from the first paragraph while others felt disconnected and bumpy to read. Overall I'm glad I read it as it isn't what normally drift toward. Pretty dark and fantastical, but probably not something I'd read over and over. :)
thebookheap12's review
5.0
First, of course, I need to thank Liv Longborn (Editor who contacted me), Camilla Bruce (Editor), the many co-authors of this book and all others involved with Belladonna Publishing, for allowing me a copy of this wonderful anthology in exchange for a review!
Liv contacted me at the start of may, asking if I would be interested in reviewing “Black Apples”, and as you all know, I love me some fairy tales. My reply was an instant “hells yeah”. I received my paperback copy and I just need to say, it is absolutely gorgeous. I mean, wow. This thing is going to hold a place on honour on my bookcase!
Now, onto discussing the actual book.
“Black Apples” is an anthology of old and brand new fairy tales. While many of these can fall under “re-tellings” of the older, traditional tales, such as the twelve dancing princesses, and cinderella- they certainly take their own spin on the events within the story. Whether it is through adding elements of their own, telling the tale from an entirely different perspective. Another element that makes this anthology stand out, is that the tales in here run much more akin to the violent, and gorey Grimms tales. I do not say this lightly, for those who believe in “Trigger warnings” for books (I kind of hate that phrase, personally), this book/anthology does include: rape, murder, incestuous tones, blood, gore, abuse, and occasionally, romance. But as usual, what makes all of these dark themes readable is that the tales are about how the heroes or heroines overcome these struggles and emerge victorious- mostly.
What is great about collections of short stories like this, is that you can pick it up and put it down and not worry about falling out of the story, which took a lot of pressure off. But it turns out this book was exactly the break I needed after being in a reading slump and despite being “able” to put the book down, I simply did not want to.
The tales were inventive, creative, beautiful and sometimes got very theatrical reactions from me! My favourite tale was definitely “Deux et Machina” by Caren Gussoff. It actually made me swear loudly, which caused my dad to shout up to check I was okay. HA! There was, I think, only one tale I didn’t enjoy, but out of a book of eighteen tales, that is still pretty impressive.
The writing amongst these stories sucks you in completely, they are so well executed and my god, I just thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of fairy tales, and to anyone who is wanting to read more anthologies.
For more of my reviews, please visit thebookheap at wordpress
http://thebookheap.wordpress.com
Liv contacted me at the start of may, asking if I would be interested in reviewing “Black Apples”, and as you all know, I love me some fairy tales. My reply was an instant “hells yeah”. I received my paperback copy and I just need to say, it is absolutely gorgeous. I mean, wow. This thing is going to hold a place on honour on my bookcase!
Now, onto discussing the actual book.
“Black Apples” is an anthology of old and brand new fairy tales. While many of these can fall under “re-tellings” of the older, traditional tales, such as the twelve dancing princesses, and cinderella- they certainly take their own spin on the events within the story. Whether it is through adding elements of their own, telling the tale from an entirely different perspective. Another element that makes this anthology stand out, is that the tales in here run much more akin to the violent, and gorey Grimms tales. I do not say this lightly, for those who believe in “Trigger warnings” for books (I kind of hate that phrase, personally), this book/anthology does include: rape, murder, incestuous tones, blood, gore, abuse, and occasionally, romance. But as usual, what makes all of these dark themes readable is that the tales are about how the heroes or heroines overcome these struggles and emerge victorious- mostly.
What is great about collections of short stories like this, is that you can pick it up and put it down and not worry about falling out of the story, which took a lot of pressure off. But it turns out this book was exactly the break I needed after being in a reading slump and despite being “able” to put the book down, I simply did not want to.
The tales were inventive, creative, beautiful and sometimes got very theatrical reactions from me! My favourite tale was definitely “Deux et Machina” by Caren Gussoff. It actually made me swear loudly, which caused my dad to shout up to check I was okay. HA! There was, I think, only one tale I didn’t enjoy, but out of a book of eighteen tales, that is still pretty impressive.
The writing amongst these stories sucks you in completely, they are so well executed and my god, I just thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of fairy tales, and to anyone who is wanting to read more anthologies.
For more of my reviews, please visit thebookheap at wordpress
http://thebookheap.wordpress.com
hellphie's review
4.0
I’ve mentioned several times that I don’t love short stories. I usually don’t gravitate towards them in stand alone or collection form. The one exception is fairy tales. They are, by their nature, short stories. And they are typically sold in collection form. And this brings us to Black Apples – a collection of 18 modern fairy tales. Many of these stories borrow from historic tropes or pull classic stories into modern settings. I received this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. And honestly, I’m pretty down with this book – and it’s pretty, pretty cover! This book will most likely find its way into some stocking this Christmas.
These aren’t your Disney fairytales. These are much more in line with the original tradition of fairy tales. Dark and Grimm (see what I did there – yup). There are no pretty princesses being saved by dashing princes. There are no singing crabs or rabbits with waistcoats. Original fairy tales were often folklore and cautionary tales for citizens within certain communities. While there were many similar stories, they morphed with specific values and culture of a given community. Fairy tales were not necessarily meant for children – especially not in the way we think of children now. This book – probably not for your kids. Unless you’re awesome. There’s research out there about how children who are read the original Grimm’s tales develop better rational decision making skills. How credible are these studies? I don’t know, but I can see the logic. You raise a kid to only believe that someone else will always pop up to save them and that everything has a happy ending, it’s probably going to take them longer to realize that that’s not how this whole real world thing works. Teach them early that sometimes things take a turn for the dark and twisty and they might be able to apply these ideas to situations they find themselves in. However, you may also want to cushion these stories with – cutting out the heart of someone who is prettier than you is probably not your best problem solving path. Anyway, I’m finding myself falling down the rabbit hole of not relevant.
When I started Black Apples, I was hooked by the writing in the first story – Snow Child – from the very first page, but I wasn’t sure I was down with the content. It’s a retelling of Snow White where the stepmother hates her beautiful stepdaughter because the daughter sleeps with the mother’s new husband. My uh oh radar when off. It’s extremely well written, but if all the stories were going to be like this one, the book was going to feel like it was trying too hard. However, the second story was a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Sisters – if you’ve read previous entries, you know this is my favourite fairy tale. And this one read much more like a classic fairy tale. A father desperate for a son. A dozen daughters. A gender swap to trick their father. And then another. A betrayal by the tricksters. It’s everything I look for in one of these stories.
Complete review at http://hellphiesfiendishfiction.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/black-apples-edited-by-camilla-bruce-and-liv-lingborn/
These aren’t your Disney fairytales. These are much more in line with the original tradition of fairy tales. Dark and Grimm (see what I did there – yup). There are no pretty princesses being saved by dashing princes. There are no singing crabs or rabbits with waistcoats. Original fairy tales were often folklore and cautionary tales for citizens within certain communities. While there were many similar stories, they morphed with specific values and culture of a given community. Fairy tales were not necessarily meant for children – especially not in the way we think of children now. This book – probably not for your kids. Unless you’re awesome. There’s research out there about how children who are read the original Grimm’s tales develop better rational decision making skills. How credible are these studies? I don’t know, but I can see the logic. You raise a kid to only believe that someone else will always pop up to save them and that everything has a happy ending, it’s probably going to take them longer to realize that that’s not how this whole real world thing works. Teach them early that sometimes things take a turn for the dark and twisty and they might be able to apply these ideas to situations they find themselves in. However, you may also want to cushion these stories with – cutting out the heart of someone who is prettier than you is probably not your best problem solving path. Anyway, I’m finding myself falling down the rabbit hole of not relevant.
When I started Black Apples, I was hooked by the writing in the first story – Snow Child – from the very first page, but I wasn’t sure I was down with the content. It’s a retelling of Snow White where the stepmother hates her beautiful stepdaughter because the daughter sleeps with the mother’s new husband. My uh oh radar when off. It’s extremely well written, but if all the stories were going to be like this one, the book was going to feel like it was trying too hard. However, the second story was a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Sisters – if you’ve read previous entries, you know this is my favourite fairy tale. And this one read much more like a classic fairy tale. A father desperate for a son. A dozen daughters. A gender swap to trick their father. And then another. A betrayal by the tricksters. It’s everything I look for in one of these stories.
Complete review at http://hellphiesfiendishfiction.wordpress.com/2014/10/08/black-apples-edited-by-camilla-bruce-and-liv-lingborn/
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