Reviews

Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan

unlikelyplaces's review against another edition

dark emotional

3.0

I listened to Savage Her Reply by this author last year and it was one of my favourites of the year so I was excited when I saw that my library had the audio for this one as well but I probably should have predicted that this one wouldn’t work as well for me.

I would describe this as somewhere in between a short story and poetry collection of retellings of classic fairytales. Now I know for a lot of people that sounds like the dream and to those people I would absolutely recommend this book. 

However for me, although I love mythology retellings, for some reason I’m really not a fan of fairytale retellings (which I realise does not make much sense, I can’t explain it) and I often struggle with an overly poetic writing style.

I think my main issue with this was that I didn’t always understand the point the stories were trying to make. The book has obvious feminist themes and in some of the stories the author’s message was clear, but there were a few that either I just missed it or it was unclear what was happening and what the point was. This wasn’t helped by the fact that I didn’t know all of the original stories so when the author was taking just one character or a snippet of the story, I didn’t have the context for it which made it difficult to follow at times.

This book did cover a wide range of stories and a lot of them have very heavy and difficult subject matter (as do many of the original tales) and there were definitely some that I liked more than others. Please do check for trigger warnings if you feel like you need to as there are many.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes fairytale retellings, especially with a feminist lens, and who likes poetic writing. This was definitely a case of “it’s a me problem” but I actually think this was very well written and would work for a lot of people.

Content warnings (I’m not sure if I’ve got all of them as I didn’t follow all of the stories very well so there may be some missing from this list): Gore, sxual abuse, child abuse, domestic abuse, incst, binge eating, alcoholism

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Eating disorder, and Incest

zoidze99's review

4.0

Slippershod - 5 stars
The Woodcutter's Bride - 4 stars
Come Live Here and Be Loved - 3 stars
You Shall Not Suffer - 3 stars
Meet the Nameless Thing and Call It Friend - 3 stars
Sister Fair - 5 stars
Ash Pale - 4 stars
Consume or Be Consumed - 2 stars
Doing Well - 4.5 stars
The Tender Weight - 5 stars
Riverbed - 4 stars
The Little Gift - 5 stars
Beauty and the Board - 3 stars

50.5 = 3.88 = 4 stars

lo_readss's review

3.0

3.5 a dark set of fairytale adaptions - if you’re looking for Disney level happy endings, look elsewhere

pinkgltrbubbles's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

caitlinjohnson's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

wildbecs's review against another edition

dark mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Lyrical. The fairy tales reminded me of "Women who run with the Wolves" - though there was history and ideas in that book. This was a lot darker.

choccyfish's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

These stories are not feminism in the empowering sense, at least not really. More in the fact they are centred around female experience and the oppression of women. It’s just kind of miserable to be honest, I think that’s kind of the point. But I felt like it really missed out on some of the unique experiences to women that are empowering.  

Perhaps I lost a bit of the experience listening to an audio version instead of reading the words and being able to make them flow in the way reading does. The narrator did an excellent job though. I liked her voice a lot. 

Overall I think this collection is fine. But I wouldn’t actually say I liked any of the stories? The language is very pretty and everything reads almost poem like. I think the only reason I finished it was it’s short length. 

best_lemon's review

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

flappie55's review

3.0

Four stars for Beauty and the Beast, The Goose Girl, Donkeyskin, Blue Beard, the Frog Prince and Snow White.

Three starts for Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Hnasel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, A Little Mermaid and Fair, Brown and Trembling

girlreading's review

3.0

I’m so sad that I didn’t love this as much as I’d hoped I would. There were a few stories I liked above the others, The Tender Weight being my stand out favourite but overall, this collection wasn’t for me unfortunately.