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luisasm's review against another edition
3.0
Entertaining, but kind of rocky. Some excellent stories, some just weird. The majority were pretty good, nice twists on fairy tales and all. Sometimes it was just entertaining to just try and figure out what fairy tale they were based on.
golden_lily's review against another edition
3.0
Read This Review & More Like It At Ageless Pages Reviews
Reviewing anthologies is never easy, but I love them. It’s a brief look at many different writers and how they interpret a pretty broad topic. Anyone who’s ever read my reviews probably knows, I can’t get enough of twisted fairy tales. And I can be pretty harsh, because I read a lot of them, which only makes reviewing this collection harder. While I liked several individual stories, I also felt that more were uninspired and lacked oomph. The only fair way to do this review is to take a brief look at each chapter.
The Key by Rachel Hawkins - I found this to be a pretty “eh” retelling of Bluebeard. Instead of a wife finding a hidden closet of dead bodies in her new husband’s home, we get teenage psychics and tattooed bad boys. It wasn’t that it was unfaithful, just not inspiring. And it felt extremely short. In a book where the stories only average 30 pages, this still felt like the shortest by far. (Best Bluebeard retelling is Cruel Beauty, which mixes Bluebeard with Beauty and the Beast for creepy as fuck results. FYI.)
Figment by Jeri Smith-Ready - Very pretty prose. Well written, but I don’t think I would connect it to the source material, (Puss in Boots,) if the author hadn’t specifically included several boots references. It’s hard to find a balance between modernizing fairy tales and changing them completely and this didn’t entirely work for me as a modernization. Again, though, as a short story about luck and talent and their intersections, I did find it successful.
The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo - Good, interesting contemporary retelling with a creepy twist at the end. I immediately recognized it as the 12 Dancing Princesses, but it didn’t feel like a retread. I wish it was a touch longer, though.
The Raven Princess by Jon Skovron - Very straightforward retelling of the Raven. (Fairy tale, not Poe poem.) The end is different, with a “be yourself” kind of moral. The only “modernization” was the gay giants, which, while I always love to see LGBT representation, I found somewhat, token? A little on the nose? So far only The Twelfth Girl has been grim.
Thinner Than Water by Saundra Mitchell - Well there’s my grimness. Phenomenal, truly. It follows the beginning of Cat-Skin in horrifying, (and possibly triggering,) detail, before veering off to an end that is entirely the author’s construct. Again, I thought the end was a bit rushed and I was left confused if the princess had been planning this all along, or if she just happened to stumble into another queen’s camp, but that’s more than made up for by the emotionally powerful prose.
Before the Rose Bloomed by Ellen Hopkins - I don’t like the original Snow Queen and its preachy overtones, so magnifying them and including the Tree of Knowledge, didn’t work for me at all. The religious references don’t feel well integrated into the whole story, and worse, Greta never feels empowered, despite going on a globe spanning journey to rescue her boyfriend. She cries and prays and God fixes it all for her. I didn’t get the point of changing the characters names from Gerda and Kai/Kay to Greta and K. I couldn’t get a handle on a time period. Honestly, I hated it.
Beast/Beast by Tessa Gratton - Reminded me of Beauty by Robin McKinley, which isn’t a bad thing at all. I really liked Beast’s nature-inspired appearance and how that kept Beauty from being truly afraid while still being monsterous. I thought the end was really sweet, and oddly for a Harlequin Teen book, is the only one with romance so far.
The Brothers Piggett by Julie Kagawa - A violent, twisted Three Little Pigs with a hint of Sweeney Todd. Amazing. We could have condemned the “nice guy” more, but a quibble. Kagawa may have finally won me over.
Untethered by Sonia Gensler - Pretty, well written, with a surprising twist, but I wouldn’t call it, or its inspiration,The Shroud, a fairy tale.
Better by Shaun David Hutchinson - Other reviews called this a Pied Piper retelling, (as does the author; I had to look it up,) and I can see that at the very end, but I found it to be more of a scifi Pinocchio/Frankenstein hybrid. I liked it, regardless! The end was suitably creepy, the length felt right, but this is where I realized how uneven the anthology is. Nothing about this or Untethered fits with the rest of the collection. In a different anthology, I’d give Better four stars, but combined with the other stories?
Light It Up by Kimberly Derting - I liked the plot, but I had some issues with the writing. There are phrases that didn't work, like "laugh-frown" and a really weird description where the author trips over herself to emphasis that a character is white. There's also a scene with a tense change, probably for dramatic effect, but it read unintentional and sloppy. I could also have done with a dozen less "bitch"s. I'm all for teenage characters swearing like their real-life counterparts, but it got repetitive and gross. This is one I wanted to like more than I did.
Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue by Christine Johnson - I never connected with this retelling of Diamonds and Toads. In many ways, it’s, again, a very straightforward modernization. “Nice sister” gets jewels and roses when she speaks, “mean sister” gets toads and snakes. Unfortunate is the reason for the blessings. I didn’t like the sexual assault plot or the way any of it was handled at all. The last line did resonate, which brought the whole thing back from the edge, but I couldn’t get over how detached I felt from the characters.
A Real Boy by Claudia Gray - Another human falls in love with a robot story, this one actually is supposed to be based on Pinocchio. Is it any wonder I was confused by Better? I like the love story aspect better than any other story in the collection. It’s really beautifully, sweetly told. I wish there had been some more world building, but otherwise Rowan and Blue have something really good here.
Skin Trade by Myra McEntyre - Ugly.
Choppily written, lacking in plot, mindlessly violent. I have no idea what the author was even trying to do. The story is a complete mess. I almost quit. Twice. In 20 pages. This is just ugly.
Beauty and the Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan - I didn't get what the author was going for at first, but once I did, I found myself smiling at it. I didn't exactly like the story. I'm not sure the conceit worked. I found Chad's voice wildly grating. The moral was heavy handed. But I do applaud Brennan for doing something different and playing with gender/gender roles. It made me think more than I would have expected.
The Pink by Amanda Hocking - This was one of the only tales I was completely unfamiliar with, so with no preconceived notions, I liked it. The end could have had more tension and the phrasing "the pink" made me think of vaginas, not carnations.
Sell Out by Jackson Pearce - Too short. I was interested in the idea, but the execution needed a whole mess of world building.
Seventeen stories, but only seven left an impression once the book was closed. I only hated two, but I also only loved four. Unfortunately, I think the collection needed more editing. The book is called Grim and has an amazing dark, spooky cover, but most stories are anything but. A common thread of “fairy tales” can only carry an anthology so far. Some are contemporary, some are classic fantasy. One’s a ghost story, two’re sci-fi. I wish the editor had gone with one more defining characteristic in all the stories, like all contemporaries or all twisted endings. Right now, I feel like I could split these into two or three smaller collections and have them all be more successful for it.
Reviewing anthologies is never easy, but I love them. It’s a brief look at many different writers and how they interpret a pretty broad topic. Anyone who’s ever read my reviews probably knows, I can’t get enough of twisted fairy tales. And I can be pretty harsh, because I read a lot of them, which only makes reviewing this collection harder. While I liked several individual stories, I also felt that more were uninspired and lacked oomph. The only fair way to do this review is to take a brief look at each chapter.
The Key by Rachel Hawkins - I found this to be a pretty “eh” retelling of Bluebeard. Instead of a wife finding a hidden closet of dead bodies in her new husband’s home, we get teenage psychics and tattooed bad boys. It wasn’t that it was unfaithful, just not inspiring. And it felt extremely short. In a book where the stories only average 30 pages, this still felt like the shortest by far. (Best Bluebeard retelling is Cruel Beauty, which mixes Bluebeard with Beauty and the Beast for creepy as fuck results. FYI.)
Figment by Jeri Smith-Ready - Very pretty prose. Well written, but I don’t think I would connect it to the source material, (Puss in Boots,) if the author hadn’t specifically included several boots references. It’s hard to find a balance between modernizing fairy tales and changing them completely and this didn’t entirely work for me as a modernization. Again, though, as a short story about luck and talent and their intersections, I did find it successful.
The Twelfth Girl by Malinda Lo - Good, interesting contemporary retelling with a creepy twist at the end. I immediately recognized it as the 12 Dancing Princesses, but it didn’t feel like a retread. I wish it was a touch longer, though.
The Raven Princess by Jon Skovron - Very straightforward retelling of the Raven. (Fairy tale, not Poe poem.) The end is different, with a “be yourself” kind of moral. The only “modernization” was the gay giants, which, while I always love to see LGBT representation, I found somewhat, token? A little on the nose? So far only The Twelfth Girl has been grim.
Thinner Than Water by Saundra Mitchell - Well there’s my grimness. Phenomenal, truly. It follows the beginning of Cat-Skin in horrifying, (and possibly triggering,) detail, before veering off to an end that is entirely the author’s construct. Again, I thought the end was a bit rushed and I was left confused if the princess had been planning this all along, or if she just happened to stumble into another queen’s camp, but that’s more than made up for by the emotionally powerful prose.
Before the Rose Bloomed by Ellen Hopkins - I don’t like the original Snow Queen and its preachy overtones, so magnifying them and including the Tree of Knowledge, didn’t work for me at all. The religious references don’t feel well integrated into the whole story, and worse, Greta never feels empowered, despite going on a globe spanning journey to rescue her boyfriend. She cries and prays and God fixes it all for her. I didn’t get the point of changing the characters names from Gerda and Kai/Kay to Greta and K. I couldn’t get a handle on a time period. Honestly, I hated it.
Beast/Beast by Tessa Gratton - Reminded me of Beauty by Robin McKinley, which isn’t a bad thing at all. I really liked Beast’s nature-inspired appearance and how that kept Beauty from being truly afraid while still being monsterous. I thought the end was really sweet, and oddly for a Harlequin Teen book, is the only one with romance so far.
The Brothers Piggett by Julie Kagawa - A violent, twisted Three Little Pigs with a hint of Sweeney Todd. Amazing. We could have condemned the “nice guy” more, but a quibble. Kagawa may have finally won me over.
Untethered by Sonia Gensler - Pretty, well written, with a surprising twist, but I wouldn’t call it, or its inspiration,The Shroud, a fairy tale.
Better by Shaun David Hutchinson - Other reviews called this a Pied Piper retelling, (as does the author; I had to look it up,) and I can see that at the very end, but I found it to be more of a scifi Pinocchio/Frankenstein hybrid. I liked it, regardless! The end was suitably creepy, the length felt right, but this is where I realized how uneven the anthology is. Nothing about this or Untethered fits with the rest of the collection. In a different anthology, I’d give Better four stars, but combined with the other stories?
Light It Up by Kimberly Derting - I liked the plot, but I had some issues with the writing. There are phrases that didn't work, like "laugh-frown" and a really weird description where the author trips over herself to emphasis that a character is white. There's also a scene with a tense change, probably for dramatic effect, but it read unintentional and sloppy. I could also have done with a dozen less "bitch"s. I'm all for teenage characters swearing like their real-life counterparts, but it got repetitive and gross. This is one I wanted to like more than I did.
Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue by Christine Johnson - I never connected with this retelling of Diamonds and Toads. In many ways, it’s, again, a very straightforward modernization. “Nice sister” gets jewels and roses when she speaks, “mean sister” gets toads and snakes. Unfortunate is the reason for the blessings. I didn’t like the sexual assault plot or the way any of it was handled at all. The last line did resonate, which brought the whole thing back from the edge, but I couldn’t get over how detached I felt from the characters.
A Real Boy by Claudia Gray - Another human falls in love with a robot story, this one actually is supposed to be based on Pinocchio. Is it any wonder I was confused by Better? I like the love story aspect better than any other story in the collection. It’s really beautifully, sweetly told. I wish there had been some more world building, but otherwise Rowan and Blue have something really good here.
Skin Trade by Myra McEntyre - Ugly.
Choppily written, lacking in plot, mindlessly violent. I have no idea what the author was even trying to do. The story is a complete mess. I almost quit. Twice. In 20 pages. This is just ugly.
Beauty and the Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan - I didn't get what the author was going for at first, but once I did, I found myself smiling at it. I didn't exactly like the story. I'm not sure the conceit worked. I found Chad's voice wildly grating. The moral was heavy handed. But I do applaud Brennan for doing something different and playing with gender/gender roles. It made me think more than I would have expected.
The Pink by Amanda Hocking - This was one of the only tales I was completely unfamiliar with, so with no preconceived notions, I liked it. The end could have had more tension and the phrasing "the pink" made me think of vaginas, not carnations.
Sell Out by Jackson Pearce - Too short. I was interested in the idea, but the execution needed a whole mess of world building.
Seventeen stories, but only seven left an impression once the book was closed. I only hated two, but I also only loved four. Unfortunately, I think the collection needed more editing. The book is called Grim and has an amazing dark, spooky cover, but most stories are anything but. A common thread of “fairy tales” can only carry an anthology so far. Some are contemporary, some are classic fantasy. One’s a ghost story, two’re sci-fi. I wish the editor had gone with one more defining characteristic in all the stories, like all contemporaries or all twisted endings. Right now, I feel like I could split these into two or three smaller collections and have them all be more successful for it.
thepiqht's review against another edition
4.0
Book: Grim
Editor: Christine Johnson
Source: Library
Thinner Than Water, 5 stars by Saundra Mitchell
In my opinion was the best story in the book. The blurb promises stories inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist and I think this delivers just that. Disturbing in many parts, so definitely not a bedtime story.
Overall this collection of books was kind of hit or miss for me. While there were a few great ones the majority were okay, a few leaning into the skip category.
Editor: Christine Johnson
Source: Library
Thinner Than Water, 5 stars by Saundra Mitchell
In my opinion was the best story in the book. The blurb promises stories inspired by classic fairy tales, but with a dark and sinister twist and I think this delivers just that. Disturbing in many parts, so definitely not a bedtime story.
Overall this collection of books was kind of hit or miss for me. While there were a few great ones the majority were okay, a few leaning into the skip category.
yungokssss's review against another edition
4.0
[a:Sarah Rees Brennan|836009|Sarah Rees Brennan|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1254149255p2/836009.jpg] is hilarious.
weweresotired's review against another edition
3.0
Grim is a pretty excellent collection of fairy tale-inspired stories from top YA authors. While the blurb bills them all as dark and sinister, I don't think that's necessarily true. There are some that are kind of creepy, and a few with sinister plot twists, but I didn't find the collection to be overall quite as, uh, grim as advertised. I do wish that the stories included notes from the authors about their inspirations or what fairy tales they were adapting, since I'm not really familiar with too many fairy tales, but otherwise, I enjoyed a good number of these stories and think this one is definitely worth picking up.
Here are my quick thoughts on each of the stories in the collection.
The Key, by Rachel Hawkins: Short and not-so-sweet, Hawkins works a lot of twists and surprises that I didn't see coming into this story about the daughter of a small-town psychic in a trailer park. This was a great way to kick off the collection of stories.
Figment, by Jeri Smith-Ready: A teenager inherits something from his absentee father that changes his life, whether he likes it or not. A cute, bittersweet story with a brief epilogue that actually worked and served a purpose and made me happy again. As someone who really has a lot of sentimental attachments to inanimate objects, this story resonated with me.
The Twelfth Girl, by Malinda Lo: I'd love to see a whole book set in the world of this story, which takes place part on the campus of a pricey private school, and part, well, somewhere else. Definitely the kind of story that left me wanting to know more about the characters and what happened next.
The Raven Princess, by Jon Skovron: So far, this story is the closest to a traditional fairy tale, with a lonely, cursed princess and a young man who sets out to break the curse. There are some unexpected twists though, as things are not always as they seem. There's a great lesson to be learned from this one, for the hero's quest. It's another bittersweet story, though -- are they all going to be like this?
Thinner Than Water, by Saundra Mitchell: First, a huge content warning on this one for incest and child abuse. We learn from the very first lines of this story that the king comes to his daughter's bedchambers at night, and now he wishes to marry her and make her his new queen. While nothing is described graphically, you know what is happening and it can be tough to read. But this beautifully written story is about a survivor, and the princess takes matters into her own hands to bring an end to her father's abuse. The subject matter is tough, but the princess is triumphant.
Before the Rose Bloomed, by Ellen Hopkins: This story, a retelling of The Snow Queen, is written in verse, which I always tend to have a bit of a rocky relationship with. It had its cute and compelling moments but overall wasn't for me. Mostly I was just sort of bored, and found it predictable. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Beast/Beast, by Tessa Gratton: I thought this was well written but I don't know that it added much to the Beauty and the Beast story that we all already know. It's written from "Beauty's" perspective, and her journey to understand the curse that both she and the Beast are subject to is compelling. I think I just wanted a little something more than I ultimately got.
The Brothers Piggett, by Julie Kagawa: This one, as you might guess, is a take on the Three Little Pigs. I enjoy just about everything Julie Kagawa writes and this is no exception. I kind of wondered where this was going for a while -- the main character edges a bit close to "nice guy" territory, you know, thinking a girl should like him just because he's nice to her and therefore better than any other guy out there -- but ultimately the ending of the story sold me on it.
Untethered, by Sonia Gensler: A simple ghost story with a twist that I should have saw coming but didn't. I actually went oh! out loud when all the pieces of the story clicked into place for me.
Better, by Shaun David Hutchinson: This one did not go where I was expecting, and I loved it for that. It combines space travel, mysterious diseases, the morality and ethics behind artificial intelligence, perhaps cloning, and medical research, and young love, and gets real sinister, real fast. Content warning on this one, a character is sexually assaulted, although nothing is depicted on the page.
Light It Up, by Kimberly Derting: This one is awesome! I don't want to give away the fairy tale that this one is based on, even if you can guess it fairly quickly, but it's an awesome updated take on a familiar story, and features a badass, resourceful girl as the main/POV character.
Sharper Than a Serpent's Tongue, by Christine Johnson: This story was kind of a hot mess. The storyline hinges on a mom who is an alcoholic, and a creepy dude who stops just shy of assaulting one of our main characters, and a person who makes excuses for him and demands silence from the girl he tried to harm. It just didn't work for me.
A Real Boy, by Claudia Gray: A look at robots, artificial intelligence, and love in the future. Definitely another one that I wanted more from when it was over. It's a sweet story that raises questions about what it means to be human.
Skin Trade, by Myra McEntire: From the very beginning, I was hooked, wanting to know what exactly was going on. I didn't entirely understand the mythology behind this one, but it was super creepy and tense and kind of gory - just my style!
Beauty and the Chad, by Sarah Rees Brennan: If we want to talk about a fresh new take on Beauty and the Beast, let's talk about this story. Aside from the trademark snark and banter I've come to expect from Sarah Rees Brennan, there are also some interesting things in there about gender presentation and expected gender roles and bravery and falling in love with someone unexpected.
The Pink: A Grimm Story, by Amanda Hocking: A tale told fairly simply, we start out with a queen who is saddened that she has not yet been able to have a child. Each short chapter jumps forward in time to tell the rest of the story. I didn't love this one, it felt a little like a much longer story that was edited down to be a short story instead.
Sell Out, by Jackson Pearce: Another one that I really wanted more from! There's a lot that you could do with the scenario Pearce writes about. This one really has great potential to be a much longer story, because I feel like the ending we got was really just the beginning of the story of these characters.
Here are my quick thoughts on each of the stories in the collection.
The Key, by Rachel Hawkins: Short and not-so-sweet, Hawkins works a lot of twists and surprises that I didn't see coming into this story about the daughter of a small-town psychic in a trailer park. This was a great way to kick off the collection of stories.
Figment, by Jeri Smith-Ready: A teenager inherits something from his absentee father that changes his life, whether he likes it or not. A cute, bittersweet story with a brief epilogue that actually worked and served a purpose and made me happy again. As someone who really has a lot of sentimental attachments to inanimate objects, this story resonated with me.
The Twelfth Girl, by Malinda Lo: I'd love to see a whole book set in the world of this story, which takes place part on the campus of a pricey private school, and part, well, somewhere else. Definitely the kind of story that left me wanting to know more about the characters and what happened next.
The Raven Princess, by Jon Skovron: So far, this story is the closest to a traditional fairy tale, with a lonely, cursed princess and a young man who sets out to break the curse. There are some unexpected twists though, as things are not always as they seem. There's a great lesson to be learned from this one, for the hero's quest. It's another bittersweet story, though -- are they all going to be like this?
Thinner Than Water, by Saundra Mitchell: First, a huge content warning on this one for incest and child abuse. We learn from the very first lines of this story that the king comes to his daughter's bedchambers at night, and now he wishes to marry her and make her his new queen. While nothing is described graphically, you know what is happening and it can be tough to read. But this beautifully written story is about a survivor, and the princess takes matters into her own hands to bring an end to her father's abuse. The subject matter is tough, but the princess is triumphant.
Before the Rose Bloomed, by Ellen Hopkins: This story, a retelling of The Snow Queen, is written in verse, which I always tend to have a bit of a rocky relationship with. It had its cute and compelling moments but overall wasn't for me. Mostly I was just sort of bored, and found it predictable. Your mileage may vary, of course.
Beast/Beast, by Tessa Gratton: I thought this was well written but I don't know that it added much to the Beauty and the Beast story that we all already know. It's written from "Beauty's" perspective, and her journey to understand the curse that both she and the Beast are subject to is compelling. I think I just wanted a little something more than I ultimately got.
The Brothers Piggett, by Julie Kagawa: This one, as you might guess, is a take on the Three Little Pigs. I enjoy just about everything Julie Kagawa writes and this is no exception. I kind of wondered where this was going for a while -- the main character edges a bit close to "nice guy" territory, you know, thinking a girl should like him just because he's nice to her and therefore better than any other guy out there -- but ultimately the ending of the story sold me on it.
Untethered, by Sonia Gensler: A simple ghost story with a twist that I should have saw coming but didn't. I actually went oh! out loud when all the pieces of the story clicked into place for me.
Better, by Shaun David Hutchinson: This one did not go where I was expecting, and I loved it for that. It combines space travel, mysterious diseases, the morality and ethics behind artificial intelligence, perhaps cloning, and medical research, and young love, and gets real sinister, real fast. Content warning on this one, a character is sexually assaulted, although nothing is depicted on the page.
Light It Up, by Kimberly Derting: This one is awesome! I don't want to give away the fairy tale that this one is based on, even if you can guess it fairly quickly, but it's an awesome updated take on a familiar story, and features a badass, resourceful girl as the main/POV character.
Sharper Than a Serpent's Tongue, by Christine Johnson: This story was kind of a hot mess. The storyline hinges on a mom who is an alcoholic, and a creepy dude who stops just shy of assaulting one of our main characters, and a person who makes excuses for him and demands silence from the girl he tried to harm. It just didn't work for me.
A Real Boy, by Claudia Gray: A look at robots, artificial intelligence, and love in the future. Definitely another one that I wanted more from when it was over. It's a sweet story that raises questions about what it means to be human.
Skin Trade, by Myra McEntire: From the very beginning, I was hooked, wanting to know what exactly was going on. I didn't entirely understand the mythology behind this one, but it was super creepy and tense and kind of gory - just my style!
Beauty and the Chad, by Sarah Rees Brennan: If we want to talk about a fresh new take on Beauty and the Beast, let's talk about this story. Aside from the trademark snark and banter I've come to expect from Sarah Rees Brennan, there are also some interesting things in there about gender presentation and expected gender roles and bravery and falling in love with someone unexpected.
The Pink: A Grimm Story, by Amanda Hocking: A tale told fairly simply, we start out with a queen who is saddened that she has not yet been able to have a child. Each short chapter jumps forward in time to tell the rest of the story. I didn't love this one, it felt a little like a much longer story that was edited down to be a short story instead.
Sell Out, by Jackson Pearce: Another one that I really wanted more from! There's a lot that you could do with the scenario Pearce writes about. This one really has great potential to be a much longer story, because I feel like the ending we got was really just the beginning of the story of these characters.
ang_hickey's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
minna1999's review against another edition
4.0
Four stars overall. Probably my favorite anthology.
Favorite stories:
The Key
Figment
The Raven Princess
Light It Up
A Real Boy
Beauty and the Char
The Brothers Piggett
Favorite stories:
The Key
Figment
The Raven Princess
Light It Up
A Real Boy
Beauty and the Char
The Brothers Piggett
jantonichuk's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
black0star's review against another edition
4.0
Really liked it, but not all the stories are really "dark and sinister."