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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
A little more than half the stories are fantastic and absolutely worth the purchase. The rest are okay.
Creative liberty was taken with traditional fairy tales in these short stories. What's not to like? I love the shift in perspective that cause you to look at the protagonist and villain that makes you wonder about the original story entirely. Well written and imaginative. Also a quick read.
This was not intentional, but I finished reading it in Trans Rights Readathon week (March 20-27, 2023). Very creepy, very good. I like it that the sources are listed at the end. I'll have to re-read this sometime.
Mallory Ortberg puts a darker spin on some classic folk tales (modern day Brothers Grimm?).
There were a couple tales that kind of went over my head, I'm assuming because I wasn't familiar with the source material.
Fear Not: An Incident Log, The Rabbit (a decidedly "murderier" take on The Velveteen Rabbit) were probably my top 2 favorites, followed by The Six Boy Coffins and The Daughter Cells.
There were a couple tales that kind of went over my head, I'm assuming because I wasn't familiar with the source material.
Fear Not: An Incident Log, The Rabbit (a decidedly "murderier" take on The Velveteen Rabbit) were probably my top 2 favorites, followed by The Six Boy Coffins and The Daughter Cells.
There were a few stories that I really enjoyed, most of them were ok. I stopped at the Toad story because I wanted to move on to other books I've got waiting.
Tales of Everyday Horror! The list of short stories: and some quotes within:
"The Daughter Cells"
The only way to teach the value of something is to give someone the chance to waste it.
They are a prodigiously selfish race and consider themselves their own private property even in death.
Better a plate of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith..... There are other books that better explain that sort of thing. Hadn't you better be reading some of them?
If you lose one, that's the end of it. There's no growing THOSE back
"The Thankless Child"
"Dress yourselves. Attempt to do so without humiliating me."
The Invocation to Combat Ungratefulness
"You might consider marrying me, if you have thoughts of marrying."
"I didn't know if you wanted to be a wife or not, so I guessed, but we can still change it. I'm trained for both, if that helps."
"Fear Not: An Incident Log"
You always end up with a little too much of something, or not enough of another, and most people would rather talk to a four-headed chariot than something that looks almost like them but has one too many mouths or eyes that don't close right.
I've seen a man spend all his life praying for union with the divine, only to shrink back and scrabble to return to his own skin once he realizes that the presence of the divine is coming for him.
Then came people, most of whom were later drowned.
Each of us has spent time in outer darkness, and we have always come back in.
"The Six Boy-Coffins"
Six sons were one thing. Six men were quite another. ... And what could a kingdom do with six kings?
And the king's wife said, "It shall be as you say," because it always was.
It was an important task of kingship, determining when brothers and sons were no longer necessary.
She could not understand how she was here, when she had never said yes to being brought anywhere. ... She was beginning to learn the danger of silence, and that someone who wishes to hear a yes will not go out of his way to listen for a no. ... She began to see how dangerous it was to be unhappy when [her husband] did not want her to be, and smiled at him.
"The Rabbit"
(VELVETEEN RABBIT)
"Whose skin do you have? ... Whose skin did you get?"
"The Merry Spinster"
"What could he WANT with her?" Catherine whispered from her bed after she had turned out the lights.
Some time passed, and nothing happened.
Then: "A man in a mustache is at the door to see Beauty," Sylvia said one afternoon. "He looks as though he were going to speak German at me."
Everyone belongs to someone. You're not allowed to belong to yourself.
"You're welcome to outrage MY virtue next, but I can't promise I'll have any left, if you dawdle about it."
"You are mistress of your own voice. ... But first remember I am the master of all the words spoken in this house."
"Perhaps you would not like being married to me," Beauty said. "I do not know how to talk to people, and I have terrible taste in shirts."
"The Wedding Party"
"What am I supposed to do with all these place settings and linens if I haven't got a wife that goes with them?"
"I would be willing to sacrifice a Ficus or an orchid for your happiness."
"You won't need me for the wedding breakfast..."
"Aren't you supposed to be an educated woman?"
"No. Purely decorative."
He had never been able to drag her back to a point once she had decided to abandon it.
"She's been in a position to do you some good, and I want to know why she hasn't—and why that doesn't seem to bother you."
"Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad"
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
Eventually Mole wandered into the clearing and took an interest. "Hello, Toad," he called down into the hole. "What are you doing down there?"
"I heard a noise," came a voice from very deep within the hole. "And I thought there might be something making the noise."
"Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters"
Aquinas says passion deserves neither praise nor blame.
"Alas, alas, my lovely man," and then she was gone.
"So now I want you to help me catch her," [said my son]
"It would be a wicked catching," I said to him, "and the keeping of her more wicked still."
The book of Matthew, chapter eighteen: Jesus said to the disciples, "Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of those little ones."
"The Frog's Princess"
IT'S A STORY HOW THE PRINCESS IS GIVEN TO THE FROG
"Good Fences Make Good Neighbors"
"You do not live with a friend," the flounder said. "I have seen your home and the one who lives there with you, he is no friend to you."
_____________________________________________________
It's a book familiar to the themes of my overeducation. Stories are a neat mix of precocious and pretentious, with sprinklings of affectation.
Big stories about bodies vs. gender, which gender has authority over whose body, etc. Biggest theme is erasure of gender. Characters bend and twist, most are not human.
It isn't necessarily a good thing to be human.
"The Daughter Cells"
The only way to teach the value of something is to give someone the chance to waste it.
They are a prodigiously selfish race and consider themselves their own private property even in death.
Better a plate of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith..... There are other books that better explain that sort of thing. Hadn't you better be reading some of them?
If you lose one, that's the end of it. There's no growing THOSE back
"The Thankless Child"
"Dress yourselves. Attempt to do so without humiliating me."
The Invocation to Combat Ungratefulness
"You might consider marrying me, if you have thoughts of marrying."
"I didn't know if you wanted to be a wife or not, so I guessed, but we can still change it. I'm trained for both, if that helps."
"Fear Not: An Incident Log"
You always end up with a little too much of something, or not enough of another, and most people would rather talk to a four-headed chariot than something that looks almost like them but has one too many mouths or eyes that don't close right.
I've seen a man spend all his life praying for union with the divine, only to shrink back and scrabble to return to his own skin once he realizes that the presence of the divine is coming for him.
Then came people, most of whom were later drowned.
Each of us has spent time in outer darkness, and we have always come back in.
"The Six Boy-Coffins"
Six sons were one thing. Six men were quite another. ... And what could a kingdom do with six kings?
And the king's wife said, "It shall be as you say," because it always was.
It was an important task of kingship, determining when brothers and sons were no longer necessary.
She could not understand how she was here, when she had never said yes to being brought anywhere. ... She was beginning to learn the danger of silence, and that someone who wishes to hear a yes will not go out of his way to listen for a no. ... She began to see how dangerous it was to be unhappy when [her husband] did not want her to be, and smiled at him.
"The Rabbit"
(VELVETEEN RABBIT)
"Whose skin do you have? ... Whose skin did you get?"
"The Merry Spinster"
"What could he WANT with her?" Catherine whispered from her bed after she had turned out the lights.
Some time passed, and nothing happened.
Then: "A man in a mustache is at the door to see Beauty," Sylvia said one afternoon. "He looks as though he were going to speak German at me."
Everyone belongs to someone. You're not allowed to belong to yourself.
"You're welcome to outrage MY virtue next, but I can't promise I'll have any left, if you dawdle about it."
"You are mistress of your own voice. ... But first remember I am the master of all the words spoken in this house."
"Perhaps you would not like being married to me," Beauty said. "I do not know how to talk to people, and I have terrible taste in shirts."
"The Wedding Party"
"What am I supposed to do with all these place settings and linens if I haven't got a wife that goes with them?"
"I would be willing to sacrifice a Ficus or an orchid for your happiness."
"You won't need me for the wedding breakfast..."
"Aren't you supposed to be an educated woman?"
"No. Purely decorative."
He had never been able to drag her back to a point once she had decided to abandon it.
"She's been in a position to do you some good, and I want to know why she hasn't—and why that doesn't seem to bother you."
"Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad"
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
Eventually Mole wandered into the clearing and took an interest. "Hello, Toad," he called down into the hole. "What are you doing down there?"
"I heard a noise," came a voice from very deep within the hole. "And I thought there might be something making the noise."
"Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters"
Aquinas says passion deserves neither praise nor blame.
"Alas, alas, my lovely man," and then she was gone.
"So now I want you to help me catch her," [said my son]
"It would be a wicked catching," I said to him, "and the keeping of her more wicked still."
The book of Matthew, chapter eighteen: Jesus said to the disciples, "Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh. Better that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of those little ones."
"The Frog's Princess"
IT'S A STORY HOW THE PRINCESS IS GIVEN TO THE FROG
"Good Fences Make Good Neighbors"
"You do not live with a friend," the flounder said. "I have seen your home and the one who lives there with you, he is no friend to you."
_____________________________________________________
It's a book familiar to the themes of my overeducation. Stories are a neat mix of precocious and pretentious, with sprinklings of affectation.
Big stories about bodies vs. gender, which gender has authority over whose body, etc. Biggest theme is erasure of gender. Characters bend and twist, most are not human.
It isn't necessarily a good thing to be human.
A collection of bizarre, sinister, and unsettling reimagined fairy tales. Some of the stories work REALLY well ("The Daughter Cells", "The Rabbit"), and some are just confusing ("The Wedding Party"), but most fall in the middle. There are some nice things with gas-lighting and possessiveness within the stories that make you rethink fairy tales in general, but some stories suffer because they just end abruptly.
I would only recommend if you like The Toast and if you like stories that leave you disquieted & confused.
I would only recommend if you like The Toast and if you like stories that leave you disquieted & confused.
Interesting
Very macabre, but I must admit that I didn't understand all the stories although I did like how they were updated fairy tales.
Very macabre, but I must admit that I didn't understand all the stories although I did like how they were updated fairy tales.
I loved Ortberg on the Toast and wanted something spooky to read for “Halloween month,” so I sat down with this. It was a fun, quick read that had the atmosphere of creepiness and dread that I like, and the first several stories especially were very good. “The Daughter Cells” and “Fear Not” were interesting to me for the way the horror comes from the main characters’ inhuman indifference to humanity. Not all the stories were that memorable to me, but they were all at least okay.