Reviews

A Wolf at the Door: And Other Retold Fairy Tales by Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling

mckenzierichardson's review against another edition

3.0

For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-CycleI love retellings, especially fairy tale retellings. I have a whole shelf on Goodreads dedicated to retellings and parodies. However, this one was kind of a let down. With big names like Neil Gaiman, Nancy Farmer, and Gregory Maguire, I thought I was in for an amazing trip into fairy tale retelling-dom. Unfortunately, most of the stories fell flat for me. Many of the authors took most of the magic out of the stories, creating a version of the story set in modern or quasi-modern times. This essentially took everything I love about fairy tales out of the actual fairy tale. I love reading about far off places in times long past with elements of strange magic. So these modern, realistic tales kind of took all the fun out of reading fairy tales. I did like a few of the pieces. Nancy Farmer's "Falada: The Goose Girl's Horse" was my favorite. I liked the changes she made to the original story. I also thought Michael Cadnum's "Mrs. Big" and Garth Nix's "Hansel's Eyes" had unique and interesting retellings. And Neil Gaiman's "Instructions" was a cute way of tying together a bunch of stories. But many of the stories just felt a little boring to me. Not enough fairies in said fairy tales. Not sure if it's because it was written 18 years ago or if the authors just tried simplifying their stories too much for their target audience, but I did not like this book as much as I thought I would. It was still decent with some interesting ideas in it so I still gave it 3 stars. Unique mash-up of sci-fi, fantasy, and realism.

joeyhannah's review against another edition

4.0

This book was also chosen for my YA Materials course.

A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales is a collection of short stories that I selected from Cynthia Leitich Smith's list of children's and YA short story and poetry collections. I chose Neil Gaiman's Instructions as my short story for the purposes of this module, however, I read a few of the other stories and they were all wonderful.

Q5, P3

Q5 - As a huge fan of Neil Gaiman, I absolutely loved this story. Through his series of Instructions, he calls to minds bits and pieces of every fairy story you have ever heard, tidbits of wisdom that definitely apply to the magical realm and possibly even to the "real world."

P3 - I really wanted to give this a P4 rating or higher, but I kept thinking that because of the magical theme of these stories and the easy readability, the writing in this collection is rather simplistic and probably more appealing to the younger members of the YA spectrum - late junior high, possibly early high school. It does have a bit of a juvenile feel to it, so it might not be attractive to older teens.

innae's review against another edition

3.0

I love retold fairy tales -- Some of these stories I didn't know the original tales (one in particular is a Portuguese tale, and I loved the retelling..need to find an "original") I love that Kathe Koja wrote her story for all the ugly ducklings out there (and I don't think there is a 12-14 year old girl who hasn't felt like an ugly duckling) -- I think my favorite was Instructions by Neil Gaiman -- reminded me of poems I wrote as a child...the list poems.

The Months of Manhattan by Delia Sherman
Cinder Elephant by Jane Yolen
Instructions by Neil Gaiman
Mrs. Big: Jack and the Beanstalk retold by Michael Cadnum
Falada: The Goose Girl's Horse by Nancy Farmer
A Wolf at the Door by Tanith Lee
Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens by Janeen Webb
Swans by Kelly Link
The Kingdom of Melting Glances by Katherine Vaz
Hansel's Eyes by Garth Nix
Becoming Charise by Kathe Koja
The Seven Stage a Comeback by Gregory Maguire
The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Patricia A. McKillip

crowyhead's review against another edition

4.0

This is a collection of retold fairy tales for young adults. There were a couple that were pretty forgettable (like "Ali Baba & the Aliens"), but some of the stories are truly excellent. My favorite was Kelly Link's rendition of "The Six Swans."

nytshayde's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

3.0

Hits and misses all around. I am not the target audience for this as it is for younger readers although the introduction would have you believe these would be darker retellings akin to the original Grimms. I was not overly fond of the fairy tales being retold in a modern setting but I am sure children can relate to some of the protagonists and their feelings about siblings, school and not fitting in. 

My favourites were
"Instructions" by Neil Gaimen
"Falada:The Goose Girls Horse" by Nancy Farmer
"The Kingdom of Melting Glances" by Katharine Vaz

I liked the "Twelve dancing princesses" by Patricia A  Mckillop as a straightforward retelling but found it a bit regressive. 

I was liking the somewhat darker tone of "The Seven Stage a Comeback" by Gregory Maguire but did not like the ending at all. Apparently motherhood and babies save the day. 

"Cinder Elephant" by Jane Yolen focuses overly much on appearances, replacing one form of body shaming for another. As a woman who has struggled with weight and body issues since I was a child, I found it in poor taste. I do expect more of Jane Yolen as I have enjoyed some of her poetry. I still want to explore more of her short stories. 


I actively disliked
"A Wolf at the Door" by Tanith Lee 
"Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens" by Janine Web

virginiaduan's review against another edition

2.0

I was disappointed. I thought an anthology with such high caliber authors would be better. Instead the stories seemed too short or abrupt. The best two were likely the retelling of the 12 Dancing Princesses and Neil Gaiman's poem.

ladykatka's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

4.0

breading_books's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

sohniah's review against another edition

3.0

Definitely interesting! Some stories were more engrossing then others. I did notice a sense of tragedy in all the stories, but these are fairy tales after all. There was a also rather cynical air about the concept of happiness in general. Perfect happiness does not exist in these stories and everything has a price. But I found it rather realistic in a way, that you have to work to achieve any sort of satisfaction. And that any sort of fortune is a double edged sword. There was a weary sort of happiness in it. Personally, I can't say that I finished this book feeling satisfied with life or with these stories but I would definitely recommend it. Because these are stories of quality and written by many recognizable authors. As for the authors I did not recognize, I'm now pretty curious to read their other works.

playnejaynedoe's review against another edition

2.0

I was disappointed by this book, and didn't find the revamped fairy tales very enjoyable. The tales that followed closely their better known counterparts were acceptable, but brought nothing new to the table.

Spoiler

Worth Reading:
"Instructions" by Neil Gaiman - Props to Gaiman for this creative poem. It was a light-hearted read.
"The Seven Stage a Comeback" by Gregory Maguire - Perhaps the most ambitious of them all. Another poetic endeavour that is worth a look.
"Cinder Elephant" by Jane Yolen - "Moral: If you love a waist, you waste a love"
"The Kingdom of Melting Glances" by Katherine Vaz - This came from a story I hadn't heard before; I enjoyed it.
"Hansel's Eyes" by Garth Nix - Nix doesn't disappoint.

These Were Okay...
"Falada: The Goose Girl's Horse" by Nancy Farmer
"A Wolf at the Door" by Tanith Lee - A lion in wolf's clothing. The story was alright, but not terribly memorable.

There's Nothing New Here...
"The Months of Manhattan" by Delia Sherman
"Swans" by Kelly Link - A retread.
"The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by Patricia A. McKillip

Don't Bother
"Mrs Big: 'Jack and the Beanstalk' Retold" by Michael Cadnum
"Ali Baba and the Forty Aliens" by Janeen Webb
"Becoming Charise" by Kathe Koja - This "Ugly Duckling" tale felt incomplete. Good moral, but I completely missed the fairy tale aspect.