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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
"From Beauty and the Beast to The Snow Queen, GRIM is full of fairy tale retellings from a collection of young adult authors. Myra McEntire, Amanda Hocking, Julie Kagawa, and many more work their magic under Christine Johnson in this collaboration of tales." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=42470
Fun collection of fairy tales retold in new ways. Some stories were an easy ID, but some I'm still not sure. I wish there had been an index. Like any collection, some stories were better than others, but an enjoyable read for those of us who love fairy tales.
Review also published on my blog StudentSpyglass
Source: ARC from NetGalley
Overall: ★★★
I couldn’t resist Grim when I saw it on NetGalley. Fairytales with a sinister twist? There were so many great authors too – some I already knew and loved, like Kimberly Derting, but even more that I’ve heard a lot about but have yet to try.
Unfortunately, what Grim really taught me is that I just don’t really get along with short stories! I absolutely loved the concept behind so many of these stories, and yet I wanted more from them – more build up, more depth, more everything! As expected from an anthology, some stories worked better for me than others, and the highlights for me were The Twelfth Girl, Better and A Real Boy.
The Key (Rachel Hawkins)
In The Key, Lana is embarrassed to find her psychic mother has agreed to do a reading for some of the kids she goes to school with. Lana has a small amount of psychic powers too, and in this story she sees something she shouldn’t when she peeks into someone’s head after promising not to.
While I enjoyed the storyline, this was one of the stories that stood out to me most clearly as a reminder of why short stories just don’t work for me. I felt like the ‘twist’ was reasonably predictable, and the open ending meant the story felt like it’d barely begun before it ended.
Figment (Jeri Smith-Ready)
Figment, it turns out is a retelling of Puss in Boots, although my vague inkling while reading was that it reminded me a little of Tinkerbell. In Figment, Elias, a 17 year old guitar player, inherits a little stuffed cat when his father dies, that turns out to be much more than it seems.
Although I couldn’t tell quite where the inspiration came from, I really enjoyed this story. Despite being part of an anthology of unusual stories, the originality of this stood out to me. The story is told from the point of view of the immobile stuffed cat (the titular figment), which was a really interesting point of view to read from. I felt that this was a story that was truly complete, despite it’s short nature.
The Twelfth Girl (Malinda Lo)
The Twelfth Girl is a modern, urban retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Liv is the new girl at the Virginia Sloane School for girls, and she’s fascinated by Harley and her friends, who reportedly go dancing every night and seem able to get away with anything.
The Twelfth Girl was one of my favourite stories of the anthology. Although I don’t think the characters were particularly likeable, they worked really well for the story. I enjoyed the writing, the plot and the imagery, and I would be more than happy to read a full novel of this story.
The Raven Princess (Jon Skovron)
The Raven Princess is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the story of a queen who wishes her daughter would turn into raven and fly away because she’s fed up of listening to her cry.
This is one of the clearest re-tellings, which is a little bit disappointing. I also didn’t feel like it was particularly sinister – it was enjoyable, and charming rather than dark and twisted. I enjoyed the twists Jon Skovron had put on the story, and it was a solid read, but it wasn’t one of my favourites.
Thinner than Water (Saundra Mitchell)
I don’t honestly know what this was a retelling of. I didn’t mind it but I didn’t particularly love it either, and I know a lot of people were put off by the incest and abuse themes.
Before the Rose Bloomed: A Retelling of The Snow Queen (Ellen Hopkins)
This is, obviously, a retelling of The Snow Queen, but it was one of my least favourites. I found it quite dry and slow, and unfortunately this one really didn’t work for me.
Beast/Beast (Tessa Gratton)
This is a retelling of Beauty and The Beast. I really enjoyed the writing, but the meaning behind the title honestly escaped me a little. I found that by the end of the book, Beast/Beast had just got lost among some of the more memorable stories.
The Brothers Piggett (Julie Kagawa)
This is a retelling of the Three Little Pigs, and it was one of the stories I enjoyed the most throughout the anthology.
Untethered (Sonia Gensler)
According to Hidden in Pages, this is apparently a retelling of The Shroud. Although I didn’t find it quite as gripping as some of the other stories, I really loved the way it was written, and it seems to have been the favourite for a lot of people.
Better (Shaun David Hutchinson)
Better was one of my favourite stories. The story follows Pip, an ‘artificial being’, who was created with the intention of using her to find a cure for the Disease, and Levi, the son of the scientist who is experienting on Pip. I really loved the way Pip was developed, and I’d be happy to read a longer story with this plotline.
Light it Up (Kimberly Derting)
Light It Up was a really creepy, modern Hansel & Gretel retelling. Hansen and Greta are camping with their father and stepfather and wake up to find themselves alone. Light it Up wasn’t one of my favourites, but I did like the way the relationship between Hansen and Greta was portrayed, and the story was convincingly creepy.
Sharper than a serpent’s Tongue (Christine Johnson)
I honestly have no idea what Sharper than a serpent’s Tongue is a retelling of, and it’s really hard to talk about the story without giving much away. In short, the story follows Clara and Dina, two sisters living with an alcoholic mother and very different attitudes. In all honesty, I just found this story a bit strange. It had lots of different elements and for me personally, it just didn’t work.
A Real Boy (Claudia Gray)
This was a sci-fi retelling of Pinnochio and probably my favourite of the anthology. I loved the way this was written, the characters and the plot and I’d love to read an entire novel based on this story.
Skin Trade (Myra McEntire)
Another one where I didn’t know which fairytale this was a retelling of! Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. Despite the very strange nature of the story, I was really intrigued, but I didn’t feel like there was enough to sink your teeth into.
Beauty and the Chad (Sarah Rees Brennan)
This was a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a twist. The Beast in this case is a modern day frat boy, sent to a classic fairytale setting. This was one of the more amusing stories because the two characters may as well have been speaking different languages! This seems to have been a lot of people’s favourites, but for me it didn’t live up to The Twelfth Girl, A Real Boy or Figment.
The Pink: A Grimm Story (Amanda Hocking)
This felt like the most classic fairytale of the bunch. While I liked it, and enjoyed the heart-warming nature of the story, I didn’t feel like it fit in with the theme of fairytales with a sinister twist.
Sell Out (Jackson Pearce)
Sell Out was like a very twisted retelling of Snow White/Sleeping Beauty. In this, the main character is able to bring people back from the dead by kissing them. This was one of the more original feeling stories, probably helped by the male POV. One of the better stories in the anthology for me.
Source: ARC from NetGalley
Overall: ★★★
I couldn’t resist Grim when I saw it on NetGalley. Fairytales with a sinister twist? There were so many great authors too – some I already knew and loved, like Kimberly Derting, but even more that I’ve heard a lot about but have yet to try.
Unfortunately, what Grim really taught me is that I just don’t really get along with short stories! I absolutely loved the concept behind so many of these stories, and yet I wanted more from them – more build up, more depth, more everything! As expected from an anthology, some stories worked better for me than others, and the highlights for me were The Twelfth Girl, Better and A Real Boy.
The Key (Rachel Hawkins)
In The Key, Lana is embarrassed to find her psychic mother has agreed to do a reading for some of the kids she goes to school with. Lana has a small amount of psychic powers too, and in this story she sees something she shouldn’t when she peeks into someone’s head after promising not to.
While I enjoyed the storyline, this was one of the stories that stood out to me most clearly as a reminder of why short stories just don’t work for me. I felt like the ‘twist’ was reasonably predictable, and the open ending meant the story felt like it’d barely begun before it ended.
Figment (Jeri Smith-Ready)
Figment, it turns out is a retelling of Puss in Boots, although my vague inkling while reading was that it reminded me a little of Tinkerbell. In Figment, Elias, a 17 year old guitar player, inherits a little stuffed cat when his father dies, that turns out to be much more than it seems.
Although I couldn’t tell quite where the inspiration came from, I really enjoyed this story. Despite being part of an anthology of unusual stories, the originality of this stood out to me. The story is told from the point of view of the immobile stuffed cat (the titular figment), which was a really interesting point of view to read from. I felt that this was a story that was truly complete, despite it’s short nature.
The Twelfth Girl (Malinda Lo)
The Twelfth Girl is a modern, urban retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Liv is the new girl at the Virginia Sloane School for girls, and she’s fascinated by Harley and her friends, who reportedly go dancing every night and seem able to get away with anything.
The Twelfth Girl was one of my favourite stories of the anthology. Although I don’t think the characters were particularly likeable, they worked really well for the story. I enjoyed the writing, the plot and the imagery, and I would be more than happy to read a full novel of this story.
The Raven Princess (Jon Skovron)
The Raven Princess is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the story of a queen who wishes her daughter would turn into raven and fly away because she’s fed up of listening to her cry.
This is one of the clearest re-tellings, which is a little bit disappointing. I also didn’t feel like it was particularly sinister – it was enjoyable, and charming rather than dark and twisted. I enjoyed the twists Jon Skovron had put on the story, and it was a solid read, but it wasn’t one of my favourites.
Thinner than Water (Saundra Mitchell)
I don’t honestly know what this was a retelling of. I didn’t mind it but I didn’t particularly love it either, and I know a lot of people were put off by the incest and abuse themes.
Before the Rose Bloomed: A Retelling of The Snow Queen (Ellen Hopkins)
This is, obviously, a retelling of The Snow Queen, but it was one of my least favourites. I found it quite dry and slow, and unfortunately this one really didn’t work for me.
Beast/Beast (Tessa Gratton)
This is a retelling of Beauty and The Beast. I really enjoyed the writing, but the meaning behind the title honestly escaped me a little. I found that by the end of the book, Beast/Beast had just got lost among some of the more memorable stories.
The Brothers Piggett (Julie Kagawa)
This is a retelling of the Three Little Pigs, and it was one of the stories I enjoyed the most throughout the anthology.
Untethered (Sonia Gensler)
According to Hidden in Pages, this is apparently a retelling of The Shroud. Although I didn’t find it quite as gripping as some of the other stories, I really loved the way it was written, and it seems to have been the favourite for a lot of people.
Better (Shaun David Hutchinson)
Better was one of my favourite stories. The story follows Pip, an ‘artificial being’, who was created with the intention of using her to find a cure for the Disease, and Levi, the son of the scientist who is experienting on Pip. I really loved the way Pip was developed, and I’d be happy to read a longer story with this plotline.
Light it Up (Kimberly Derting)
Light It Up was a really creepy, modern Hansel & Gretel retelling. Hansen and Greta are camping with their father and stepfather and wake up to find themselves alone. Light it Up wasn’t one of my favourites, but I did like the way the relationship between Hansen and Greta was portrayed, and the story was convincingly creepy.
Sharper than a serpent’s Tongue (Christine Johnson)
I honestly have no idea what Sharper than a serpent’s Tongue is a retelling of, and it’s really hard to talk about the story without giving much away. In short, the story follows Clara and Dina, two sisters living with an alcoholic mother and very different attitudes. In all honesty, I just found this story a bit strange. It had lots of different elements and for me personally, it just didn’t work.
A Real Boy (Claudia Gray)
This was a sci-fi retelling of Pinnochio and probably my favourite of the anthology. I loved the way this was written, the characters and the plot and I’d love to read an entire novel based on this story.
Skin Trade (Myra McEntire)
Another one where I didn’t know which fairytale this was a retelling of! Unfortunately it just didn’t work for me. Despite the very strange nature of the story, I was really intrigued, but I didn’t feel like there was enough to sink your teeth into.
Beauty and the Chad (Sarah Rees Brennan)
This was a Beauty and the Beast retelling with a twist. The Beast in this case is a modern day frat boy, sent to a classic fairytale setting. This was one of the more amusing stories because the two characters may as well have been speaking different languages! This seems to have been a lot of people’s favourites, but for me it didn’t live up to The Twelfth Girl, A Real Boy or Figment.
The Pink: A Grimm Story (Amanda Hocking)
This felt like the most classic fairytale of the bunch. While I liked it, and enjoyed the heart-warming nature of the story, I didn’t feel like it fit in with the theme of fairytales with a sinister twist.
Sell Out (Jackson Pearce)
Sell Out was like a very twisted retelling of Snow White/Sleeping Beauty. In this, the main character is able to bring people back from the dead by kissing them. This was one of the more original feeling stories, probably helped by the male POV. One of the better stories in the anthology for me.
This is a delightful collection of 17 dark YA fairytale retelling short stories that I’ve had sitting on my shelf for years. I bought it for the Jackson Pearce story (she was a favorite of mine back in high school), and I almost gave this book away unread. I’m so glad I kept it, though, because these are some of the cleverest fairy tale retellings I’ve ever read. I especially appreciated the queer representation in a few of the stories. Specifically, “The Twelfth Girl” by Malinda Lo is a lesbian 12 Dancing Princesses. “The Raven Princess” by Jon Skovron features a side character who is a friendly gay giant raising a human baby with his husband. And my favorite story, “Beauty and the Chad” by Sarah Rees Brennan, features a girl called Beauty who prefers to present as androgynous, and disguised herself as a boy to get a job as a servant in the castle of a beast- actually frat boy Chad from the modern US, under a curse. Chad pulls a Captain Shang and has a bisexual awakening when he falls in love with Beauty-as-a-boy. They get married and he finds out she’s a gender-nonconforming girl, and says he’d be happy and love her no matter what her gender was. It’s adorable and amazing and couched within a hilarious spoof of Beauty and the Beast, and I absolutely loved it. That’s the kind of fairy tale I want to hear more of. TW: this is a dark retelling anthology, so some of the other stories are seriously twisted. Warnings for abuse, sexual assault, rape, incest, murder and actual cannibalism. I’m not kidding. Hansel and Gretel is some intense shit. Tread lightly. (Especially with Saundra Mitchell’s story “Thinner Than Water,” where the incest-rape victim is the hero and defeats her rapist, but the story, while not explicit, definitely doesn’t shy away from the horror of what she goes through. Reading it absolutely made me sick to my stomach, so please use caution.)
if you want to read twisted or modern fairy tales then look no further. it has classics like Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, Blackbeard, and Three Little Pigs; there are also plenty of new ones to enjoy as well. I chose to read this book because one of the authors was Ellen Hopkins and she is my favorite. however, I was disappointed that she only retold the Snow Queen tale, not even a new twist, just the same story I remember from childhood. all the other authors were fantastic though.
2.9
Buddy read with Simo and Aurora :)
Reading one short story per day.
April 1, day one:
The key by Rachel Hawkins: 3 stars
A retelling of Bluebeard, The key was a quick enjoyable short story. However, it was also extremely short, I would have liked to see more when it came to the ending.
April 2, day two:
Figment by Jeri Smith Ready: 4 stars
I liked this short story so much, I think I'm going to check out some books by this author. Puss in boots was one of my favourite fairytales and this one was a good retelling in my opinion. Extremely cute though, not creepy at all.
April 3, day three:
The twelfth girl by Malinda Lo: 2 stars
This short story is my least favourite so far, I just didn't connect with it at all.
April 4, day four:
The Raven princess by Jon Skovron: 3 stars
I didn't love it, but I liked the ending so...I guess it was enjoyable.
April 5, day five:
Thinner than water by Saundra Mitchell: 3.5 stars
Another good one, finally.
April 6, day six:
Before the rose bloomed by Ellen Hopkins: 1.5 stars
Not my cup of tea. Someone might consider it beautiful, narrating in verses, but for me it simply didn't work. So, no rating for now, because I have to think about it.
April 7, day seven:
Beast/Beast by Tessa Gratton: 4 stars
Probably one of my favourite stories in this antology, Beast/Beast was quite creepy and beautiful at the same time.
April 8, day eight:
The brothers Piggett by Julie Kagawa: 3 stars
Considering how much I love Julie's writing and world-building I was disappointed by this short story. But since what I like more about her stories is the world-building and this is a short story I should have seen it coming.
April 10, day nine:
Untethered by Sonia Gensler: 3 stars
I probably didn't get the point of this short story...
April 11, day ten:
Better by Shaun David Hutchinson: 2 stars
Uhm. WTH.
April 12, day eleven:
Light it up by Kimberly Derting: 3 stars
Nice retelling, though I still have problems with Derting's writing style.
April 13, day twelve:
Sharper than a Serpent's tongue by Christine Johnson: 2.5 stars
Eh. Average.
April 14, day thirteen:
A real boy by Claudia Gray: 4 stars
Finally another cute short story...I thought they would be creepy but I'm not complaining since I like the cute ones.
April 16, day fourteen:
Skin Trade by Myra McEntire: 3 stars
Kind of creepy, but still these short story are way too simple and the ending is always so...abrupt.
April 17, day fifteen:
Beauty and The Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan: 2
Dude, what was that? Never thought I'd give Brennan's short story two stars...
April 18, day sixteen:
The pink by Amanda Hocking: 3 stars
Plain, simple story. Nothing amazing but not bad.
April 19, day seventeen:
Sell out by Jackson Pearce: 3.5 stars
I've read a book by Pearce and I remember liking it so I went into this short story knowing that it wouldn't be bad. I hope it would be a little bit longer but...it was okay.
Overall I can't say that Grim lived up to my expectations. There are more beautiful collections of short stories out there.
Buddy read with Simo and Aurora :)
Reading one short story per day.
April 1, day one:
The key by Rachel Hawkins: 3 stars
A retelling of Bluebeard, The key was a quick enjoyable short story. However, it was also extremely short, I would have liked to see more when it came to the ending.
April 2, day two:
Figment by Jeri Smith Ready: 4 stars
I liked this short story so much, I think I'm going to check out some books by this author. Puss in boots was one of my favourite fairytales and this one was a good retelling in my opinion. Extremely cute though, not creepy at all.
April 3, day three:
The twelfth girl by Malinda Lo: 2 stars
This short story is my least favourite so far, I just didn't connect with it at all.
April 4, day four:
The Raven princess by Jon Skovron: 3 stars
I didn't love it, but I liked the ending so...I guess it was enjoyable.
April 5, day five:
Thinner than water by Saundra Mitchell: 3.5 stars
Another good one, finally.
April 6, day six:
Before the rose bloomed by Ellen Hopkins: 1.5 stars
Not my cup of tea. Someone might consider it beautiful, narrating in verses, but for me it simply didn't work. So, no rating for now, because I have to think about it.
April 7, day seven:
Beast/Beast by Tessa Gratton: 4 stars
Probably one of my favourite stories in this antology, Beast/Beast was quite creepy and beautiful at the same time.
April 8, day eight:
The brothers Piggett by Julie Kagawa: 3 stars
Considering how much I love Julie's writing and world-building I was disappointed by this short story. But since what I like more about her stories is the world-building and this is a short story I should have seen it coming.
April 10, day nine:
Untethered by Sonia Gensler: 3 stars
I probably didn't get the point of this short story...
April 11, day ten:
Better by Shaun David Hutchinson: 2 stars
Uhm. WTH.
April 12, day eleven:
Light it up by Kimberly Derting: 3 stars
Nice retelling, though I still have problems with Derting's writing style.
April 13, day twelve:
Sharper than a Serpent's tongue by Christine Johnson: 2.5 stars
Eh. Average.
April 14, day thirteen:
A real boy by Claudia Gray: 4 stars
Finally another cute short story...I thought they would be creepy but I'm not complaining since I like the cute ones.
April 16, day fourteen:
Skin Trade by Myra McEntire: 3 stars
Kind of creepy, but still these short story are way too simple and the ending is always so...abrupt.
April 17, day fifteen:
Beauty and The Chad by Sarah Rees Brennan: 2
Dude, what was that? Never thought I'd give Brennan's short story two stars...
April 18, day sixteen:
The pink by Amanda Hocking: 3 stars
Plain, simple story. Nothing amazing but not bad.
April 19, day seventeen:
Sell out by Jackson Pearce: 3.5 stars
I've read a book by Pearce and I remember liking it so I went into this short story knowing that it wouldn't be bad. I hope it would be a little bit longer but...it was okay.
Overall I can't say that Grim lived up to my expectations. There are more beautiful collections of short stories out there.
Grim – an anthology
I love Grimm's fairy tales – I have an absolutely beautiful old copy at home, given to me by my grandmother, with wonderful water colour panels, still with the protective tissue intact. It is a beautiful book. And the stories are superbly dark and macabre compared to the versions we're all familiar with. This anthology definitely plays on this part – these stories are indeed 'grim.'
I didn't have my usual slightly nervous feel to be reading short stories – I'm never sure how much I really like them as a reader – fairy tales seem to be in another category of their own. They are complete, but can definitely be tampered with!
Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. It was compiled by various current YA authors, but I have actually only heard of Sarah Rees Brennan before! Much to my horror, I am apparently very behind in terms of YA authors, although this being American authors may have something to do with it. Anyway, as a whole, the anthology was just so much fun! There were a few fairy tales I wasn't very familiar with, which I looked up to be able to compare to the original, but the majority were ones I knew. There were two science fiction offerings, and I initially felt quite negatively about these – I'm not really into science fiction, and the idea of Grimm's tales being moulded into a science fiction world didn't sit well with me. Little did I know!
It turned out that my two favourites of the whole book were indeed the science fiction contributions! A Real Boy was a retelling of Pinnochio, with the character of Pinnochio being a robot with super intelligence but without a specific 'purpose' like other AI, so able to be more human. I was hooked, and really moved by this tiny masterpiece and its happy ending. I will definitely be on the look out for more written by Claudia Gray. My other favourite was Better, a retelling of the Pied Piper. Again, this was about a robot, but set on a space craft searching for another habitable planet. Now, this was chilling; Shaun D Hutchinson has done a brilliant job with the atmosphere. The end sent a literal shiver down my spine. I will also be looking him up.
Most of my favourites were the very modern retellings; possibly because I know most of the stories so well, it was only through radical retelling that the modern ones could be novel and exciting to me. There were plenty of beautiful retellings with little alteration, such as The Raven Princess, Before the Rose Bloomed, Beast/Beast and The Pink, which were fine, but they didn't excite me (based on The Raven, The Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast and – what else? - The Pink).
I really enjoyed The Twelfth Girl, re-imagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and very similar to other fairy stories, such as Scottish Kate Crackernuts (which I love). Again, this was a modern retelling, with some beautiful description and a sinister ending. The first story in the anthology, The Key, was also enjoyable: this updated version of Bluebeard made a strong start to a strong anthology. There's also a brilliant version of Hansel and Gretel by Kimberly Darling, Julie Kagaua offers The Three Little Pigs updated and I really enjoyed Sell Out by Jackson Pearce.
In an anthology, there are always a few stories that don't really hit the spot for whatever reason. For me, these were Figment, Thinner than Water, Untethered, Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue and Skin Trade. This is not necessarily to say these are poorly written, just that for me they didn't work for various reasons. Interestingly enough, the one author who I have read before really disappointed me!Sarah Rees Brennan's humorous version of Beauty and the Beast just didn't work for me, although I adore her Demon's Lexicon trilogy. I could see what she was trying to do as she juxtaposed the “fairy tale world” with our own world and the amusing clash this created, but, for me, it just jarred without humour.
Overall, a great anthology – and it's given me some new names to look up! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC to read and review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I love Grimm's fairy tales – I have an absolutely beautiful old copy at home, given to me by my grandmother, with wonderful water colour panels, still with the protective tissue intact. It is a beautiful book. And the stories are superbly dark and macabre compared to the versions we're all familiar with. This anthology definitely plays on this part – these stories are indeed 'grim.'
I didn't have my usual slightly nervous feel to be reading short stories – I'm never sure how much I really like them as a reader – fairy tales seem to be in another category of their own. They are complete, but can definitely be tampered with!
Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. It was compiled by various current YA authors, but I have actually only heard of Sarah Rees Brennan before! Much to my horror, I am apparently very behind in terms of YA authors, although this being American authors may have something to do with it. Anyway, as a whole, the anthology was just so much fun! There were a few fairy tales I wasn't very familiar with, which I looked up to be able to compare to the original, but the majority were ones I knew. There were two science fiction offerings, and I initially felt quite negatively about these – I'm not really into science fiction, and the idea of Grimm's tales being moulded into a science fiction world didn't sit well with me. Little did I know!
It turned out that my two favourites of the whole book were indeed the science fiction contributions! A Real Boy was a retelling of Pinnochio, with the character of Pinnochio being a robot with super intelligence but without a specific 'purpose' like other AI, so able to be more human. I was hooked, and really moved by this tiny masterpiece and its happy ending. I will definitely be on the look out for more written by Claudia Gray. My other favourite was Better, a retelling of the Pied Piper. Again, this was about a robot, but set on a space craft searching for another habitable planet. Now, this was chilling; Shaun D Hutchinson has done a brilliant job with the atmosphere. The end sent a literal shiver down my spine. I will also be looking him up.
Most of my favourites were the very modern retellings; possibly because I know most of the stories so well, it was only through radical retelling that the modern ones could be novel and exciting to me. There were plenty of beautiful retellings with little alteration, such as The Raven Princess, Before the Rose Bloomed, Beast/Beast and The Pink, which were fine, but they didn't excite me (based on The Raven, The Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast and – what else? - The Pink).
I really enjoyed The Twelfth Girl, re-imagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and very similar to other fairy stories, such as Scottish Kate Crackernuts (which I love). Again, this was a modern retelling, with some beautiful description and a sinister ending. The first story in the anthology, The Key, was also enjoyable: this updated version of Bluebeard made a strong start to a strong anthology. There's also a brilliant version of Hansel and Gretel by Kimberly Darling, Julie Kagaua offers The Three Little Pigs updated and I really enjoyed Sell Out by Jackson Pearce.
In an anthology, there are always a few stories that don't really hit the spot for whatever reason. For me, these were Figment, Thinner than Water, Untethered, Sharper than a Serpent's Tongue and Skin Trade. This is not necessarily to say these are poorly written, just that for me they didn't work for various reasons. Interestingly enough, the one author who I have read before really disappointed me!Sarah Rees Brennan's humorous version of Beauty and the Beast just didn't work for me, although I adore her Demon's Lexicon trilogy. I could see what she was trying to do as she juxtaposed the “fairy tale world” with our own world and the amusing clash this created, but, for me, it just jarred without humour.
Overall, a great anthology – and it's given me some new names to look up! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC to read and review; all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Well I liked most of the stories since I love fairy tales and their retellings. One of my favorites was the one where the king wants to marry his daughter, it will creep me for a long time. I also liked the one called Beauty and the Chad for its simplicity, because love should be like this.
Overall, a very enjoyable read. Recommended.
Overall, a very enjoyable read. Recommended.
Jeg havde faktisk glædet mig utrolig meget til at læse den her bog, men det blev en lidt blandet fornemmelse. Nogle af genfortællingerne syntes jeg var helt igennem fantastiske, mens andre bare efterlod mig med en tom fornemmelse bagefter.
Den fortolkning jeg syntes var den absolut bedste overraskede mig lidt ved at være en af Den bestøvlede Kat. Det eventyr har aldrig rigtig sagt mig så meget i sin originale form, men den her genfortælling syntes jeg var absolut fantastisk og nytænkende, og det er den der stadig hænger ved mig selv nogle dage efter at have læst den.
Andre udgaver af eventyrerne var ikke så meget en nyfortolkning, men mest af alt bare en genfortælling sat i vores moderne verden så 21. århundrede faktorer blev tilsat, for at det så skulle forestille at være opdateret. Det må jeg sige ikke fungerer optimalt, og det irriterede mig mest af alt at eventyrerne blev brugt på den måde. Hvis man skal forsøge at genfortolke et eventyr og give det et nyt spin, så kræver det altså noget mere efter min mening.
Den fortolkning jeg syntes var den absolut bedste overraskede mig lidt ved at være en af Den bestøvlede Kat. Det eventyr har aldrig rigtig sagt mig så meget i sin originale form, men den her genfortælling syntes jeg var absolut fantastisk og nytænkende, og det er den der stadig hænger ved mig selv nogle dage efter at have læst den.
Andre udgaver af eventyrerne var ikke så meget en nyfortolkning, men mest af alt bare en genfortælling sat i vores moderne verden så 21. århundrede faktorer blev tilsat, for at det så skulle forestille at være opdateret. Det må jeg sige ikke fungerer optimalt, og det irriterede mig mest af alt at eventyrerne blev brugt på den måde. Hvis man skal forsøge at genfortolke et eventyr og give det et nyt spin, så kræver det altså noget mere efter min mening.