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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
3.5 stars? I'm very torn on this one.
This is Mallory Ortberg*at their Mallory Ortberg-iest. I love retellings of popular folk tales, I love horror stories, and, more often than not, I love Mallory Ortberg. However, it did get to be Too Much.
There is no doubt that Ortberg is a true wordsmith -- the artistry from which one word connects to the other is incredible. Their writing is astonishing good. But it is palpably self-satisfied, so pleased with its own cleverness that I found myself turned off more often than not.
I really enjoyed the story of Jacob and the Angel and The Rabbit is an instant classic. The rest of the stories were fine, but Ortberg's overly-aware-of-their-own-cleverness kept me from truly enjoying the work.
*I don't know how to proceed here -- is his official author name for this book Daniel Mallory or Mallory Ortberg? I'm going with the Goodreads name for now.
This is Mallory Ortberg*at their Mallory Ortberg-iest. I love retellings of popular folk tales, I love horror stories, and, more often than not, I love Mallory Ortberg. However, it did get to be Too Much.
There is no doubt that Ortberg is a true wordsmith -- the artistry from which one word connects to the other is incredible. Their writing is astonishing good. But it is palpably self-satisfied, so pleased with its own cleverness that I found myself turned off more often than not.
I really enjoyed the story of Jacob and the Angel and The Rabbit is an instant classic. The rest of the stories were fine, but Ortberg's overly-aware-of-their-own-cleverness kept me from truly enjoying the work.
*I don't know how to proceed here -- is his official author name for this book Daniel Mallory or Mallory Ortberg? I'm going with the Goodreads name for now.
I love a good retelling of a classic story and I was excited to read what I thought was a feminist spin on old stories. It is not. It is grim and dark but without any real redeeming or thought provoking qualities. Skip this one.
This book was great, but I'm probably not knowledgeable enough on fairy tales to fully *get* it. Still though, it was a fun, quick read with delightful little bites of horror.
i have no idea how to shelve this book; is it fantasy? not for children and not a classic, but based on children's/classic stories...i kind of feel like i need someone smarter than me to point out all the things i probably missed in these stories. they are all intentionally creepy, so i didn't really enjoy most of them, but they're also often making social commentary and that's where i feel like i probably didn't 'get' them all. my favorites were Daughter Cells (creepy little mermaid) and Fear Not: An Incident Log (genesis from the perspective of an angel).
Beautifully crafted prose that doesn’t give a f***. They’re heavy, but not any heavier than its fairy tale/folklore source material. Interesting takes on some classics. At first I was worried I didn’t “get” it, but after the third story, I didn’t care—it’s a fairy tale, you don’t have to *get* it. It’s not homework.
I have to say though, the one that really got me was “Some Of Us Have Been Threatening Our Friend Toad.” It almost brought tears to my eyes.
And the end of the titular story gave me a chuckle.
I have to say though, the one that really got me was “Some Of Us Have Been Threatening Our Friend Toad.” It almost brought tears to my eyes.
And the end of the titular story gave me a chuckle.
Daniel Mallory Ortberg brings all of his former feminist website The Toast's wit and cleverness to The Merry Spinster, his collection of dark fairytale, folklore and biblical retellings. His stories range from the weird and uncomfortable (Little Mermaid retelling The Daughter Cells, The Frog Princess), to the downright terrifying (The Rabbit, Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr Toad) with all sorts of genderfuckery and feminist revenges along the way. These stories feel like natural successors to the horror of the Grimms' original fairytales and I loved that about them.
This turned out not to be for me, but that is purely due to personal preferences and feelings; this is an excellent book that excels at what it tries to do, and Ortberg is a fantastic writer I will be keeping a (wary!) eye on. I truly loved several of the stories, and I think all of them make excellent commentary on various issues - generally feminist ones, but a bunch of others as well. There were a lot of small details that delighted me and/or made me laugh, and I would cheerfully recommend this collection to anyone made of sterner stuff than myself. A few of the stories, particularly the endings, hit me a bit too hard, but that's solely due to me being me. If you're happy to have genuinely horrifying endings to your fairytales - psychological horror - then you should definitely pick this up. I am going to have nightmares, but that's what I get for underestimating a collection of horror stories!
There are two stories I liked, some so-so ones, and the rest I won't remember tomorrow.
This book was a hodgepodge. I spent several stories trying to figure out what fairy tale they were supposed to represent and failed. Many of the stories had abrupt or disappointing endings and pointless. I thought that many of the stories were building toward something but then they didn't.
The stories I liked best were "The Daughter Cells" and "Six Boy Coffins." The Daughter Cells started off the book on a great footing. It was a retelling of The Little Mermaid with a big twist and shocking ending. It had a sense of humor that I wasn't expecting. The narrator speaks to the reader in the tone of a conspiratorial friend.
I haven't time to explain to you...There are other books about that sort of thing.
Although I read Grimm's Fairy Tales awhile ago, I did not remember reading The Six Swans or The Twelve Brothers before. "Six Boy Coffins" might have made such an impression on me because it seemed new to me and I couldn't predict where it was going.
As I was reading the stories, I felt like I was left out of a private joke that everyone was getting but me. Ortberg made some weird choices about gender, including male and female characters who debated about who would get to be the husband and who would get to be the wife. Two of her characters in different stories, Paul and Sylvia, were the opposite genders of what their names suggest and I got confused when their pronouns did not match their names. In several stories, she would refer to daughters as "he" instead of "she" and it made the reading needlessly confusing and frustrating. I didn't know if this was all part of some statement on gender fluidity but if it was, I missed the point Ortberg was trying to make.
Overall, I was disappointed by The Merry Spinster. I thought I would see more horror see a twist on more recognizable fairy tales but I got neither. When only a couple of the stories in the collection were worth reading, I wouldn't recommend this book to others.
This book was a hodgepodge. I spent several stories trying to figure out what fairy tale they were supposed to represent and failed. Many of the stories had abrupt or disappointing endings and pointless. I thought that many of the stories were building toward something but then they didn't.
The stories I liked best were "The Daughter Cells" and "Six Boy Coffins." The Daughter Cells started off the book on a great footing. It was a retelling of The Little Mermaid with a big twist and shocking ending. It had a sense of humor that I wasn't expecting. The narrator speaks to the reader in the tone of a conspiratorial friend.
I haven't time to explain to you...There are other books about that sort of thing.
Although I read Grimm's Fairy Tales awhile ago, I did not remember reading The Six Swans or The Twelve Brothers before. "Six Boy Coffins" might have made such an impression on me because it seemed new to me and I couldn't predict where it was going.
As I was reading the stories, I felt like I was left out of a private joke that everyone was getting but me. Ortberg made some weird choices about gender, including male and female characters who debated about who would get to be the husband and who would get to be the wife. Two of her characters in different stories, Paul and Sylvia, were the opposite genders of what their names suggest and I got confused when their pronouns did not match their names. In several stories, she would refer to daughters as "he" instead of "she" and it made the reading needlessly confusing and frustrating. I didn't know if this was all part of some statement on gender fluidity but if it was, I missed the point Ortberg was trying to make.
Overall, I was disappointed by The Merry Spinster. I thought I would see more horror see a twist on more recognizable fairy tales but I got neither. When only a couple of the stories in the collection were worth reading, I wouldn't recommend this book to others.