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sunainabutler's review against another edition
i adore this book! i’m so happy i found it again
tigerb99's review against another edition
4.0
Good collection, though I'm not sure all the editorial history bits about witches were really needed. Lots of great writers, some entries scary, some amusing, some otherworldly.
morticia32's review against another edition
4.0
I give most of the stories in this book at least a 4 out of 5. However, the last two stories really weren't my cup of tea.
My new favorite quote is from Neil Gaiman's contribution. "Wherever you go, you take yourself with you." Totally need to read the book this is an excerpt from.
My new favorite quote is from Neil Gaiman's contribution. "Wherever you go, you take yourself with you." Totally need to read the book this is an excerpt from.
just_hebah's review against another edition
3.0
I always go into short story collections with the expectation that the stories are going to be a mixture of hit or miss. A good collection brings me new gems from favorite authors and introduces me to authors I should be reading. This collection was... OK. Just OK.
Many of the stories neither stunned me nor disappointed me. But tellingly, I can only really recall a few of them off the top of my head. The selections seemed to be chosen to provide as an encyclopedic overview of the range of fictional depiction of witches rather than to provide highlights, and frankly, there were more old reprints than I like in a relatively contemporary collection, seemingly more for name recognition than for being necessarily the best examples (like the highlighted Neil Gaiman, whose selection is an excerpt from The Graveyard Boy or the Mercedes Lackey story, originally published in 1989 and featuring tropes that have since become rather familiar in urban fantasy).
Highlights did include Delia Sherman's "Walpurgis Afternoon," a charming story of a couple of lesbian witches who move into unsuspecting suburbia and help the local women discover their own inner magic; "The Cold Blacksmith" by the talented Elizabeth Bear, featuring a very matter-of-fact witch who helps a blacksmith with an impossible task; Bloodlines, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, about a teenage witch coming into her familial powers with terrifying application; and Richard Parks' "Skin Deep," a story of a young witch finding her own way separate from that of her grandmother's way of doing things.
Many of the stories neither stunned me nor disappointed me. But tellingly, I can only really recall a few of them off the top of my head. The selections seemed to be chosen to provide as an encyclopedic overview of the range of fictional depiction of witches rather than to provide highlights, and frankly, there were more old reprints than I like in a relatively contemporary collection, seemingly more for name recognition than for being necessarily the best examples (like the highlighted Neil Gaiman, whose selection is an excerpt from The Graveyard Boy or the Mercedes Lackey story, originally published in 1989 and featuring tropes that have since become rather familiar in urban fantasy).
Highlights did include Delia Sherman's "Walpurgis Afternoon," a charming story of a couple of lesbian witches who move into unsuspecting suburbia and help the local women discover their own inner magic; "The Cold Blacksmith" by the talented Elizabeth Bear, featuring a very matter-of-fact witch who helps a blacksmith with an impossible task; Bloodlines, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, about a teenage witch coming into her familial powers with terrifying application; and Richard Parks' "Skin Deep," a story of a young witch finding her own way separate from that of her grandmother's way of doing things.
claredragonfly's review
4.0
I was a bit disappointed by the number of reprints in this collection (Leah Bobet's story was one I had just read a couple of weeks before, catching up on old Realms of Fantasy magazines; I was, however, happy to reread Neil Gaiman's "The Witch's Headstone"), but the overall quality was fairly high. It definitely skews toward horror at the end, and that horror was definitely up my alley.
janetlun's review
A fine collection of short stories. I'll never think about Rapunzel the same way again.
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