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mxsallybend's review
4.0
Thanks to the gang at Ragnarok Publications, I was able to snag a copy of their new Grimm Mistresses collection, featuring retellings of Grimm's fairy tales by Stacey Turner, Mercedes M. Yardley, C.W. LaSart, Allison M. Dickson, and S.R. Cambridge.
Mercedes M. Yardley opens the collection with a sadly powerful tale called "Little Dead Red." If you've read Yardley before, then you know she pulls no punches, so don't go looking for happy endings here. This is a very dark tale of child abuse, brutal murder, and one mother's desperate quest for vengeance. It's an emotional tale, and one that really gets under your skin, with a final twist/reveal that sucker-punches you in the gut.
The next novel in the collection, "Nectar," by Allison M. Dickson isn't necessarily any lighter, but definitely more rooted in fantasy and wonder than cold, hard sorrow. Two men find themselves seduced, captured, and fed upon by two beautiful, unearthly beauties who smell and taste like an intoxicating blend of sweets and sugars. They're also very addictive, fattening up their captives even as they drive them slowly insane. As for why and how . . . well, that's not my place to say, but it's a fantastic twist on the fairy tale theme.
"The Leopard's Pelt" by S.R. Cambridge reminds me more of English horror stories like The Monkey's Paw than anything out of Grimm, but it was still one of my favorites in the collection. Henry Lowery, WWII survivor, ends up stranded on a strangely deserted island, with only an empty collection of huts and a single Japanese corpse to keep him company. Until, that is, 'she' arrives . . . a leopard who offers him salvation and infinite wealth in exchange for seven years penance. It's a simple story, but well-told, with more than one reward to be found before the end.
It takes a while to warm up to "Hazing Cinderella" by C.W. LaSart, with the endless bickering and empty threats of teenage girls growing more tedious by the page, but the set-up is necessary to justify the shift, and introduce the twist that follows. The magic here is as much black as it is fairy, and it leads to some of the strongest, creepiest, most imaginative death scenes in the collection. The ending lacks the power of the other tales, kind of fading away as it does, but it still makes for a guilty pleasure.
Stacey Turner, former owner and now Managing Editor of the Angelic Knight Press imprint, wraps things up with "The Night Air." While this one is very much rooted in fairy tale lore, it also has a distinctly surreal Twilight Zone feel to it. The small town of Hubble is as quaint as it is backward, with no love for technology or outsiders, and little to say about the small, children's tombstones found in the woods. All I'll say about this one is that Marla really should have listened when she was told to "keep those windows closed tight tonight" against "things that call to the children." Creepy, eerie, and surreal, but a fitting end to the collection.
Grimm Mistresses is a relatively short collection, with each tale entirely suitable for being read in a single sitting, but there's enough of diversity to the stories (and the story styles) to make it a compelling read. It's as much about the feel of the fairy tale as it is about the content, with warnings, lessons, and morals to be found in the darkness.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
Mercedes M. Yardley opens the collection with a sadly powerful tale called "Little Dead Red." If you've read Yardley before, then you know she pulls no punches, so don't go looking for happy endings here. This is a very dark tale of child abuse, brutal murder, and one mother's desperate quest for vengeance. It's an emotional tale, and one that really gets under your skin, with a final twist/reveal that sucker-punches you in the gut.
The next novel in the collection, "Nectar," by Allison M. Dickson isn't necessarily any lighter, but definitely more rooted in fantasy and wonder than cold, hard sorrow. Two men find themselves seduced, captured, and fed upon by two beautiful, unearthly beauties who smell and taste like an intoxicating blend of sweets and sugars. They're also very addictive, fattening up their captives even as they drive them slowly insane. As for why and how . . . well, that's not my place to say, but it's a fantastic twist on the fairy tale theme.
"The Leopard's Pelt" by S.R. Cambridge reminds me more of English horror stories like The Monkey's Paw than anything out of Grimm, but it was still one of my favorites in the collection. Henry Lowery, WWII survivor, ends up stranded on a strangely deserted island, with only an empty collection of huts and a single Japanese corpse to keep him company. Until, that is, 'she' arrives . . . a leopard who offers him salvation and infinite wealth in exchange for seven years penance. It's a simple story, but well-told, with more than one reward to be found before the end.
It takes a while to warm up to "Hazing Cinderella" by C.W. LaSart, with the endless bickering and empty threats of teenage girls growing more tedious by the page, but the set-up is necessary to justify the shift, and introduce the twist that follows. The magic here is as much black as it is fairy, and it leads to some of the strongest, creepiest, most imaginative death scenes in the collection. The ending lacks the power of the other tales, kind of fading away as it does, but it still makes for a guilty pleasure.
Stacey Turner, former owner and now Managing Editor of the Angelic Knight Press imprint, wraps things up with "The Night Air." While this one is very much rooted in fairy tale lore, it also has a distinctly surreal Twilight Zone feel to it. The small town of Hubble is as quaint as it is backward, with no love for technology or outsiders, and little to say about the small, children's tombstones found in the woods. All I'll say about this one is that Marla really should have listened when she was told to "keep those windows closed tight tonight" against "things that call to the children." Creepy, eerie, and surreal, but a fitting end to the collection.
Grimm Mistresses is a relatively short collection, with each tale entirely suitable for being read in a single sitting, but there's enough of diversity to the stories (and the story styles) to make it a compelling read. It's as much about the feel of the fairy tale as it is about the content, with warnings, lessons, and morals to be found in the darkness.
Originally reviewed at Beauty in Ruins
tomunro's review
4.0
I'll be honest, I seized this book as a new formed Mercedes M Yardley addict. A second read of "Pretty Little Dead Girls" left me so hungry for more I'd probably pay to read Ms Yardley's shopping lists. A quick trawl through the amazon pages threw up this anthology as the best (indeed in the midst of a publishing hiatus the only) source of my next fix. To see a novella length short story lurking in this admirable anthology of fairy tales would have been enough to lure me in to the purchase, even if every other short story in it been Fifty Shades of Grey fan-fiction. In fact the other four stories were of an extremely high and enthralling quality so that the whole volume comfortably fitted into a working week of rather dark bedtime reading.
The premise of Grimm Mistresses is to have five female authors put an unconventional spin on some much loved Grimm's fairy tales. The result is a handful of very diverse stories that are most certainly not for children (unless perhaps the child in question was Wednesday Addams).
With some the original Grimm inspiration is more obvious than others - though it is possible that some picked a more obscure tale than others. For example, The Leopard's Pelt - fascinating and well written as it was - triggered no tremor of Grimm resonance in my admittedly under-read mind - unless that is, the Swiss Family Robinson were a Grimm tale. With all that, the stories still twist in quite convention defying ways.
Little Dead Red by Mercedes M Yardley
But let us start with the story that brought me to this book. "Little Dead Red" by Mercedes M. Yardley. Ms Yardley said of the story "I think that's the darkest thing I've ever written. It was tough to write..." This is a woman who routinely writes of serial killers, of death and mayhem all in a light lyrical prose that teeters on a tightrope above the abyss of hell. A woman who coined a term not so much convention defying as convention defining in the phrase "whimsical horror." So if this is the darkest thing she has ever written then know it will send shivers so deep your bones will tremble for days.
That is not to say this is horrific, there is no gratuitous gore, only a glimpse of real credible people, broken people who a cruel fate has not yet finished with. A guilt laden parent's harrowing search for redemption at any price. The writing is perfect. Economical lines that build vibrant pictures in the reader's mind, images that remain long after the story is finished - burned into the retina of the imagination. "...the flash of red Converse looking like fire flowing up the steps."
There was a film my wife and I watched once and she swore she could never watch it again. The film was Wolfcreek, set in the Australian outback and based on true events. It centred on a very bad man and the three foolish young backpackers who fell into his power. It was brilliantly convincing, the bad guy's contempt for humanity horrifically credible. It was just too good at doing what it did to bear a second viewing.
Little Dead Red evoked for me that same intensity of emotion in a story that haunts me as few others have, though I will tease and torture myself by picking at a few lines here and there and maybe, one day, I will be brave enough to read it all again.
Nectar by Allison M. Dickson
Henry goes on an unwise double date with his co-worker Greg. The fairy tale reference begins with the choice of names and becomes more overt as the date descends into and beyond a strangely depraved disaster.
The writing conjures up the jaded faded echo of a man that is Henry. His bleak black outlook on life bleeding out with every cynical thought we share. "I can tolerate a friendly dinner and head home, where Netflix, the only partner yet to disappoint me, awaits." This is a man who contemplated putting a bullet in his head but in searching the internet for the best shot to take instead "became distracted enough by irrelevant YouTube videos that the idea of suicide lost most of its allure."
However, when his unusual date draws him into a bizarre kind of honey trap, he finds a desire to carve out a new life for himself, before somebody does it for him ... or to him.
The Leopard's Pelt - S.R.Cambridge
This has the feel of a fairy tale, a promise extracted under duress which condemns a stranded sailor to an impossible quest. Henry Lowry, with his ship sunk beneath him by the Japanese, washes up on a deserted island haunted by something so dark that even the tress would have fled if they could but move.
Not since Tom Hanks was Cast Away with just a painted volleyball for a co-star has a story needed such a compelling central character to sustain it, and Cambridge delivers in the person of Henry Lowry. The shipwrecked sailor is vividly portrayed in the opening segment of this compact three part story. His childhood poverty; his love of stories heard through the charity of a kindly librarian; an unspent coin; the sadness of his last liaison before he went to war - a woman who never intended to wait for him. A man unlucky in all ways who deserves a better chance and a better mistress than the one fate gifts him.
Hazing Cinderella - C.W.LaSart
We are used to the wicked step mom with her dreadful daughters who persecute and enslave the poor little Cinderella. But what if Cinderella were the step-mom's daughter or indeed something older and more primal than a mere daughter. Neil Gaiman's "Ocean at the End of the Lane" had a charming trio of women possessed of strange powers, in communion with other worlds and in someway ageless. They too were woman whom you crossed at your peril, but Step-mom Diane and her daughter Katie are definitely two women you would not want to fuck with.
LaSart treads the line between sex and violence with the steady footedness of many a teen horror flick. The author darts to one side and then the other as a night heady with lust and vengeance goes decidedly tits up.
The Night Air - Stacey Turner
The anthology ends with another story about parenting. Marla the graphic designer and husband Nick are moving out of Chicago together with their three children.
The town of Hubble seems at first like a kind of Amish Stepford - an abhorrence of technology and an adherence to secret ways by its leading citizens foster suspicion in the reader, if not in the lead character. But then, as readers of such fiction, we are more conditioned to doubt, to seeing malignance in the benign, than the characters we read about.
Like a good horror story, the little pebbles of disaster are dislodged piece by piece until there is enough to trigger an avalanche and in the end, for all that she left the Windy City behind her, it is the wind which haunts Marla with its soft whispering breath.
The premise of Grimm Mistresses is to have five female authors put an unconventional spin on some much loved Grimm's fairy tales. The result is a handful of very diverse stories that are most certainly not for children (unless perhaps the child in question was Wednesday Addams).
With some the original Grimm inspiration is more obvious than others - though it is possible that some picked a more obscure tale than others. For example, The Leopard's Pelt - fascinating and well written as it was - triggered no tremor of Grimm resonance in my admittedly under-read mind - unless that is, the Swiss Family Robinson were a Grimm tale. With all that, the stories still twist in quite convention defying ways.
Little Dead Red by Mercedes M Yardley
But let us start with the story that brought me to this book. "Little Dead Red" by Mercedes M. Yardley. Ms Yardley said of the story "I think that's the darkest thing I've ever written. It was tough to write..." This is a woman who routinely writes of serial killers, of death and mayhem all in a light lyrical prose that teeters on a tightrope above the abyss of hell. A woman who coined a term not so much convention defying as convention defining in the phrase "whimsical horror." So if this is the darkest thing she has ever written then know it will send shivers so deep your bones will tremble for days.
That is not to say this is horrific, there is no gratuitous gore, only a glimpse of real credible people, broken people who a cruel fate has not yet finished with. A guilt laden parent's harrowing search for redemption at any price. The writing is perfect. Economical lines that build vibrant pictures in the reader's mind, images that remain long after the story is finished - burned into the retina of the imagination. "...the flash of red Converse looking like fire flowing up the steps."
There was a film my wife and I watched once and she swore she could never watch it again. The film was Wolfcreek, set in the Australian outback and based on true events. It centred on a very bad man and the three foolish young backpackers who fell into his power. It was brilliantly convincing, the bad guy's contempt for humanity horrifically credible. It was just too good at doing what it did to bear a second viewing.
Little Dead Red evoked for me that same intensity of emotion in a story that haunts me as few others have, though I will tease and torture myself by picking at a few lines here and there and maybe, one day, I will be brave enough to read it all again.
Nectar by Allison M. Dickson
Henry goes on an unwise double date with his co-worker Greg. The fairy tale reference begins with the choice of names and becomes more overt as the date descends into and beyond a strangely depraved disaster.
The writing conjures up the jaded faded echo of a man that is Henry. His bleak black outlook on life bleeding out with every cynical thought we share. "I can tolerate a friendly dinner and head home, where Netflix, the only partner yet to disappoint me, awaits." This is a man who contemplated putting a bullet in his head but in searching the internet for the best shot to take instead "became distracted enough by irrelevant YouTube videos that the idea of suicide lost most of its allure."
However, when his unusual date draws him into a bizarre kind of honey trap, he finds a desire to carve out a new life for himself, before somebody does it for him ... or to him.
The Leopard's Pelt - S.R.Cambridge
This has the feel of a fairy tale, a promise extracted under duress which condemns a stranded sailor to an impossible quest. Henry Lowry, with his ship sunk beneath him by the Japanese, washes up on a deserted island haunted by something so dark that even the tress would have fled if they could but move.
Not since Tom Hanks was Cast Away with just a painted volleyball for a co-star has a story needed such a compelling central character to sustain it, and Cambridge delivers in the person of Henry Lowry. The shipwrecked sailor is vividly portrayed in the opening segment of this compact three part story. His childhood poverty; his love of stories heard through the charity of a kindly librarian; an unspent coin; the sadness of his last liaison before he went to war - a woman who never intended to wait for him. A man unlucky in all ways who deserves a better chance and a better mistress than the one fate gifts him.
Hazing Cinderella - C.W.LaSart
We are used to the wicked step mom with her dreadful daughters who persecute and enslave the poor little Cinderella. But what if Cinderella were the step-mom's daughter or indeed something older and more primal than a mere daughter. Neil Gaiman's "Ocean at the End of the Lane" had a charming trio of women possessed of strange powers, in communion with other worlds and in someway ageless. They too were woman whom you crossed at your peril, but Step-mom Diane and her daughter Katie are definitely two women you would not want to fuck with.
LaSart treads the line between sex and violence with the steady footedness of many a teen horror flick. The author darts to one side and then the other as a night heady with lust and vengeance goes decidedly tits up.
The Night Air - Stacey Turner
The anthology ends with another story about parenting. Marla the graphic designer and husband Nick are moving out of Chicago together with their three children.
The town of Hubble seems at first like a kind of Amish Stepford - an abhorrence of technology and an adherence to secret ways by its leading citizens foster suspicion in the reader, if not in the lead character. But then, as readers of such fiction, we are more conditioned to doubt, to seeing malignance in the benign, than the characters we read about.
Like a good horror story, the little pebbles of disaster are dislodged piece by piece until there is enough to trigger an avalanche and in the end, for all that she left the Windy City behind her, it is the wind which haunts Marla with its soft whispering breath.
bibliotropic's review
4.0
Over the years I’ve discovered, bit by bit, that I have a weakness for fairy tale retellings, preferably with a dark element or an unusual twist. So when I was offered a copy of Grimm Mistresses, an anthology of fairy tale horror written by a collection of talented women, I couldn’t say no. It provided me some good and disturbing entertainment during a long bus ride across provinces.
As is true in just about every short story collection, not always stories are equal. Some are better than others. Fortunately all the stories in here are good, and they work well to chill you and make you feel a little bit sickened, bringing forth that perfect horror feeling from the pit of your stomach. Though a warning to those who haven’t read this: let’s just say I agree with Nathan of Fantasy Review Barn when he says that the wrong anthology got named Trigger Warning.
Little Dead Red – Mercedes M Yardley starts off the collection with a take on Little Red Riding Hood, told from the perspective of a troubled mother raising a daughter alone after her ex-husband was revealed to be abusive and thrown in jail. The disappearance and death of her daughter tips her over the ends into a desperate madness fuelled by grief and vengeance, and she does the unthinkable while searching for “the Wolf,” the despicable man who hurt and killed her only child. It’s disturbing, powerfully so, and doesn’t flinch away from some very brutal aspects of reality. While this adds to the story’s strength, it also pegs it as one of the hardest stories to read in the entire collection, and it’s thrown at you right off the bat, no time to adjust to the dark tone. You open the book and BAM, a story about rape and death and wolves in sheep’s clothing and I won’t lie, I actually shed some tears over this one because it was just such a visceral hit. (And I probably would have shed more had I not been on a bus surrounded by strangers whom I did not want to see me cry.)
Nectar – I’m going to be honest. I have no idea which fairy tale Allison M Dickson’s story was based on. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad story, though it probably was one of the weaker stories in the bunch. Largely due to the unsatisfying and quite inexplicable ending. The story starts off with 2 men going on a blind date with 2 gorgeous women, who kidnap them and reveal that they are people from a far-future earth that, for some reason, can only allow women to survive. Seriously. Something in the atmosphere makes men revert to a primal brutal animal state and they don'[t survive long. You see this quite disturbingly when 1 of the men goes into a rage and kills himself by smashing his own face in. The other man, our main character, doesn’t really seem affected by the atmosphere for reasons that are never actually explained. He also shares a bond with the woman he slept with after the blind date, who was ostensibly there to kidnap him and get sperm so that she and other women could get pregnant and continue their race. She apparently feels the same way toward him, since the story ends up her freeing him and stealing a spaceship and them running off together with their newborn son. Not exactly love at first sight, but something akin to it, since she was willing to leave her wife and her entire world behind for a guy she slept with once and bonded with because reasons. The setup was interesting, the premise could have yielded so much, but honestly, so much about the conclusion seems random and doesn’t get explained. It takes a lot of suspension of disbelief, and that rather spoiled it for me.
The Leopard’s Pelt – S R Cambridge’s story was probably my favourite of them all! It starts with a WWII soldier being stranded on a desert island, coming across a telepathic leopard (who may well be a demon) making a deal with him when he gets desperate. Kill her, wear her pelt and don’t wash or tell anyone his name and he can only live by the charity of others, in exchange for getting off the island. If he can’t follow through on this deal, she gets to claim his soul. He accepts. And ends up meeting a volunteer at a hospital, a woman who wants to become a doctor (which, in the 1940s, is impressive and I applauded her on determination alone). They bond, though he runs from her when she gets too close, fearful that their connection will force him into a situation where he’ll lose his soul, intentionally or inadvertently. This is another story where I’m unsure of the source material, the original idea this was a new spin on, but honestly, it didn’t matter. It was so stylishly written, so wonderfully told that it didn’t matter whether I was reading a fairy tale retelling or not. All that mattered was an amazing story told by a very skilled writer!
Hazing Cinderella – This story by C W LaSart made me feel a bit uncomfortable, largely due to the abundance of sexuality in the text. It centres around a duo of mother-daughter… succubi? Witches? A combination of both? They obtain life and youth by draining it from men during sex, which is what leads me to think succubi, but they’re not referred to as such in the text, so I’m not entirely sure. Either way. Most of the story takes place around the daughter, taking over-the-top revenge against her stepsister and her friends, who want to frighten and humiliate her. She responds by killing them. It’s not presented as justified. Merely expedient, cruel people being cruel on both sides of the coin. It’s visually quite impressive, but not a particularly strong story, and it largely stands out from the others due to the sex and gore.
The Night Air – Stacy Turner’s story is probably my second-favourite in the collection, tied with Yardley’s contribution, so this book banked on both sides by quality. (With a second slice of quality smack-bang in the middle. I think that makes it some sort of double-decker quality book-sandwich.) This is a retelling of the Pied Piper story, taking place around a family who has just moved to a small town. There’s some odd behaviour by the locals, which they pass off at first as just small-town mentality coming to light, but it turns out that the “old wives tales” have some merit after 2 of the children vanish into the night, never to be seen again. I admit, part of the reveal at the end stretched coincidence a bit for me, but otherwise this was a solid story, emotional and impressive, and I would definitely read more of Turner’s work in the future.
So over all, this double-decker is worth reading, though it’s definitely a “your mileage may vary” kind of book. There’s some very disturbing material contained within its pages, but then, that’s entirely the point. Fairy tales were cautionary tales wrapped in entertainment long before they were sanitized “happily ever after” tales that most of us have grown up with, and this brings them back to form with a host of talented women at the wheel. If horror is your thing, then definitely grab a copy of Grimm Mistresses while you can, and be prepared to feel some gut-shaking spine-tingling horror while you read.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
As is true in just about every short story collection, not always stories are equal. Some are better than others. Fortunately all the stories in here are good, and they work well to chill you and make you feel a little bit sickened, bringing forth that perfect horror feeling from the pit of your stomach. Though a warning to those who haven’t read this: let’s just say I agree with Nathan of Fantasy Review Barn when he says that the wrong anthology got named Trigger Warning.
Little Dead Red – Mercedes M Yardley starts off the collection with a take on Little Red Riding Hood, told from the perspective of a troubled mother raising a daughter alone after her ex-husband was revealed to be abusive and thrown in jail. The disappearance and death of her daughter tips her over the ends into a desperate madness fuelled by grief and vengeance, and she does the unthinkable while searching for “the Wolf,” the despicable man who hurt and killed her only child. It’s disturbing, powerfully so, and doesn’t flinch away from some very brutal aspects of reality. While this adds to the story’s strength, it also pegs it as one of the hardest stories to read in the entire collection, and it’s thrown at you right off the bat, no time to adjust to the dark tone. You open the book and BAM, a story about rape and death and wolves in sheep’s clothing and I won’t lie, I actually shed some tears over this one because it was just such a visceral hit. (And I probably would have shed more had I not been on a bus surrounded by strangers whom I did not want to see me cry.)
Nectar – I’m going to be honest. I have no idea which fairy tale Allison M Dickson’s story was based on. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad story, though it probably was one of the weaker stories in the bunch. Largely due to the unsatisfying and quite inexplicable ending. The story starts off with 2 men going on a blind date with 2 gorgeous women, who kidnap them and reveal that they are people from a far-future earth that, for some reason, can only allow women to survive. Seriously. Something in the atmosphere makes men revert to a primal brutal animal state and they don'[t survive long. You see this quite disturbingly when 1 of the men goes into a rage and kills himself by smashing his own face in. The other man, our main character, doesn’t really seem affected by the atmosphere for reasons that are never actually explained. He also shares a bond with the woman he slept with after the blind date, who was ostensibly there to kidnap him and get sperm so that she and other women could get pregnant and continue their race. She apparently feels the same way toward him, since the story ends up her freeing him and stealing a spaceship and them running off together with their newborn son. Not exactly love at first sight, but something akin to it, since she was willing to leave her wife and her entire world behind for a guy she slept with once and bonded with because reasons. The setup was interesting, the premise could have yielded so much, but honestly, so much about the conclusion seems random and doesn’t get explained. It takes a lot of suspension of disbelief, and that rather spoiled it for me.
The Leopard’s Pelt – S R Cambridge’s story was probably my favourite of them all! It starts with a WWII soldier being stranded on a desert island, coming across a telepathic leopard (who may well be a demon) making a deal with him when he gets desperate. Kill her, wear her pelt and don’t wash or tell anyone his name and he can only live by the charity of others, in exchange for getting off the island. If he can’t follow through on this deal, she gets to claim his soul. He accepts. And ends up meeting a volunteer at a hospital, a woman who wants to become a doctor (which, in the 1940s, is impressive and I applauded her on determination alone). They bond, though he runs from her when she gets too close, fearful that their connection will force him into a situation where he’ll lose his soul, intentionally or inadvertently. This is another story where I’m unsure of the source material, the original idea this was a new spin on, but honestly, it didn’t matter. It was so stylishly written, so wonderfully told that it didn’t matter whether I was reading a fairy tale retelling or not. All that mattered was an amazing story told by a very skilled writer!
Hazing Cinderella – This story by C W LaSart made me feel a bit uncomfortable, largely due to the abundance of sexuality in the text. It centres around a duo of mother-daughter… succubi? Witches? A combination of both? They obtain life and youth by draining it from men during sex, which is what leads me to think succubi, but they’re not referred to as such in the text, so I’m not entirely sure. Either way. Most of the story takes place around the daughter, taking over-the-top revenge against her stepsister and her friends, who want to frighten and humiliate her. She responds by killing them. It’s not presented as justified. Merely expedient, cruel people being cruel on both sides of the coin. It’s visually quite impressive, but not a particularly strong story, and it largely stands out from the others due to the sex and gore.
The Night Air – Stacy Turner’s story is probably my second-favourite in the collection, tied with Yardley’s contribution, so this book banked on both sides by quality. (With a second slice of quality smack-bang in the middle. I think that makes it some sort of double-decker quality book-sandwich.) This is a retelling of the Pied Piper story, taking place around a family who has just moved to a small town. There’s some odd behaviour by the locals, which they pass off at first as just small-town mentality coming to light, but it turns out that the “old wives tales” have some merit after 2 of the children vanish into the night, never to be seen again. I admit, part of the reveal at the end stretched coincidence a bit for me, but otherwise this was a solid story, emotional and impressive, and I would definitely read more of Turner’s work in the future.
So over all, this double-decker is worth reading, though it’s definitely a “your mileage may vary” kind of book. There’s some very disturbing material contained within its pages, but then, that’s entirely the point. Fairy tales were cautionary tales wrapped in entertainment long before they were sanitized “happily ever after” tales that most of us have grown up with, and this brings them back to form with a host of talented women at the wheel. If horror is your thing, then definitely grab a copy of Grimm Mistresses while you can, and be prepared to feel some gut-shaking spine-tingling horror while you read.
(Book received in exchange for an honest review.)
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