Reviews

Tangleweed and Brine by Deirdre Sullivan

zoidze99's review against another edition

4.0

Slippershod - 5 stars
The Woodcutter's Bride - 4 stars
Come Live Here and Be Loved - 3 stars
You Shall Not Suffer - 3 stars
Meet the Nameless Thing and Call It Friend - 3 stars
Sister Fair - 5 stars
Ash Pale - 4 stars
Consume or Be Consumed - 2 stars
Doing Well - 4.5 stars
The Tender Weight - 5 stars
Riverbed - 4 stars
The Little Gift - 5 stars
Beauty and the Board - 3 stars

50.5 = 3.88 = 4 stars

lo_readss's review against another edition

3.0

3.5 a dark set of fairytale adaptions - if you’re looking for Disney level happy endings, look elsewhere

pinkgltrbubbles's review

adventurous dark inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

caitlinjohnson's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

wildbecs's review against another edition

dark mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

3.75

Lyrical. The fairy tales reminded me of "Women who run with the Wolves" - though there was history and ideas in that book. This was a lot darker.

choccyfish's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

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

2.25

These stories are not feminism in the empowering sense, at least not really. More in the fact they are centred around female experience and the oppression of women. It’s just kind of miserable to be honest, I think that’s kind of the point. But I felt like it really missed out on some of the unique experiences to women that are empowering.  

Perhaps I lost a bit of the experience listening to an audio version instead of reading the words and being able to make them flow in the way reading does. The narrator did an excellent job though. I liked her voice a lot. 

Overall I think this collection is fine. But I wouldn’t actually say I liked any of the stories? The language is very pretty and everything reads almost poem like. I think the only reason I finished it was it’s short length. 

best_lemon's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

flappie55's review against another edition

3.0

Four stars for Beauty and the Beast, The Goose Girl, Donkeyskin, Blue Beard, the Frog Prince and Snow White.

Three starts for Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Hnasel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, A Little Mermaid and Fair, Brown and Trembling

girlreading's review against another edition

3.0

I’m so sad that I didn’t love this as much as I’d hoped I would. There were a few stories I liked above the others, The Tender Weight being my stand out favourite but overall, this collection wasn’t for me unfortunately.

foggy_rosamund's review

4.0

Sullivan's prose is so precise, rich and complex that these short stories could be described as prose poems. Each story retells a familiar fairytale, exploring the trauma and emotional reality of women who have been forced into situations outside of their control. Each story is told in luminous language, often full of not only precisely chosen images, but also assonance and internal rhythms. Sometimes they are almost in iambic pentameter. These stories beg to be read aloud. The beautiful language means it pays to read these slowly, only one or two an evening, though they are so compelling that it's hard not to swallow them all in one sitting. My only caveats are that sometimes the heroines don't feel distinct enough from one another, and that I feel the final story, added to the paperback version of the collection, doesn't add enough to really earn its place. Otherwise, I am so impressed by these, and recommend them highly.