4.0

“A prince of Faerie, nourished on cat milk and contempt, born into a family overburdened with heirs, with a nasty little prophecy hanging over his head since the hour of Cardan's birth, he has been alternately adored and despised.”

What an opening for our much-beloved Cardan!

I love the fairytale style for what is, in truth, a tale of faery. I love the stories within the story. I LOOOOVE all the art—almost one on every page!

Favorite character: the door.

“[Villains] got to be cruel and selfish, to preen in front of mirrors and poison apples, and trap girls on mountains of glass.”

I love a good villain story.
I think a pitfall of the short story form, however, is a lack of character depth, and although we know Cardan from other books, his character development felt told rather than shown in this set of stories.