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camilleisreading24 's review for:
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror
by Daniel M. Lavery
These stories take famous tales you think you know and turn them upside down with acerbic wit and acute insight. Many of the stories are Grimm's fairytales, but Ortberg also sources from the Bible, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Wind in the Willows, and others.
Overall, I enjoyed this story collection. I give it four stars because while I loved some of the stories, I didn't care for a few of the others.
Throughout the collection, Ortberg challenges traditional gender roles and pronouns -- in one story, three daughters discuss whether they will be husbands or wives when they get married. In another, the "he" pronoun is assigned to a character named Silvia, while another character, Caroline, never gets any pronouns. It was noticeable since most authors don't write this way, but I didn't have any trouble following the stories or figuring out which character was speaking. Turns out pronouns aren't that essential for reading comprehension.
One recommendation I'd make to any reader is to flip to the back of the book, where Ortberg provides the names of the stories that served as source material, and to then go read those stories. I found I enjoyed the stories more if I was familiar with the underlying tale.
My favorite tales:
1) "The Daughter Cells": This take on The Little Mermaid was one of the funniest stories and probably my favorite in the collection. The mermaid in questions falls in love with the prince when she saves him from drowning, and is attracted to his reserved demeanor (he's passed out from almost drowning). She is less into him when she makes a bargain to get legs, and finds he is not the quiet and humble man she had fallen for.
2) "The Thankless Child": This story gave me serious Handmaid's Tale vibes! Strong recommend.
3) The Six Boy-Coffins: Good story and one of the most fairytale-ish ones. (Read the originals first!)
4) "The Rabbit": What if, instead of being the saddest story ever, The Velveteen Rabbit was actually the creepiest story ever? This tale answers that question.
5) "Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters": Another good mermaid story, and darkly humorous.
Overall, I enjoyed this story collection. I give it four stars because while I loved some of the stories, I didn't care for a few of the others.
Throughout the collection, Ortberg challenges traditional gender roles and pronouns -- in one story, three daughters discuss whether they will be husbands or wives when they get married. In another, the "he" pronoun is assigned to a character named Silvia, while another character, Caroline, never gets any pronouns. It was noticeable since most authors don't write this way, but I didn't have any trouble following the stories or figuring out which character was speaking. Turns out pronouns aren't that essential for reading comprehension.
One recommendation I'd make to any reader is to flip to the back of the book, where Ortberg provides the names of the stories that served as source material, and to then go read those stories. I found I enjoyed the stories more if I was familiar with the underlying tale.
My favorite tales:
1) "The Daughter Cells": This take on The Little Mermaid was one of the funniest stories and probably my favorite in the collection. The mermaid in questions falls in love with the prince when she saves him from drowning, and is attracted to his reserved demeanor (he's passed out from almost drowning). She is less into him when she makes a bargain to get legs, and finds he is not the quiet and humble man she had fallen for.
2) "The Thankless Child": This story gave me serious Handmaid's Tale vibes! Strong recommend.
3) The Six Boy-Coffins: Good story and one of the most fairytale-ish ones. (Read the originals first!)
4) "The Rabbit": What if, instead of being the saddest story ever, The Velveteen Rabbit was actually the creepiest story ever? This tale answers that question.
5) "Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters": Another good mermaid story, and darkly humorous.