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A review by amyjoy
Fairest In All the Land by Bill Willingham
4.0
April 2024: I enjoyed this as my penultimate Fables read. It was a fun murder mystery (though having read Fairest vol. 5 right before, I knew who the killer was), and a nice break before the final Fables story.
I didn't mind the prose bits this time around, but I do struggle with them just taking a longer amount of time to read when I want to zoom through the story.
December 2013: In the canon of this series, this book is very similar to Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, though it's not nearly as good. Also, while 1001 Nights dealt with histories of the characters, this one deals with a contemporary murder mystery that will likely have some ramifications in the regular storyline.
I didn't love the primarily prose framing story, mostly because of the prose, I think, rather than any deficiency in the story. I also do feel a little like the villains in these stand-alone stories are getting a little redundant. The villain here and in Cinderella, Vol. 2: Fables are Forever feel a little stale, though the stories themselves are wonderful.
When Rose Red and Snow White were both killed in the first few illustrated pages, I knew this had to be a dream sequence/they're not dead yet sort of thing. Willingham has no compunctions about killing off pretty major characters in completely heartbreaking ways, but we just COULDN'T lose Snow White so soon after losing Bigby.
I didn't mind the prose bits this time around, but I do struggle with them just taking a longer amount of time to read when I want to zoom through the story.
December 2013: In the canon of this series, this book is very similar to Fables: 1001 Nights of Snowfall, though it's not nearly as good. Also, while 1001 Nights dealt with histories of the characters, this one deals with a contemporary murder mystery that will likely have some ramifications in the regular storyline.
I didn't love the primarily prose framing story, mostly because of the prose, I think, rather than any deficiency in the story. I also do feel a little like the villains in these stand-alone stories are getting a little redundant. The villain here and in Cinderella, Vol. 2: Fables are Forever feel a little stale, though the stories themselves are wonderful.