Scan barcode
A review by doughtah
Troll's-Eye View: A Book of Villainous Tales by Terri Windling, Ellen Datlow
4.0
Troll's-Eye View is a book of short stories and poems edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (who've worked together previously in collecting other anthologies). The collection of creepy and sympathy-garnering stories hosts stories for some of fairytales' most famous villains, from the Big Bad Wolf to Rumpelstiltskin.
The book includes works from the following authors: Delia Sherman, Garth Nix, Wendy Froud, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Peter S. Beagle, Ellen Kushner, Joseph Stanton, Holly Black, Jane Yolen, Nancy Farmer, Michael Cadnum, Catherynne M. Valente, Midori Snyder, Neil Gaiman, and Kelly Link.
Some of these entries took kinder views of the traditional villains, instead pointing a finger at the traditional hero and asking the question "What if they weren't perfect?" Others tell the story from the villains perspective and keep those "bad" qualities in the story, but also give the villain a voice.
In Valente's "A Delicate Architecture," the witch from "Hansel and Gretel" is given a history while events still bring her to the beginning of H&G's nightmare. The question you're left with is "how do you feel about the witch now?" Bluebeard is given a retelling, as is the servant from "The Goose Girl," and even the Giant's wife in "Jack and the Beanstalk."
The very first entry in the book really sets up the collection and the difficult thing here for me is to find a way to tell you about it without spoiling you. There is certainly an Evil Wizard in the story, but what makes him Evil? Who is truly Evil? And how do we determine it? How does the story differ when told from the villain's bias?
The whole collection was very fun to read and as someone who likes reading about stories from the "villains" perspective, it hit that sweet spot of: we still do questionable things, but how much do you truly dislike us?
A couple warnings: within the stories there are forms of abuse, gore, violence, body horror, and neglect, as there tend to be within fairy tales.
The book includes works from the following authors: Delia Sherman, Garth Nix, Wendy Froud, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Peter S. Beagle, Ellen Kushner, Joseph Stanton, Holly Black, Jane Yolen, Nancy Farmer, Michael Cadnum, Catherynne M. Valente, Midori Snyder, Neil Gaiman, and Kelly Link.
Some of these entries took kinder views of the traditional villains, instead pointing a finger at the traditional hero and asking the question "What if they weren't perfect?" Others tell the story from the villains perspective and keep those "bad" qualities in the story, but also give the villain a voice.
In Valente's "A Delicate Architecture," the witch from "Hansel and Gretel" is given a history while events still bring her to the beginning of H&G's nightmare. The question you're left with is "how do you feel about the witch now?" Bluebeard is given a retelling, as is the servant from "The Goose Girl," and even the Giant's wife in "Jack and the Beanstalk."
The very first entry in the book really sets up the collection and the difficult thing here for me is to find a way to tell you about it without spoiling you. There is certainly an Evil Wizard in the story, but what makes him Evil? Who is truly Evil? And how do we determine it? How does the story differ when told from the villain's bias?
The whole collection was very fun to read and as someone who likes reading about stories from the "villains" perspective, it hit that sweet spot of: we still do questionable things, but how much do you truly dislike us?
A couple warnings: within the stories there are forms of abuse, gore, violence, body horror, and neglect, as there tend to be within fairy tales.