Scan barcode
A review by dragonlilly
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.0
This was a very intriguing set of several fairytale retellings that certainly have a darker tone, although these fairytales were dark from the start anyways, and Carter just emphasizes the darkness within cultural aspects and aesthetics of the time and context of these older stories. Carter both modernizes these stories and plays with elements of their age. Carter weaves sexuality within all of these stories, sometimes in rather disturbing ways that I did not necessarily enjoy, and sometimes in a rather repetitive way, especially because the girls all have pretty much the same description. Yet, I see why Carter took this route in order explore desire in different forms, and to also subvert the image of women in tales at times woven by patriarchal concepts, and to use these tales to mirror and expose a reality either more disturbing or freeing. However, by exploring these themes, this book becomes very mature and I would not recommend it without researching and looking up possible triggers, especially because Carter's writing is descriptive and scenes happen very suddenly.
While the heroines are pretty much the same in appearance and all very young, the stories themselves have good variety. There are multiple Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood retellings, yet they are still shockingly distinct from one another, and the Puss-in-Boots story is incredibly fun in both story and tone, which sets it apart from all the rest. At the same time, each story is weaved together very well because of the continuous, dark tone that is set from start to end, sometimes stronger and sometimes lessened, but always consistently there. It also helps that Angela Carter's writing is brilliant, dream-like, and attractive; her writing also lends well to these fairytale retellings in that she can shift the content and darkly modernize it while still making the story sound like a fairytale.
'The Bloody Chamber' was a good starting story, and while quite dark with a rapid ending, it was overall a cool story that ended well.
I quite liked 'The Courtship of Mr. Lyon', it being quite charming.
'The Tiger's Bride' was also very interesting, but the second half was much more surreal.
The 'Puss-in-Boots' story was my absolute favorite of the bunch, both vulgar and hilarious with a charming narration.
'The Erl-King' was fine, with nice descriptions, although the age of the girl disturbed me (as with most of the girls' ages in these stories, even if there is a point to that choice).
'The Snow Child' was also interesting, but had a startling scene worse than the situation with the Erl-King story. The Snow Child's overall story was fascinating nonetheless, especially the ending with the countess.
'The Lady of the House of Love' is a vampire story with an ending both sweet and solemn.
'The Werewolf' is neat.
'The Company of Wolves' had a confusing but intriguing ending.
Finally, 'Wolf Alice' ends the collection on a sad note, with loneliness at the heart of this one.
While the heroines are pretty much the same in appearance and all very young, the stories themselves have good variety. There are multiple Beauty and the Beast and Little Red Riding Hood retellings, yet they are still shockingly distinct from one another, and the Puss-in-Boots story is incredibly fun in both story and tone, which sets it apart from all the rest. At the same time, each story is weaved together very well because of the continuous, dark tone that is set from start to end, sometimes stronger and sometimes lessened, but always consistently there. It also helps that Angela Carter's writing is brilliant, dream-like, and attractive; her writing also lends well to these fairytale retellings in that she can shift the content and darkly modernize it while still making the story sound like a fairytale.
'The Bloody Chamber' was a good starting story, and while quite dark with a rapid ending, it was overall a cool story that ended well.
I quite liked 'The Courtship of Mr. Lyon', it being quite charming.
'The Tiger's Bride' was also very interesting, but the second half was much more surreal.
The 'Puss-in-Boots' story was my absolute favorite of the bunch, both vulgar and hilarious with a charming narration.
'The Erl-King' was fine, with nice descriptions, although the age of the girl disturbed me (as with most of the girls' ages in these stories, even if there is a point to that choice).
'The Snow Child' was also interesting, but had a startling scene worse than the situation with the Erl-King story. The Snow Child's overall story was fascinating nonetheless, especially the ending with the countess.
'The Lady of the House of Love' is a vampire story with an ending both sweet and solemn.
'The Werewolf' is neat.
'The Company of Wolves' had a confusing but intriguing ending.
Finally, 'Wolf Alice' ends the collection on a sad note, with loneliness at the heart of this one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, and Blood