Twisted Myths: 20 Classic Stories With a Dark and Dangerous Heart

by Maura McHugh

Readers may be familiar with these traditional tales of gods, demons, and tricksters but they've never heard them like this before! Fantasy author Maura McHugh revisits the popular myths of Loki, Odin, Cupid and Psyche, and other myths from Africa, Asia, and the Americas -- and gives them a macabre makeover. These gruesome myths of love, treachery, sacrifice and revenge include:

*The birth of the Hindu god Ganesha
*The creation and destruction of four of the five Aztec suns
*The ferocious revenge of Egpytian goddess Sekhmet
*China's irrepressible Monkey King
*Japanese Sun Goddess Amaterasu who banishes the light

All 20 terrifying tales are accompanied by stunningly dark illustrations that heighten the mood, and will leave readers thrilled, chilled, and eager for more.

Genres: Mythology, Short Stories, Fantasy, Anthologies, Horror, Young Adult, Fiction

144 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Maura McHugh is a writer living in Galway, Ireland.

She has a MA in Irish Gothic, and a MA in Screenwriting. Her short fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in publications in America and Europe. She's published two collections - Twisted Fairy Tales and Twisted Myths - in the USA, and her new collection The Boughs Withered When I Told Them My Dreams was published by NewCon Press in 2019.

She's written several comic book series for companies like Dark Horse and IDW, and most recently Judge Anderson for 2000 AD, and is also a screenwriter, playwright, a critic, and has served on the juries of international literary, comic book, and film awards. She's written a monograph on David Lynch's iconic film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, published by Electric Dreamhouse Press/PS Publishing, which was nominated for a 2018 British Fantasy Award for Best Non Fiction.

Her short story 'Bone Mother' was adapted into a short stop-motion animated film by Sylvie Trouvé and Dale Hayward of the See Creature animation company, produced by the National Film Board of Canada’s Animation Studio, and premiered at Festival Stop Motion in Montreal in September 2018.

Maura's sf rom-com radio play The Love of Small Appliances was broadcast on NearFM in Ireland in June 2019.

Reviews

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a bit of a mixed bag for me and I was left feeling a lot disappointed because I was so excited to read it originally! Some of these retellings were absolutely enthralling, especially the first few. But after that it just went downhill fast and I quickly lost interest and just wanted it to be over. Its only saving grace was how truly gorgeous and intricate the illustrations were, they alone made it worth finishing!

[Jade · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely enthralling. All I could think of while I was reading this was how much my 8 year old self would have adored this. Filled with dark mythology from around the world, gorgeous, non-traditional artwork and so much imagination. There are tales from Japan, Egypt, Africa, North America (Lakota) and much more. They are grotesque and fascinating without being too graphic for a mature kid. At the same time I never once felt like I was reading a children's book. My favorite tale was probably the Lakota tale, unsurprisingly as I love Native American mythology, but there was not a loser in the bunch and most of them are unusual with the exception of the Isis/Osiris tale. I have been reading mythology as long as I can remember and the better portion of these were new to me. Highly recommend to both mythology fans and kiddos who can handle a bit of gore.

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a horror reader by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought this would be a fun thing to read during Halloween. And I really enjoyed it! There were several myths here that I was already familiar with, but some were new to me. There's a wide variety of cultures represented, which is always fun to see. While all these stories have some element of the macabre, there are some that include something sweet and light amid the horror ("The Patience of Isis" and "Pele Comes to Hawai'i" are the two that come to mind. "Ishtar Descends to the Underworld" was a good one too). The artwork is gorgeous - I could have spent hours just studying the images accompanying the stories. Definitely recommended for anyone looking for something spooky for Halloween or if you just enjoy myths from a bunch of different cultures.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I've never read or heard of many of the stories within, I can't attest to how 'twisted' they are, but the illustrations are as beautiful as ever and this'll be sitting on my coffee table through the Halloween season.

So purdy!

[tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

* 3.5 Stars *

Being the fairly invested mythology buff that I am, when I saw this book on the 'featured' shelf at my library, I just snatched it up without a second thought. I'll make this review pretty straight-to-the-point.

The myths covered in this collection of stories are not really what I would define as "twisted". Is it because I've already read so many different myths that nothing truly surprises me anymore? Possibly. However, the myths in here resembled each other a lot, and it started to get less "messed-up" and surprising as the book continued. The illustrations are probably the only extremely interesting parts in this book (filled with color, brought the stories to life).

McHugh does a good job incorporating world myths in here, which is a breath of fresh air from the already-large collection of Greek/Roman mythology re-tellings.

Overall, not my favorite book of mythology, but I would consider this to be a good way of getting into mythology from a general standpoint.

[Jasmine Banasik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun collection. It has a unique theme to it and the gothic illustrations are beautiful. I could look at them all day. I am also so happy to see a fairly wide variety of cultures represented and not just relying on Greco-Roman and Norse mythology. We need mythology fans to expand into other cultures and belief systems and this is a decent introduction to some of these - it even reinvigorated my interest in Japanese mythology.
I do wish there had been even more diversity with maybe a few more stories. It is a little disappointing to see an entire continent bound to a few stories (and some continents don't even get a story!) Additionally, as much as I loved the theme, I also don't know how well it held up through the entirety of the collection. Some of the "dark and twisted" myths were quite tame - mostly resorting to "we briefly mention the underworld" or "some blood is spilt in a super PG briefly described way"

In short, I think this is an excellent ADDITION to any mythology collection but doesn't serve well as a FOUNDATIONAL book.

[Declan Sartawi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's an ok book. Not good, but not entirely bad either. The reason why I rated it only 2 stars is because this: Maura McHugh clearly does not know her stories right! Let me give you an example. In the first story, Eros and Psyche, on page 13, she writes: "Persephone, who was abducted by Pluto, God of Hades." God of Hades!? Hades is the God of the Underworld not Hades! Also on page 14 of the second half of the page she writes. "Travel into Hades, and ask the Goddess Persephone for a drop of her beauty." Travel into Hades!?! What is this!? Not happy with this book.

[em (lattereads) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love mythology, but this book was so awful I had to stop reading after about 6 of them. The myths were so condensed that they became quite confusing to muddle through. I really really tried to enjoy this, but I hated it.

[Camille · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is awesome but most of the stories are not true to the original telling. The writer put her own interpretation and rewrote the stories. Not a fan when someone writes off of the path of storytelling.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting but a quick read. A bargain too. Some interesting stories, nice art. I liked the Egyptian stories. I was expecting something else but still intrigued. Got it as a gift, was a bargain really. Interesting but different demographic than me.

[Allanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good selection of myths from various cultures.

[(the.darkandmoody.reader) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 — Writing
5/5 — Art

The writing was rather basic. The art in the book is gorgeous.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The stories contained within this book are just simply myths. Most people will know at least one of these myths, either from their own culture, or from school. They didn't even change the myths. Well that isn’t really true, they condensed them and cut out a lot, and I mean a lot of the myths in order to make them shorter. This condensing and cutting has actually made the myths less interesting and even a bit confusing. Many of the myths have more than one jammed together. For example, the Greek myth about the birth of Zeus and fall of Kronos is compacted into the same myth as Prometheus and Pandora. Or the Egyptian myth about how we got a 365 days in a year tied in with the myth about the death of Osiris. It makes for a muddled mess of a book. I love ancient myths and cultural tales, however this book was a terrible version of these stories.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this book was not bad I much preferred Twisted Fairy Tales. I read the introduction and they listed all the different countries and everything they got these myths from but I would have preferred that at the beginning of each story when they have the title if they added the country or region like Norse or something from where these stories are from. Some of them are obvious, but not all which is why I would have liked it.

With books like these with short stories it's easy to pick up and put down....the problem is I didn't really want to pick it back up. Not bad and I will add it to my shelf, but I much preferred their other book of fairy tales.

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is worth checking out just for the stunning artwork and design. It is so, so beautiful. It does not only include full-page illustrations, every page is designed individually. The eerie style matches the ruthless stories perfectly. My favorites were the Asian ones and I wish there had been more Egyptian tales. Can't wait to dive into Twisted Fairytales. I hope there will be more books by this excellent team.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting read. I really enjoyed the fact that this book contained stories from all around the world. It was fascinating to see the common themes, threads and ideas no matter where the story was from.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

enjoyable good read for myths from all places

[Ms. Kahn]

I wrote a review for this book for School Library Journal.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork and book design.

[Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

A feast for the eyes.

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

The myths in this collection are from several cultures throughout the ancient world.
Jane Laurie's illustrations accent the violent and bloody nature of these myths without being too gory.