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Black-Winged Angels
Black-Winged Angels, shortlisted for the 2014 Aurealis Awards for Best Collection, brings together 10 incredible contemporary retellings of fairy tales, featuring an introduction by multiple award-winning author Juliet Marillier, and cover by multiple World Fantasy Award nominee Kathleen Jennings.
173 pages, ebook
First published November 25, 2010
10 people are currently reading
596 people want to read
About the author
Angela Slatter
189 books826 followersAngela Slatter is the author of the urban fantasy novels Vigil (2016) and Corpselight (2017), as well as eight short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and A Feast of Sorrows: Stories. She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, and six Aurealis Awards.
Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories.
She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth.
Her novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (from Tor.com), and Ripper (in the Stephen Jones anthology Horrorology, from Jo Fletcher Books) were released in October 2015.
The third novel in the Verity Fassbinder series, Restoration, will be released in 2018 by Jo Fletcher Books (Hachette International). She is represented by Ian Drury of the literary agency Sheil Land for her long fiction, by Lucy Fawcett of Sheil Land for film rights, and by Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Publishing Services for illustrated storybooks.
Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories.
She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth.
Her novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (from Tor.com), and Ripper (in the Stephen Jones anthology Horrorology, from Jo Fletcher Books) were released in October 2015.
The third novel in the Verity Fassbinder series, Restoration, will be released in 2018 by Jo Fletcher Books (Hachette International). She is represented by Ian Drury of the literary agency Sheil Land for her long fiction, by Lucy Fawcett of Sheil Land for film rights, and by Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Publishing Services for illustrated storybooks.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 28, 2016
Continuing my Angela Slatter kick...
"Baba Yaga is a woman who cannot be bound. She will bear no more children, she bow to the wishes of no man; she is independent, adrift from the world and its demands. The world, in ceasing to recognise her value, has granted her a freedom unknown to maids and mothers. Only the crone may stand alone." (p135)
Angela Slatter's exploration of the different ways women can be is one of the things I love most about her work, and it's evident in this reprint collection. Most of the stories build on European fairytales or characters - Bluebeard, the Snow Queen, Melusine, the Little Match Girl. But the focus is different from the familiar story, because Slatter changes or explains the motivation, or centres on a different protagonist, or moves the setting and therefore the entire context... and she forces the reader to reconsider the telling of those stories, and what we can or should get out of them.
The quote above is one of my favourite parts of the whole collection, putting me immediately in mind of Ursula Le Guin's reflections on being a 'crone', especially the essay "The Space Crone." How often is old age meant to be something women should fear? And while Slatter's Baba Yaga is by no means always happy with her status, she lives it.
This book is also a beautiful object. I have a hardback copy; the cover is black with a white cut-out illustration by Kathleen Jennings. Jennings' artwork appears throughout the book, with each story having a dedicated picture - some quite simple, some incredibly complex. I love Jennings' work and she beautifully complements Slatter's ideas.
"Baba Yaga is a woman who cannot be bound. She will bear no more children, she bow to the wishes of no man; she is independent, adrift from the world and its demands. The world, in ceasing to recognise her value, has granted her a freedom unknown to maids and mothers. Only the crone may stand alone." (p135)
Angela Slatter's exploration of the different ways women can be is one of the things I love most about her work, and it's evident in this reprint collection. Most of the stories build on European fairytales or characters - Bluebeard, the Snow Queen, Melusine, the Little Match Girl. But the focus is different from the familiar story, because Slatter changes or explains the motivation, or centres on a different protagonist, or moves the setting and therefore the entire context... and she forces the reader to reconsider the telling of those stories, and what we can or should get out of them.
The quote above is one of my favourite parts of the whole collection, putting me immediately in mind of Ursula Le Guin's reflections on being a 'crone', especially the essay "The Space Crone." How often is old age meant to be something women should fear? And while Slatter's Baba Yaga is by no means always happy with her status, she lives it.
This book is also a beautiful object. I have a hardback copy; the cover is black with a white cut-out illustration by Kathleen Jennings. Jennings' artwork appears throughout the book, with each story having a dedicated picture - some quite simple, some incredibly complex. I love Jennings' work and she beautifully complements Slatter's ideas.
July 20, 2015
Standard Ticonderoga Disclaimer: We published this book because we loved it!
July 21, 2025
This feminist horror fairy tale collection (no one will convince me that most fairy tales aren't horror stories...) is as brutal as it is wondrous, and it reminds me of the work of Angela Carter (which is referenced). It's not only short stories but also beautiful artwork accompanying each tale, plus non-fiction pieces later in the book.
May 4, 2020
Beautiful little fables polished to a shine to reveal their darkest depths. Utterly absorbing.
July 21, 2025
It's unfortunate that the horrors endured by women make such great horror fiction, but here we are with this excellent short story collection of twisted fairy tales from female perspectives.
September 1, 2025
The re-issued version of this combines nine tales on classic fairy tales with a decidedly adult and modern perspective which really works we also have some fascinating analysis of fairy tales and how they’ve changed over centuries plus an insight into how the nine tales came about. Highly recommended!
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...
Want to read
January 10, 2015I NEED THIS.
A SHORT STORY FAIRY TALE RETELLING BY JULIET MARILLIER????
Even if I don't win this I STILL NEED THIS.
I still need to get around to reading her retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which she told me was her favourite fairy tale.
A SHORT STORY FAIRY TALE RETELLING BY JULIET MARILLIER????
Even if I don't win this I STILL NEED THIS.
I still need to get around to reading her retelling of Beauty and the Beast, which she told me was her favourite fairy tale.
November 10, 2016
One big bite-full and it's finished.
March 26, 2017
I didn't know what to expect from this book as I hadn't read any Slatter books before. Boy, it was incredible! From the first page to the last, I was drawn in and couldn't stop reading. Well done! Can't wait to read more from her.
My Rating: 5+ stars
My Rating: 5+ stars
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews