Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold

by Paula Guran (Editor)

Once upon a time, the stories that came to be known as “fairy tales” were cultivated to entertain adults more than children; it was only later that they were tamed and pruned into less thorny versions intended for youngsters. But in truth, they have continued to prick the imaginations of readers at all ages.

Over the years, authors have often borrowed bits and pieces from these stories, grafting them into their own writing, creating literature with both new meaning and age-old significance. In the last few decades or so, they’ve also intentionally retold and reinvented the tales in a variety of ways—delightful or dark, wistful or wicked, sweet or satirical—that forge new trails through the forests of fantastic fiction.

This new anthology compiles some of the best modern fairy-tale retellings and reinventions from award-winning and bestselling authors, acclaimed storytellers, and exciting new talents, into an enchanting collection. Explore magical new realms by traveling with us, Beyond the Woods . . .

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Fairy Tales, Anthologies, Fiction, Retellings, Science Fiction

536 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2016

About the author

Paula Guran is senior editor for Prime Books. She edited the Juno fantasy imprint from its small press inception through its incarnation as an imprint of Pocket Books. She is also senior editor of Prime's soon-to-launch digital imprint Masque Books. Guran edits the annual Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series as well as a growing number of other anthologies. In an earlier life she produced weekly email newsletter DarkEcho (winning two Stokers, an IHG award, and a World Fantasy Award nomination), edited Horror Garage (earning another IHG and a second World Fantasy nomination), and has contributed reviews, interviews, and articles to numerous professional publications.

Reviews

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't take notes on the stories as I read them and it took me 6 months to finish this (there were a lot of things that cut in line because books are rude and that's the drawback to a collection of stories - you can stop for weeks on end and not miss anything) so I don't remember most of the tales anymore.
However, I know I enjoyed many of them and I gave it back to the library feeling a sense of sadness to not be holding onto this book anymore so I think that's 4 stars.

Added bonus: this has stories from all my new favorite contemporary fantasy/speculative/sci-fi...no, you know what? Let's just call them storytellers. This collection had stories from all my new favorite contemporary storytellers: Angela Slatter, Elizabeth Bear, Margo Lanagan, and Catherynne M. Valente plus a story from an old favorite, Neil Gaiman. That made me pretty dang happy.

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond The Woods: Fairy Tales Retold, is remarkable, in that nearly every selection in the anthology is exceptional. There were two which had me snickering out loud: the stories by Kelly Link and by Jeff VanderMeer. Some were just phenomenally stunning and all were evocative. I did not have a lukewarm reaction to a single one.

Kirstyn McDermott's tale might be my favorite, but it's hard to decide among so many. There are some intensely dark reinterpretations/mashups of folk tales and fables, so this isn't passive easygoing reading. It's somehow dense and consuming, expansive and focused, magic and real. These stories command your time and attention. I felt like I needed to spend time with them, that I owed them that. These reimaginings are slippery shapeshifters, highlighting jutting metaphors and oily allegory, each as unrestrained as a lupine howl.

[Sepidaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Red as Blood: 4
In the House of Gingerbread: 3
The Bone Mother: 3
Follow Me Light: 3.5
The Coin of Heart’s Desire: 3
The Glass Bottle Trick: 4
The Maiden Tree: 4
The Coat of Stars: 3
The Road of Needles: 4
Travels with the Snow Queen: 4
Halfway People: 4
Catastrophic Disruption of the Head: DNF at 70%
Lavanya and Deepika: 3
Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon: 3
Fairy Tale: 4
The Queen Who Could Not Walk: 3
Lebkuchen: 4.5
Diamonds and Pearls: A Fairy Tale: 4
The Queen and the Cambion: 3.5
Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn: 3
The Mussel Eater: 4
Bears: A Fairy Tale of 1958: 3.5
The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep: 5
Rats: 3.5
Beyond the Naked Eye: DNF at 50%
Good Hunting: 4
By the Moon’s Good Grace: 3.5
The Juniper Tree: I didn't read it. A story about a tortured little boy? No, thank you.
Greensleeves: 3
Beauty: 4

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably the best edited collection I've read in a very long time. Most collections are of uneven quality. Beyond the Woods is uniformly wonderful. Some selections I've read before, but very much enjoyed reading again. I can't recommend this highly enough! Many thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for the ARC.

[Marquise · Rating 3 out of 5]

With two stunning and original retellings included, Tanith Lee is about the only author here that stands out from a collection that, in general, doesn't rise above a decent output for me.

Sadly, none of her stories are new or unpublished as I had been hoping when I checked this book out; both "Red as Blood" (a Snow White retelling) and "Beauty" (a Beauty and the Beast retelling) were previously published in Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer, which I would highly recommend you get instead of Guran's anthology. Much more worth your money!

[Gala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Хороша тема, хороші оповідання, але я має одне зауваження до логіки збірки.
Ніби тема була про переосмисленя старих кахок, але тут є і класичні сюжети, і нові авторські казки, і це позбавляє збірку однорідності.

[Jerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love fairy tales, retellings and short stories. This book is perfect for me.

Before I discuss the stories, I’d like to say that both narrators are excellent, but I have found a new favorite in Tim Campbell. For anyone who loves Scott Brick (as I do), Campbell’s timbre is quite similar, and I’ll be looking for more books narrated by him.

As with any story collection, there will be a few that you dislike, a few you love, and the remaining majority will fall into the middle. Beyond the Woods is no different.

My least favorite stories would be Catastrophic Disruption of the Head, Beyond the Naked Eye and The Juniper Tree. Straub’s comment in The Juniper Tree “Lately I have had the impression that the general perception of me, to the extent that such a thing exists, is that of a hermetic painter inscribing hundreds of tiny, grotesque, fantastical details over every inch of a large canvas. (My books are unfashionably long.) was spot-on perfect to my perception of the author.

My favorite two stories are Bears: A Fairy Tale of 1958 and Rats – both addressing current social issues. Others that I enjoyed greatly were Lebkuchen, Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn, and Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon.

I would average the stories to a 3.5 but round up due to the excellent narration.

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you may know by now, I'm a huge fan of fairy tales, a sucker for retellings, and a fan of urban fantasy, fantasy and sci fi, so I feel like I'm the target audience for this book many times over. It's also not news that I'm always on the fence about short story collections (unless it's my boy Gaiman, in which case I'm not a reliable source anyway because I'm sort of an obsessive fangirl), and it took me long enough to read this book that I started this review with a knee-jerk three-stars, "it's uneven but those highs" sort of review. Then I went back and revisted the story list to recap my favorites and found that at least 80% were stories that I really enjoyed (even if at least one
disturbed me more than I want to admit). I am SO glad to have read this collection because among these stories live some of the best work in this genre that I have ever seen.

My absolute favorite? Kelly Link's take on the Snow Queen. fucking brilliant, honestly. I loved it so much, I immediately reread it. Next in line are Cat Valente, Elizabeth Bear, and Peter Beagle; no surprise there, but Octavia Cade caught me by surprise because I'd never heard of her and now I have and I'm so pleased! And Ken Liu! Friends, I am not a huge fan of his work just because it tends to be very dude-heavy (see my thoughts on the grace of kings), but his story here! The transhumanism and the kitsune, omg. I was kind of floored.

My least favorite? The three bears. There's a warning in the introduction to this story that the bears face prejudice trying to integrate into 1958 white suburban culture, and our protagonists are, well. Actual bears. But the resolution of this story shouts resoundingly, "If you don't belong, then you should stop trying to fit in and go home where you'll be comfortable," to the point that if someone had told me that it had been written as anti-integration propaganda in the 50's or 60's, I would have totally believed it possible, and I'm deeply uncomfortable with that.

I also understand that The Juniper Tree is named after a fairy tale, but it's a long stretch to call it one as well when it's actually a prequel to many of Stroud's works, detailing his protagonist's molestation one summer. It's really well put together and (depressingly) believable, certainly, but I can't see my way clear to why it's in this collection outside of the title and a vague, vaaaague parallel.

Still this is a book I'm extremely happy to have, and I'm going to shove the snow queen at anyone who will sit still long enough for me to do so.

[Kathy Sebesta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond the Woods is a collection of short stories that are in some way take offs on classic fairy tales. Like any collection of short stories there were some I liked ("Beauty" and "Coin of heart's desire,"), some I really disliked ("Juniper tree," "The maiden-tree," and "Catastrophic disruption of the head" are three) and most which were worth reading but not, to me, noteworthy. What made this collection more interesting than most is that the preface to each story talked about the original source, which wasn't always as obvious as you'd expect. I read each story then tried to figure out the derivation but twice the tales were new to me. (How on earth could that have happened?!)

[Oleg Tipa · Rating 3 out of 5]

best:
Road of Needles - Дорога иголок
The Queen Who Could Not Walk - Королева, которая не умела ходить
By the Moon’s Good Grace - Во имя Луны всемилостивой

good:
Red as Blood - Красна, как кровь
In the House of Gingerbread - В пряничном домике
Follow Me Light - Путеводный огонь
The Glass Bottle Trick - Фокус с бутылкой
The Queen and the Cambion - Королева и камбион
The Mussel Eater - Поедатели мидий
The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep - Пока я сплю, Луна утонет!
Good Hunting - Доброй охоты!
Beauty - Красавица

[Hozanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's difficult to rate a book of short stories. I truly enjoyed only less than half of the total 30 short stories, but there were also a few favourites that left a great, lasting impression - such that I can forgive and forget the ones that I don't want to remember.

Personal top favourites (in order of appearance):
The Queen Who Could Not Walk (by Peter S. Beagle)
Good Hunting (by Ken Liu)
Greensleeves (by Jeff VanderMeer)
(I'm going to check out the other works from these authors.)

Others I enjoyed:
Halfway People
Lavanya and Deepika
Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon
Lekbuchen
Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn
The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep

And others I sort-of-enjoyed:
The Mussel Eater - I liked the overall story. This left me craving for mussels. But I realised I don't take very well to the imagery of teeth. (Hah!)
By the Moon's Good Grace - Enjoyed the story, but the narrative style tired me out.
Beauty - Learnt some new words. Interesting take on the story. But wouldn't re-read.

The rest were either completely forgettable, or downright weird and exhausting, or in bad taste, at least for me.

My final comment is that if you enjoy searching out retellings of fairytales and fresh stories of faeries and magic, just try this (borrow if you can). Even though not every story may appeal to you, there may be some gems worth the digging. I found a few. Hope you do too.

[Mythlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some I particularly enjoyed:
Tanith Lee – “Red as Blood”
Shveta Thakrar – “Lavanya and Deepika”
Theodora Goss – “Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon”
Gardner Dozois – “Fairy Tale”
Jeff VanderMeer – “Greensleeves”

Pretty good:
Yoon Ha Lee – “Coin of Hearts Desire”
Peter S. Beagle – “The Queen Who Could Not Walk”
Holly Black – “Coat of Stars”

Some interesting twists:
Gene Wolfe – “In the House of Gingerbread”
Nalo Hopkinson – “The Glass Bottle Trick”
Neil Gaiman – “Diamonds and Pearls: A Fairy Tale”
Steve Duffy – “Bears: A Fairy Tale of 1958”
Tanith Lee – “Beauty” (though I'll confess I thought this would go in another direction with the myth of Cupid and Psyche)

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The quality of writing is quite high, but I get impatient with short stories and don't really like retellings of fairy tales. So once I determined that my tastes hadn't changed, I flipped through and read the story by Peter S. Beagle and then put the book down.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved and devoured this collection. Yes, there were a couple of clunkers, but the vast majority of the stories were absolutely wonderful. I'm sad I finished it.

[Tasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elizabeth Bear's "Follow Me Light" is the best of the stories I had not previously read in other collections.

[Anna Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold is exactly what it sets out to be - a compilation of fairy tales retold for the modern generation. The modern adult generation. Where fairy tales were once cleaned up and made happy and "family-friendly" for the consumption of children (looking at you, Disney), these fairy tales go back to earlier forms when such tales were cautionary tales.

If you were aware that the editor, Paula Guran, edits the annual Year's Best Dark Fantasy and Horror series, you would be prepared for this. I sort of absorbed that, but it did not register totally until I started reading the stories and found that indeed, most of these tales were on the darker side, with some extremely grim ones. I'm not complaining. I don't need all my stories to have happy endings. As it was, I enjoyed most of the stories included in the anthology; there was only 1 story that I distinctly disliked.

Some of these stories are based on very familiar fairy tales, some on the not-so-familiar. Others are totally new fairy tales, but using plot devices, settings or situations common within the fairy tale formula/genre. These do not only stick to the common English/European/American tales - there are Chinese, Indian and Arabian fairy tales, as well as possibly more from cultures I am not familiar enough with to identify.

But "based on" is a rather misleading term to use. Each writer brings a new perspective to well-worn tales, either retelling the story from a minor character, or from the antagonist's point of view. Some of them rewrite the whole story, giving us new endings altogether. Others retain the shape of the story, but bring it into modern times.

I would recommend this extremely long tome to anyone who is a fan of fairy tales and/or horror stories. Unless you're a kid. I would not recommend this for children.

Note: I received a digital ARC of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

[Ashley (Tiny Navajo Reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

While I liked the majority of these stories, only a few truly stood out to me. I did like seeing “modern” twists, but not my favorite form of retellings.

[Telthor · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any short story collection, fairly reviewing it is difficult. As an overall piece, it's well put together with a huge variety of stories ranging from the sci fi to the contemporary, from the fantastic to the mundane, all with a touch of magic on them.

Individually, I skipped some, slogged through some, enjoyed some, and adored very few.

My absolute favorite was The Queen Who Could Not Walk, which absolutely broke my heart and said wonderful things about loss and hope. I was also quite fond of Lee's bookending pieces, which set a lovely tone and helped the volume end strong. Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon was just a good time and had that right flavor of three tries and that dry humor that suits fairy tale absurdity oh so well.

Don't try to tell me three bears wasn't an allegory, though, guran.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two time Bram Stoker Award winner has done some impressive edits with this collection.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not quite 5 stars across the board, but the story slate is excellent, and the updates always mean something. A worthy read for any tale lover.

[Snail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I rate each short story in a collection from 1-3. Then I total the points and compare it to a star rating. Total points 48/90. A solid 3 stars.
Some stories were excellent, some were entirely bad, and very few were in between.
When reading this collection you have to trudge through many mediocre stories until you get to the good ones.

My favorites were :
Follow Me Light
Halfway People
Good Hunting

Full ratings below:

Beyond the Woods
1. Red as Blood - a creepy retelling. Well done 2/3

2. In the House of Gingerbread - it was OK but not memorable 1/3

3. The Bone Mother - Nicely written 2/3

4. Follow me Light - one of the more unique retellings in the collection. 3/3

5. The Coin of the Hearts Desire - kind of predictable and not too interesting 1/3

6. The Glass Bottle Trick - a badly written story that leans heavily on shock factor. 1/3

7. The Maiden Tree - Probably my favorite of the collection. What an eerie story. Great imagery, all around dark and well written. 3/3

8. The Coat of Stars - too many things go on in this "short story" that reads like an excerpt of a novel and completely misses the scope of this collection. It is a classic happily ever after wrapped up nice and tight and leaves nothing interesting to the imagination. 1/3

9. The Road of Needles - this story was a mess. Messy details, messy time line, annoying characters and no direction for the story. We get it, the future sucks, and? There was nothing else to this other than a concept and even that was barely there. 1/3

10. Travels with the Snow Queen - annoying story loaded down with references to make up for its emptiness. It failed both in humor and in heart. 1/3

11. Halfway People - 3/3 beautifully written. I even got emotional at the end. This one just made the entire collection.

12. Catastrophic Destruction of the Head - 1/3 there was no story, no world, not even a character. Just mindless words strung together. It the strenuous attempt to make the story dark and brutal, the writer failed to write a story at all.

13. Lavanya and Deepika - 1/3 it was OK, not bad but not good either.

14. Princess Lucinda and the hound of the moon - 2/3 Solid story that felt nostalgic to old faerie tales. Well written. The imagery had a dreamlike quality. Oh and I thought the small joke included was pretty funny too.

15. Fairy Tale - 1/3 over explained and not nearly interesting enough. Giving an overly realistic modern twist to fairy tails, in my opinion, is kind of a cheap tool to use. It's a way to retell the fairy tale without actually exerting any effort. You're literally just writing bland gritty history. That's not a retelling, that's lazy story telling.

16. The Queen Who Could Not Walk - 1/3 it was nicely written but boring.

17. Lebkuchen - 1/3 it had a interesting style but the story was confusing. It was quite shallow and none of the relationships felt real. Still it wasnt as bad as some of the other stories here.

18. Diamonds and Pearls - 1/3 the weakest story in the collection. There's nothing to read here. Extremely shallow story telling.

19. The Queen and the Cambion - 2/3 it was pretty good.

20. Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn - 1/3 it was decent but forgettable.

21. The Mussel Eater - 2/3 fascinating story. It was the most similar retelling to source material out of the collection. I thought it added an interesting spice to the legend.

22. Bears: A Fairy Tale of 1958 - 1/3 I didn't particularly like it but I think it is a well done story.

23. The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep - 3/3 This story was interesting, it held the mystery and charm of a dream. I felt like I was in a dream. I enjoyed it very much and would even enjoy reading a full novel of it.

24. Rats - 1/3 The beginning is annoying and meandering. You don't need to explain your "moral of the story" without even starting the story. Is the author so unconfident in her writing that she has to spell it out? The ending as well. Overall it was badly written.

25. Beyond the Naked Eye - 3/3 Excellent story. It had a great narrator and a great progression. An original take of the wizard of Oz.

26. Good Hunting - 3/3 Another excellent story. It has all the lost magic and bittersweet sadness of a fairy tale.

27. By the Moon's Good Grace - 1/3 I agree with the introduction, Red Riding Hood has been retold to tatters. This retelling was plainly bad, super predictable, and not interesting nor offering any sort of clever twist on the tale.

28. The Juniper Tree - 1/3 A pointless and incredibly boring story. It was also disturbing and I don't understand what the author wanted to achieve with this.

29. Greensleeves - 1/3 it wasn't bad, still I didn't like it. It was kind of boring. The idea of a library holding magic is cool though.

30. Beauty - 2/3 a very nicely written story with beautiful descriptions and lots of heart. I enjoyed it.

[Elna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I checked this out because I remember reading "Greensleeves" when I was younger and it has stuck with me vaguely, and I wanted to see if it still held up. Unfortunately, the "Greensleeves" I was remembering was by Paul Jennings, so.

"Red as Blood": 4/5 The classic re-imagined story of "Snow White" that probably everybody has read or heard of. Still holds up.
"In the House of Gingerbread": 2/5 Honestly not that bad, but I didn't even remember it until looking back through the table of contents for this review. Nice twist though.
"The Bone Mother": 3/5 I'm always a fan of Baba Yaga.
"Follow Me Light": 4/5 Very original and strangely sweet. Not strongly linked to a fairy tale, though.
"The Coin of Heart's Desire": 4/5 Another original and subtle tale that fits perfectly with the canon of traditional sea dragon tales.
"The Glass Bottle Trick": 5/5 The first truly great one. The story of Bluebeard viewed through a racial lens.
"The Maiden-Tree": 1/5 I love Catherynne M Valent, but this short story features her prose at it's most purple and ornate.
"The Coat of Stars": 5/5 Sweet, wonderful, and inventive.
"The Road of Needles": 1/5 The connection to "Little Red Riding Hood" is incredibly tenuous, and there's a lot of unnecessary stuff in here.
"Travels with the Snow Queen": 3/5. Fine (though I do NOT understand how it won an award for expanding or exploring gender).
"Halfway People": 4/5 So I guess all the stories I like are the quiet sweet ones.
"Catastrophic Destruction of the Head": 1/5 Man, I don't know. I'm not a fan of gratuitous violence for violence's sake, and that's exactly what this is.
"Lavanya and Deepika": 3/5. Fine.
"Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon": 4/5 Just like Guran says, it totally feels like a fairy tale even though it's not based on anything.
"Fairy tale": 4/5 A more "realistic" (read: meta) take on Cinderella, which I thought would be tiresome but is pretty good.
"The Queen Who Could Not Walk": 3/5 Again, fine.
"Lebkuchen": 2/5 Kind of disconnected and pointless.
"Diamonds and Pearls: a Fairy Tale": 2/5 Honestly, why would Guran mention the photograph that's supposed to accompany this tale and not reprint it? Otherwise it's your standard "good sister rewarded bad sister punished" tale.
"The Queen and the Cambion": 2/5 Another story that's fine but that I didn't remember until this review.
"Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn": 3/5 Sweet.
"The Mussel Eater": 5/5 A wonderful tale on the dangers of trying to change someone.
"Bears: A Fairy Tale of 1958": 5/5 A great little story about nature vs nurture and intolerant societies.
"The Moon is Drowning While I sleep": 3/5. Fine.
"Rats": 3/5 Honestly a mess. Schanoes' anger comes through incredibly clearly, but why change the character's names? Everything else is clearly the story of Sid and Nancy.
"Beyond the Naked Eye": 2/5 An admirable attempt to revisit the land of OZ, and it started out strong with the reality TV show concept, but then went off into a story about societal unrest.
"Good hunting": 3/5 While it's not the most original, it's well done.
"By the Moon's Good Grace": 5/5 A wonderful take on werewolves and responsibility.
"The Juniper Tree": 4/5 Affecting and ultimately hopeful.
"Greensleeves": 3/5 Fine.
"Beauty": 3/5 Again, fine.

A few gemes, a few stinkers, and mainly mediocre.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everybody likes a good fairy tale, right? There’s reason why they are some of the longest lasting stories in Western history. The fantastic and the romantic pretty much all have roots in those early campfire stories.


I’ve read a few fairy tale-inspired collections over the years, and I like this one because of the range that it presents. It runs the gambit between direct retellings to those only tangentially connected to the tales of old. For example:

“Fairy Tale” by Gardner Dozois places Cinderella in the real world by looking realistically how that tale would’ve played out and thereby turning fairy tale tropes on their heads. In “Beauty”, Tanith Lee reimagines Beauty and the Beast in the future with aliens, establishing once again how love can be unexpected and blind. Kelly Link turns the Snow Queen, a tale of love and sacrifice, into a story of love and loss as a woman emotionally overcoming a failing relationship in “Travels with the Snow Queen”.

Comparatively, “The Juniper Tree” by Peter Straub only thematically and symbolically references the fairy tale it takes its name from, as it tells the story of a sexually abused young boy who finds a way out of it in the end. Ken Liu creates his own fairytale-esque story in “Good Hunting” with steam, gears, and Chinese mythical creatures. Jeff VanderMeer throws everything out the window in “Greensleeves” and presents a wacky account of a librarian, a large frog, and a stained-glass eagle.

On the whole, the stories were delightful and well-written, engaging enough to do their job of entertaining and well-constructed enough to feel satisfying and complete at each end. (Save “By the Moon’s Good Grace” by Kirstyn McDermott which read like a poorly-paced YA novel.) They had heart and spice and never failed to lose sight of the elements and themes of the fairy tales that they were inspired by.

But, looking back, most weren’t particularly memorable. Fun in the moment but no staying power. You see, to write this review, I had to remind myself what even happened in some of the earlier stories. Partly that is because there were so many of them that some crowded the others out. There are 30 stories in this collection after all.

Still, it is an enjoyable read just as fairy tales should be.

[Lizzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a strong collection of short stories. Each story was unique and interesting, and even the ones I didn't like very much were fascinating. Although there are definitely some happier and more whimsical tales in here, it is mostly comprised of very dark stories, several of which I would consider to be either gothic or straight-up horror. I was not surprised when I read the bio for the editor and saw that she had won the Bram Stoker award twice.

My chief critique of this collection is that the two longer tales featured here contained very graphic descriptions of sexual assault and abuse, and these were the only stories in the book to feature explicit sex. The fact that they were the longest stories (aside from the ending tale "Beauty") just seemed to twist the knife. I'm sure other more eloquent and intelligent people have written better words about this topic, but it continually frustrates me that sexual violence and abuse is often considered "high-brow" enough to make it into a collection like this (or into a film, or into any award-winning full-length novel), whereas erotica and romance are either absent or condemned as "lesser" literature. Another version of this issue is when a book contains graphic depictions of sexual violence, only for the author to then randomly gloss over scenes when their characters experience good sex with loving partners.

But other than that quibble, I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend it. Among my personal favorites were "In the House of Gingerbread" (horrifying and yet so fascinating), "Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn," "The Queen Who Could Not Walk," "Follow Me Light," and "Cloak of Stars." Surprisingly I felt give or take about "Beauty."

[M Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once, not that long ago, Paula Guran edited an anthology that I thought delightful. Your mileage may vary.

I am a fan of reimaginings, deconstructions, retellings and especially in fairy tales. I remember writing to David Sandner - horror/fantasy author and historian after Tanith Lee died... something like: Before Maguire retold the Wizard of OZ or wrote the Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, before DeLint reexamined Jack the Giant Killer, before Gaiman & McKinley, before Yolen's Briar Rose (a personal favorite of the genre), before Willingham's tour de force graphic novels, before Angela Carter's Company of Wolves screenplay, before Perlman was Beauty's Beast on TV, before Datlow compiled Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears, before Dean's Tam Lin... So, you can see - this collection is right up my alley.

Still, with this focus -Fairy Tales Retold - Guran could have compiled a book I merely appreciated. Instead, she does an exemplary job, the collection is a minor treasure. Of the thirty stories here, 90% were new to me, as were half the authors... and as earlier noted, I'm something of an aficionado. Which means that there is much for you here, dear reader. At least, I think it means that. I certainly did not hesitate before giving it the full five stars and recommend this wholeheartedly to any who enjoy a familiar tale with a new perspective.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was not what I had anticipated.
I was thinking "modern retellings" or "the fairy tales you know and love--but with a twist!". Most, however, weren't just Little Red Riding Hood remade with a romance with the wolf, or Cinderella but she's a cab driver. It was something entirely different. It was a series of intelligent, interesting, diverse, often thought-provoking stories that were often a joy to read. Some of them were of slightly lesser interest, but many were creative and engaging. I enjoyed The Coin of Heart's Desire, Mussel Eater, The Bone Mother, Lebkuchen, and many others. The author selection was great--I love Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Elizabeth Bear, Gene Wolf, and Gardner Dozois. There were authors I didn't know whom I enjoyed quite a bit, and it's definitely worth reading. It was super fun, and often very beautiful.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Find my full review of all the short stories in this collection on my blog

I love fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, so this collection was a must-read for me and it did not disappoint. There are some very sweet stories in there, some creepy twists on well known classics and some entirely different kinds of fairy tales. Each author adds his or her own unique twist to the fairy-tale genre.

I particularly enjoyed:

Halfway People by Karen Joy Fowler, about a girl who loves the sea and the strange man with a wing for an arm she finds one day
Beyond the Naked Eye by Rachel Swirsky, a retelling of the wizard of Oz, in which a rebellion is brewing and it uses a reality TV show to bring about the wizard's downfall
Good Hunting by Ken Liu, about a world losing its magic to the advancement of steam technology. Except magic will find a way

[Ashley T · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best anthologies I’ve read. The stories that were chosen are well balanced and all completely fascinating in different ways. I was sold based on the premise of the book and the bevy of great authors (Catherynne Valente, Kelly Link, Ken Lou, Neil Gaiman, and tons of others) but I ended up giving it 5 stars on editing alone. I’m definitely going to try other anthologies that Paula Guran has edited. I will say that this is most definitely a book for adults (solidly 16+ in my opinion), and it gets DARK dark. But if you want dark fairy tale retellings that are lyrical and far from the average retelling, then you will enjoy this read.

[Jewels · Rating 3 out of 5]

The selection of short stories was pretty good, even though there were some I could have done without. Writing style is paramount to my enjoyment of a novel, and I still can't be completely happy with rapid fire stream of consciousness offerings. There are authors though, such as Jane Yolen, Neil Gaiman, and Charles de Lint, that I will put up with a lot for, in order to get my mitts on any of their stories. This was the case when I first picked up this book. I saw their names, and I instantly had to have it. If I happen to find a new writer that I enjoy, that's just bonus.

[Carlos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection that is well curated and structured. Guran seems to prioritize playing with the themes of fairy tales rather than with their structure or language. This allows the reader to avoid drastic stylistic jumps between the stories and lets the retelling shine for their innovative use of the source material. While not every story was a hit out of the park, more than enough of them were, which helps keep the reader’s attention through the not insignificant length of the collection. Definitely worth the read and a great reference for discovering new authors to read.