Redder Than Blood

by Tanith Lee

You’ve rarely seen your favorite fairy tale characters quite like this.

In 1983, Tanith Lee captivated readers with Red as Blood, a collection of short stories featuring twisted and dark retellings of Grimms’ fairy tales. Earning a World Fantasy Award, plus a Nebula Award nomination for its titular story, Red as Blood uniquely challenged the fantasy genre.

And now Lee returns with a companion collection!

Redder Than Blood features three brand-new and sixteen previously published stories that irreverently reshape popular fairy tales, including Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, Swan Lake, Beauty and the Beast, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Snow White, and more.

Don’t miss this newest volume of stories encompassing twenty-five years of a master fantasist’s remarkable career.

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

320 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Tanith Lee was a British writer of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. She was the author of 77 novels, 14 collections, and almost 300 short stories. She also wrote four radio plays broadcast by the BBC and two scripts for the UK, science fiction, cult television series "Blake's 7."
Before becoming a full time writer, Lee worked as a file clerk, an assistant librarian, a shop assistant, and a waitress.

Her first short story, "Eustace," was published in 1968, and her first novel (for children) The Dragon Hoard was published in 1971.

Her career took off in 1975 with the acceptance by Daw Books USA of her adult fantasy epic The Birthgrave for publication as a mass-market paperback, and Lee has since maintained a prolific output in popular genre writing.

Lee twice won the World Fantasy Award: once in 1983 for best short fiction for “The Gorgon” and again in 1984 for best short fiction for “Elle Est Trois (La Mort).” She has been a Guest of Honour at numerous science fiction and fantasy conventions including the Boskone XVIII in Boston, USA in 1981, the 1984 World Fantasy Convention in Ottawa, Canada, and Orbital 2008 the British National Science Fiction convention (Eastercon) held in London, England in March 2008. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious title of Grand Master of Horror.

Lee was the daughter of two ballroom dancers, Bernard and Hylda Lee. Despite a persistent rumour, she was not the daughter of the actor Bernard Lee who played "M" in the James Bond series of films of the 1960s.

Tanith Lee married author and artist John Kaiine in 1992.

Reviews

[Karl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have enjoyed Tanith Lee’s (19 September 1947 – 24 May 2015) writing for many years now. She is greatly missed. With the latest release of the collection “Redder Than Blood” we are given three new stories, with the rest being culled from a variety of sources for a total of nineteen stories.

While Tanith Lee explored multiple genres such as Fantasy, Science Fiction , Horror, Erotic and Historical realms, the deconstruction and reconstruction of fairy tales was one of her staples.. This particular book being a call back to “Red as Blood or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer” , published in 1983, and was, if I recall correctly, also nominated for a World Fantasy Award.

Contents:

001 – “Redder Than Blood” 2017
035 – “Snow Drop” 1993 from ”Snow White, Blood Red”
053 – “Magpied” 2013 from Weird Tales Issue # 361
059 – “She Sleeps In A Tower” 1995 from “Armless Maiden”
064 – “Awake” 2003 from “Swan Sister”
074 – “Love In Waiting” 2017
075 – “The Reason For Not Going To The Ball” 1996 from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction
084 – “Midnight” 2004 from Weird Tales Issue #335
089 – “Empire Of Glass” 2011 from “The Immersion Book Of Steampunk”
093 – “Repunzel” 2000 from “Black Hair, Ivory Bones”
107 – “Open Your Window, Golden Hair”2013 from “Fearie Tales”
119 – “Kiss Kiss” 1999 from “Silver Hair, Blood Moons”
135 – “Into Gold” 1986 from Asimov’s Science Fiction
168 – “Blood Mantle” 1989 from “Forests Of The Night”
182 – “Wolfed” 1998 from “Sirens and Other Demon Lovers”
198 – “My Life As A Swan” 2008 from “A Book Of Wizards”
257 – “The Beast” 1995 from “Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears”
271 – “The Beast and Beauty” 2017
283 – “Below The Sun Beneath” 2013 from “Once Upon A Time”
311 Note
313 Acknowledgments

If you are a fan of Ms. Lee then this is a must have.

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you've never read Tanith Lee. Start with these reworked fairy tales and see why she was an award-winning storyteller.

Read the rest of the review at http://www.ismellsheep.com/2017/04/bo...

[Alysa H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two things. #1) Tanith Lee's reimagined fairy tales are excellent. #2) Tanith Lee's reimagined fairy tales are best taken in small doses.

Structured here by original source material -- retellings of Sleeping Beauty are grouped together, retellings of Rapunzel are grouped together, and so on -- these stories are every bit as dark, bloody, violent, and sexual as one imagines their earliest origins would have been before any Bowdlerization. Probably more so, as Lee certainly had a knack for turning subtext into text!

Due to the dark patterns in these stories, in particular rape and child abuse, I think they are best read a little at a time. Otherwise, they can get overwhelming, and can also start to run together a bit. Lee's prose is often sort of dreamy, though not especially purple. The style fits the content here.


** I received a Review Copy of this book via NetGalley **

[M.J. Ceruti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Llevaba años en mi pila de pendientes, y sin embargo me las arreglé para leerlo justo en el momento adecuado. Hace unas semanas, comentando con un amigo lo mucho que me había gustado este libro, mencioné la claridad y empatía con la que hablaba de la violencia contra las mujeres; sin sensacionalismo, pero sin escatimar el horror cotidiano de ella, con la honestidad cruel de alguien que la ha sufrido y ha vivido toda su vida bajo su amenaza silenciosa. No obstante evité mencionar, quizás porque aún me da vergüenza o porque aún no encuentro las palabras para ello, que también trata muchísimo del deseo y el placer femeninos. Que Redder Than Blood habla de cosas terribles, sí, pero también de cosas deliciosas, y lo hace desde la voz de las mujeres que pueblan sus cuentos retorcidos, mujeres que anhelan y que disfrutan y que VEN, en lugar de sólo ser miradas. Quizá para otra gente esto no sea nada impresionante. Para mí ha sido sanador. ¿Tengo críticas para esta colección? Desde luego, pero creo que hoy voy a guardármelas. Llegó cuando la necesitaba, eso me basta por ahora.

[Magali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tanith Lee figure parmi mes autrices favorites ! Dès le premier texte que j’ai lu d’elle, je suis tombée sous le charme de sa plume riche, qui convoque tous nos sens, et des ambiances de contes qu’elle insuffle dans ses histoires. Il n’est donc pas étonnant, avec un tel style, qu’elle ait régulièrement revisité des contes de fées, que ce soit au format long ou court !

J’avais déjà été enchantée par un premier recueil de nouvelles reprenant uniquement des contes – Red as Blood, que je suis en train de relire et qui sera l’objet de ma prochaine chronique. Lorsqu’un nouveau recueil est sorti sur le même thème, en 2017, j’ai donc été ravie !

Avant de me lancer dans un retour nouvelle après nouvelle, quelques mots généraux sur ce recueil. Je ne vous en livre pas la quatrième de couverture, qui s’ouvre en annonçant une revisite vampirique de Blanche-Neige, absente du recueil – mais présente au sommaire de Red as Blood. Les nouvelles sont regroupées par conte revisité, ce qui permet de voir les différentes variations de Tanith Lee autour d’un même conte – mais le revers, c’est que pour certains, cela fini par faire redite. Il est à noter également que ce recueil n’est pas à mettre entre toutes les mains : comme les tons sombres et écarlates de la couverture le laissent présager, l’autrice aborde en effet des thèmes durs, tels que les abus sexuels ou l’inceste. Ces thèmes ne sont pas étonnants en eux-mêmes – Tanith Lee ne fait que révéler au grand jour les horreurs tapies entre les lignes de certaines contes (tout du moins leur version originelle), mais mieux vaut en être averti au préalable !

Quelques coquilles sont venues gâcher ma lecture, notamment dans les premiers textes, mais elles restent peu nombreuses. À présent, découvrons les nouvelles une à une ! 🙂

Redder Than Blood ouvre le recueil auquel il donne son titre, et avec quelle magnificence ! Dans cette revisite toute métaphorique de Blanche-Neige, nous découvrons l’histoire légendaire d’une femme aussi belle que spirituelle, qui s’émancipe de sa famille dépravée. Un beau récit, bien que ses liens avec le conte d’origine soient un peu lâches (hormis la fameuse énigme autour du rouge !). Cette énigme – qu’est-ce qui est plus rouge que le sang ? – est à la fois la clé de la liberté de Cremisia et la source d’une réflexion philosophique intéressante.

Snow Drop est un texte que j’avais déjà lu ailleurs, qui revisite Blanche-Neige dans un contexte légèrement futuriste. Cristena est obsédée par les peintures de la précédente épouse, décédée, de son mari, peintures qui reflètent l’enfant que cette première épouse n’a jamais pu avoir. Mais quand elle découvre la publicité d’un cirque où l’une des artistes ressemble trait pour trait à cette adolescente fantasmée, Cristena perd toute notion de contenance comme de rationalité. J’avais déjà lu ce texte dans une anthologie rassemblant des revisites de contes de fées. Elle reste toute aussi perturbante lors de cette nouvelle lecture !

Magpied reprend le conte du Joueur de flûte de Hamelin. Un talentueux musicien est appelé à l’aide par une ville qui, la nuit, vit dans la terreur de ses jeunes, qui s’adonnent au vin, au vol et au crime. Un texte court et grinçant, sur l’abandon parental face à des jeunes difficiles, dont le dénouement vaut le détour.

She Sleeps in a Tower revisite La Belle au Bois Dormant en en exhumant la version originelle – point de baiser romantique ici. Nous découvrons une mère qui prostitue ses filles, après avoir elle-même été victime d’abus sexuels. Un texte coup de poing, mais qui ne fait que rappeler que la version originelle du conte comporte un viol.

Awake arrive en contrepoint bienvenue au texte précédent ! Il revisite le même conte, mais cette fois, point de viol ni d’abus. Roisa, chaque nuit depuis cent ans, s’éveille. Treize fées l’emportent alors avec elle, lui faisant visiter un monde figé dans le temps et découvrir mille merveilles. Tanith Lee imagine ici que Roisa, toute endormie qu’elle est, bénéficie en fait de la fameuse malédiction – qui n’en est pas une. Sauf que… les fées avaient un but, en agissant ainsi. Et Roisa devra faire un choix. Fera-t-elle le bon ? Qu’aurions-nous choisi, à sa place ? Difficile de répondre à cette question !

Love in Waiting est le texte le plus court du recueil : une demi-page seulement ! De fait, je me contenterai de dire qu’il s’agit de la troisième revisite de La Belle au Bois Dormant, car impossible d’en dire davantage sans spoiler. Si la chute et originale, je ne comprends pas ce qu’un texte aussi court fait là – on croirait lire le pitch d’une nouvelle, pas un texte abouti ! Comme il s’agit d’un des trois textes inédits, et qu’il est paru plusieurs années après le décès de l’autrice, je soupçonne qu’il s’agisse d’un fonds de tiroir. J’ai du mal à croire que Tanith Lee aurait considéré un tel texte comme achevé.

The Reason for Not Going to the Ball (A Letter to Cinderella from her Step-Mother) nous conte, sous forme de lettre, la version de la belle-mère de Cendrillon quant à ses actes. Des actes qui nous apparaissent sous un jour différent, alors qu’elle lève le voile sur certains dangers dont elle a cherché à préserver Cendrillon. Un texte sombre, encore, où les personnages féminins subissent les abus des hommes de leur entourage, mais qui a le mérite de donner la parole à l’antagoniste de l’histoire – et qui donne, pour une fois, le mauvais rôle à la marraine.

Midnight revisite aussi le même conte mais là encore, comme pour la Belle au Bois Dormant, de façon lumineuse. Que se passerait-il si Cendrillon décidait de rester au bal après les douze coups de minuit et la disparition de ses beaux atours ? Ce texte vous apporte la réponse 🙂

Empire of Glass est la troisième revisite de Cendrillon. Situé dans un contexte mi-fantasy mi-steampunk, il est centré autour du prince, qui cherche une épouse non pas au seul regard de sa beauté, mais en prenant en compte aussi la situation politique de son pays par rapport aux autres. Une histoire que j’ai trouvé sympathique à lire, même si, parmi les trois revisites de Cendrillon, j’ai préféré Midnight.

Rapunzel est la première revisite de Raiponce. Un très beau texte que j’ai beaucoup aimé, où une simple histoire d’amour devient un récit légendaire. Le texte offre aussi une réflexion sur le besoin d’histoires, mais aussi son excès et ses conséquences.

Open Your Window, Golden Hair reprend lui aussi Raiponce, mais de façon horrifique. Un homme en voyage est attiré par une tour d’où pend une belle chevelure soyeuse et dorée. À l’auberge où il passe la nuit, on le met en garde contre cette tour, mais il choisit de s’approcher tout de même. Une revisite aussi originale qu’elle glace le sang !

Kiss, Kiss reprend le conte Le prince grenouille. Une fillette perd dans la mare sa balle dorée, cadeau somptueux de son père. Terrifiée à l’idée de la correction qu’elle risque de recevoir, elle accepte à contrecoeur le pacte proposé par une grenouille, qui lui ramène l’objet. Progressivement, l’animal devient son seul ami. Jusqu’au jour où la fillette, devenue jeune femme, doit épouser un homme contre son gré… et la grenouille lui explique, alors, que si elle l’embrasse, il redeviendra prince. Ce conte possède un dénouement surprenant, et aussi grinçant que d’autres nouvelles précédentes. Là, encore, Tanith Lee fait mouche en épinglant certains comportements masculins.

Into Gold est l’un de mes textes préférés du recueil ! Dans cette revisite de Rumplestiltskin (le Nain Tracassin en français – mais la première fois que j’ai entendu cette histoire, petite, dans une cassette audio vendue avec Astrapi, il s’appelait Rumplestiltskin – Tanith Lee nous entraîne dans une histoire d’où la magie exsude de chaque page, et où la frontière est floue entre l’ennemi et l’allié. Une très belle nouvelle, à la fin douce-amère, qui présente tout ce que j’aime chez cette autrice : plume sensuelle, univers aussi chamarré que magique, inspiration forte et détournement malin du conte, personnages aux motifs complexes.

Bloodmantle fait aussi partie de mes favoris. Cette reprise du Petit Chaperon Rouge se mêle à la légende du loup-garou et aux secrets de famille, dans une ambiance onirique et hypnotique teintée de sauvagerie.

Wolfed figure parmi mes déceptions du recueil, avec Love in Waiting. Récit d’un gigolo nommé Wolfgang embauché par une jeune femme pour sa grand-mère, quarantenaire, c’est certes un très bon récit érotique, mais le conte paraît plaqué artificiellement dessus, et je trouve qu’il détonne par rapport aux autres textes.

My Life as a Swan figure parmi mes préférés et contrebalance donc la déception précédente. Revisite du Lac des Cygnes, il offre une version où la vie d’Otila en tant que change-forme lui permet de goûter à une liberté et une puissance sauvage que sa vie ordinaire, très pauvre et à l’écart de tout comme de tous, ne lui permettait même pas d’espérer. Un texte doux-amer, encore une fois – Tanith Lee n’est pas une adepte des happy end, à quelques exceptions près, en tout cas pas dans ce recueil ! – et superbe.

The Beast renoue avec l’ambiance horrifique. Dans cette revisite de La Belle et la Bête, le coup de foudre entre Isobel et Vessavion paraît présager un véritable conte de fée (dans le sens métaphorique), mais on se doute, au titre, que quelque chose de peu ragoûtant se dissimule derrière les chatoiements de cette parfaite histoire d’amour… et avec raison. Glaçant, là aussi.

Dans The Beast and Beauty, Tanith Lee inverse les rôles : nous avons affaire ici au Beau et à la Bête (mais de façon métaphorique). Une approche originale, mais qui m’a laissé un goût d’inachevé. Il m’a manqué quelque chose pour pleinement apprécier cette histoire.

Enfin, Below the Sun Beneath clôt en beauté ce recueil ! C’est d’ailleurs un de mes préférés aussi ! 🙂 Il reprend le conte Le bal des douze princesses (connu aussi sous le titre Les Souliers usés à la danse) de fort belle façon. Comme dans Into Gold, le texte est rédigé d’une plume riche, un régal pour les yeux comme l’esprit, et met en scène des personnages fascinants, évoluant dans des paysages magiques que l’on se plaît à découvrir. Yannis, le héros de cette histoire, est l’un des rares personnages masculins du recueil à offrir un comportement respectueux, et la fin, ah, la fin, je la trouve encore meilleure, même, que celle du conte d’origine ! Il y souffle un vrai vent de liberté et de respect mutuel que j’ai adoré !

Pour résumer, si j’ai trouvé ce recueil plus inégal que Red as Blood (qui lui, était sans faute), il contient tout de même plusieurs pépites et de nombreuses nouvelles de qualité. Je vous le recommande donc si vous aimez les contes revisités, dans des ambiances sombres, voire très sombres !

Cette lecture s’inscrit dans le cadre du Challenge Winter short stories of SFFF organisé par Au pays des cave trolls

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review originally appeared on my blog, Books Without Any Pictures: http://bookswithoutanypictures.com/20...

Redder Than Blood is an anthology of short stories by Tanith Lee. The stories in the collection are interpretations and variations of familiar fairy tales. They have a grimdark tone that’s reminiscent of the originals, but they take some of the subtext and make it the actual text. These stories have the dark and sensual atmosphere that Tanith Lee excels at, but are also grim and messed up. They are a delight to read, and make you think about old stories in new ways.

I’ve been savoring this collection slowly over the course of a year or so, reading a story here and a story there as suited my mood. I think that’s become my preferred way of reading short stories, because switching from story to story too quickly tends to break my immersion. The only drawback is that now, by the time that I finish the book and am writing out my thoughts and impressions, the stories that I read at the beginning of the book aren’t as fresh in my memory. So instead of a detailed review, I’m going to share some brief thoughts on a few of the stories that stood out to me the most:

The Reason for Not Going to the Ball is a retelling of Cinderella. In this version, the evil stepmother is the true hero of the story, and is trying to break the cycle of sexual abuse. Her treatment of Cinderella was an attempt to protect her, and to save her from her own fate. For the stepmother knows all too well that not all princes are kind and gentle.

In Wolfed, the story of Red Riding Hood and her Nana begins with a hookup at a bar. But in this version, it is the Wolf that is truly the prey, and Red Riding Hood and Nana are delighted by him.

My Life as a Swan was sad yet chillingly beautiful. It is the story of a woman who briefly escapes her life circumstances to live free as a swan, but then must return to her old life, while always missing that swan part of her that she can never feel again. And as much as it’s a story about a woman who becomes a swan, it is also a story about aging, and about time’s impact on us, and how our life experiences shape us so that we can never be the same people we were in our youth. This story was absolutely gorgeous.

Below the Sun Beneath is a feminist retelling of the twelve dancing princesses. The protagonist of the story is a soldier named Yannis who has lost a leg in the war. He meets an old witch in the woods, who tells him about the princesses and the king’s challenge to find where they go on the nights of the full moon. But unlike in the original version, it isn’t about Yannis in the end, and it’s the princesses who emerge as the victors.

[Regina · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a disgrace full of misogyny, racism, transphobia, rape, pedophilia and incest. I'm actually stunned how insensitive it is. Not even the writing could captivate me. And yes, authors are allowed to cover "dark" themes, but why has every short story here to be like that? Why are mothers and daughters always hating one another, why do mothers have to die the moment their give birth for no reason? Why is there such a lack of women living on their own, sucessfully, why do the fates of women have to lead only to rape and abuse, be it in prostitution or abusive marriages as if women having "normal" jobs don't exist? Why is there such a focus on beauty and white skin, that in one story, the unknown narrator can talk endlessly about how a woman's ugliness makes her a fraud and a bad person?
Also it's just disgusting how Lee takes south-/eastern european culture and shows its people as savage and brutal, as if she only needed them to make her stories more visceral, as if south-/eastern europeans are actually uncivilised but she can get away with it because they're still white enough? *headdesk*

[Linda Heggs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wrote a review but can’t seem to see it anywhere so I will try a new one.,
Between the incest, pedophilia, and victim accepted rape themes I have quit reading. Theses themes carry throughout all the stories I read in one way or another. The shock value was predictable and overused. At times it added nothing to the storyline.
I got to pg106 as I was trying to give the book a fair chance but it’s just not for me.
A few stories were repeated, although written differently from one another, and it was annoying.
The writing itself was great but that didn’t save it for me.

[Bridget · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dark and brooding. Well-written, but not my kind of fairy tales.

[Marquise · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. The collection has the standard weirdness for Tanith Lee, and is good overall. I found her two B&B retellings interesting.

[Ivan Lanìa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Qualche anno fa ho scoperto Tanith Lee attraverso la sua opera prima, la trilogia della Strega Bianca che si apre con The Birthgrave, ed ero rimasto stregato dalle sue trame dense, dalle atmosfere classicheggianti un po' mesopotamiche, e dai suoi protagonisti titanici; era solo questione di tempo prima che tornassi a trovarla e ho scelto, per simmetria, la sua opera ultima Redder Than Blood (completato poco prima di morire e pubblicato postumo). In più, già che c'ero, ne ho fatto una lettura condivisa con una cara amica e abbiamo commentato man mano ciascun racconto, con grandissima soddisfazione reciproca (assolutamente esperienza da rifare).
Orbene, questo volume raccoglie diciannove racconti che vanno a rivisitare fiabe tradizionali europee, organizzati tematicamente in base alla rispettiva "fonte", e apro con una buona notizia: io non sopporto le fiabe rivisitate che ripercorrono paro paro la trama tradizionale con variazioni minime e superficiali tipo "trasliamola nel mondo moderno" o "invertiamo protagonista e antagonista" (sì sto guardando te, Once Upon a Time della ABC), e fortunatamente i racconti di Lee sono tutti rivisitazioni serie: sono storie originali che riprendono dal folklore personaggi, temi o situazioni ma sviluppano intrecci propri, risultando così in delle vere "fiabe d'autore".

Ciò detto, partiamo dal negativo: circa un terzo dei racconti non mi ha convinto del tutto, poiché Lee ha riproposto più volte delle scelte di tono e struttura che sinceramente non sono il mio: da un lato brani come l'eponimo "Redder Than Blood", "Blood-Mantle" oppure "The Beast and the Beauty" presentano una trama relativamente scarna e concentrano il loro succo in una riflessione etica-filosofica finale, che però mi è saputa in tutti i casi di pretestuoso e contorto; dall'altro lato "Snow-Drop", "She Sleeps in a Tower" e, soprattutto, My Life as a Swan spingono fin troppo l'acceleratore sul truculento e sul morboso per creare un'atmosfera di malsanità, orrore e tribolazione – procedimento che non condanno in sé, ma che secondo me, in questi casi, rasenta la pornografia della violenza e in My Life as a Swan va pure a rovinare una splendida sezione centrale di lirismo bucolico. Poi vabeh, "Open Your Window, Golden Hair" vira direttamente sull'orrore lovecraftiano, cioè una tradizione che a me non piace più da anni...
Spostiamoci sul positivo: i rimanenti due terzi circa della raccolta sono di buona qualità e vanno dall'intrattenente al meritevole, con alcune punte di genio; in particolare ho adorato la Biancaneve dieselpunk in Ruritania (e ha senso!), il Tremotino mescolato con i misteri di Demetra in contesto di Tarda Antichità (e ha senso!), la Bella Addormentata con "banale" inversione di buoni e cattivi (che però funziona come un orologio svizzero), il più bel racconto erotico a tema Cappuccetto Rosso che mai incontrerete (Regola 34 compresa) – e una versione di Raperonzolo come idillio bucolico, che mi ha fatto letteralmente lacrimare gli occhi.

Tutto sommato la raccolta poteva benissimo essere un 3,5/5, ma ho dovuto decurtare mezzo punto siccome la casa editrice DAW Books ha deciso di fare una Gollancz-ata e ha messo in vendita un volume strapieno di refusi ortografici. Male male!

[Elisabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories. Various takes on various fairytales, some quite spicy.

[Kathy Kattenburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tanith Lee re-imagines 11 classic Grimm's fairytales, and the results are wonderful. Lee's creative vision and her powers of imagination are formidable.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Redder than Blood is a collection of short stories that are retellings of fairy tales. From Snow White to Cinderella to Beauty and the Beast and more, the tales in Redder than Blood are often dark and always with a twist. Most of the stories are sci-fi or fantasy, but there are a few that could be considered general fiction, horror, or straight up fairy tale.

The quality of the writing is good. The stories themselves are well written. Many of them have been published before. I can't say I liked each and every story, but I liked more of them than I disliked. There were a few that felt overly long, like the retelling of Swan Lake. My favorite is the last one in the book, a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. There was one story that is ostensibly a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but has elements of Bluebeard in it as well. There is a note at the end that pairs the stories with the original they are derived from.

Some of the stories would be trigger inducing for some people because they have issues in them such as child abuse. Remember though the original tales these are drawn from often had the dark and violent as well. They were not Disney stories. There weren't always happy endings and what happened along the way wasn't always pleasant. That pretty much sums up the stories in this collection.

I give it 4 stars out of 5. The writing is good quality and there is a good variety to the tales. I didn't like all of them, but I liked enough of them to give the anthology a healthy thumbs up.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Mirhanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tanith Lee is a marvelous storyteller. Some of these stories are very good. Others kind of meh, but overall worth reading.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this. Mainly just not my taste. There were a couple of stories I really liked, a couple I loathed, and most I was just indifferent too, but definitely more negative than positive overall. Also, SO. MANY. COMMAS. I was not a fan of the writing style. There are commas every.where. There are so many dependent clauses that the sentences become difficult to follow (I almost didn't keep reading because the first story was so difficult to read). And I know this isn't the author's fault, but the "hook" story summaries on the back cover don't actually exist in the book itself. Unless they're referring to the first book? I kept waiting for the "vampiric Snow White whose pious stepmother is her only salvation" or the "supernatural Cinderella who strikes at midnight, leaving behind a prince mad with desire" and I never got them. Very strange.

[Darryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley an honest review.

Wonderful collection of new and past short story "fairy tales" by Tanith Lee. I was really pleased to see that one of my all time favorite stories "Beast" was included with this anthology. My only complaint is I would have liked a short summary before each story.

A great testimonial to dark and surreal short stories written as only Tanith Lee can. She will be sorely missed.

[Joshua Hair · Rating 5 out of 5]

In typical fashion, Tanith Lee has offered up some deliciously devastating fairy tales in this second collection (the first being Red as Blood). I didn't read a single story I didn't enjoy to some degree. Sure, some are obviously better than others and most are reprints, but that doesn't detract from the fact that this is a stellar collection for fans of Miss Lee or twisted fairy tales, of which I belong to both categories.

[Wendopolis · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Tanith Lee excels at rewriting those fairy tales we hold dear and turning them dark and original. While not quite as good as her collection "Red as Blood, Tales from the Sisters Grimmer", these stories showcase Lee's signature sensual writing style and her underappreciated grasp of the writing craft.

[Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another gothic, atmospheric series of tales from the late mistress of fantasy Tanith Lee. A collection of stories that should remind us that life isn't sugar-coated and not everyone gets a fairy-tale ending. A perfect addition for every Tanith Lee fan.

[etherealfire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Library Kindle e-book

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finally checked this book out again from my library, probably sometime in August or even late in July of 2019, to reread the first few stories and then continue on and finish this book. I'll now (in October 2019) finally review the rest of the stories, something I'll probably wish I had done as I was reading this book, but ah well...

Redder Than Blood, Read 09/09/2017, Reread 09/26/2019.
This story, a Snow White retelling, didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, but I enjoyed it. The main character, Edmund Sanger, was called "Edmondo" in Italy. Edmondo is my best friend's name, so that might be why I enjoyed this story even though I found it confusing. :-)

Snow-Drop, Read 09/09/2017, Reread 09/26/2019.
This story was really good and super creepy. My only complaint is that the ending seemed abrupt. Cristena killed Snow-Drop, and buried her in the garden. But when her husband returned home with guests and a special lamp that would bring spring to their winter garden, Snow-Drop's body was revealed. The story ended when the men turned to look at Cristena with questions.. :-/

Also, I really need to read the original Snow White fairy tale, as I haven't understood how either of these first two stories were retellings of it.

But I did enjoy the sci-fi aspects to this story. Their house was itself a character! :-)

Magpied, Read 09/10/2017, Reread 09/26/2019.
This story was ostensibly a retelling of the Pied Piper tale, only I'm not familiar enough with the Pied Piper tale to tell if this story differed. But in this story, the Piper was asked to remove troublesome children from the town. :-/

She Sleeps in a Tower, Read 09/10/2017, Reread 09/27/2019.
This retelling of Sleeping Beauty was very disturbing. I don't think I've ever read a non-disturbing retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but pedophilia? This story took it in a truly icky direction. So I'd give it four stars for being very good, but I did NOT "really enjoy it." :-/

Awake, Read 09/10/2017, Reread 09/27/2019.
I enjoyed this Sleeping Beauty retelling. It was much easier on my heart. In this one, Roisa (Sleeping Beauty) was 16, and her parents' palace fell victim to a curse of sleep for 100 years, but Roisa awoke each night and spent every night of the 100 years with the Fae. I was glad that nothing objectionable happened in this story. It was just the follow-up to that last story that I needed. :-)

Love in Waiting, Read 09/10/2017, Reread 09/27/2019.
This Sleeping Beauty retelling was not even half a page long, but it managed to be a complete story despite its brevity, and even had a sad ending. The princess met her prince, they fell in love, and were set to be married following her 16th birthday. But a curse ensured that starting on her 16th birthday, she would sleep for 100 years. Her prince was 18.

Her prince lived a long time, though, so he was there that day, 100 years later. But he was aged, and after kissing his still-16 princess awake, they had time for one short exchange, and then he died at her feet. So. . .sad.

But it was a good story!

The Reason for Not Going to the Ball, Read 09/10/2017, Reread 09/27/2019.
This was a retelling of the Cinderella tale, which is another that I've never read, in the form of "A Letter to Cinderella from her Step-Mother". But I have seen Disney's version of Cinderella, and this story/letter seemed to be a twisting of that version. Twisted because Cinderella's father and the prince were both abusers. The stepmother did what she did in hopes of protecting Cinderella.

I just wish we had been able to see what happened next. Did Cinderella read the whole letter? Did she successfully escape her abusive marriage?? But this story was just a letter to Cinderella from her stepmother. So, sadly, when the stepmother closed her letter, the story ended. :-/

Midnight, Read 09/10/2017, Reread 09/27/2019.
This Cinderella retelling yet again seemed like the Disney version, only this one gave us what might have happened if Cinderella had NOT fled when the clock struck midnight. I was very afraid that the prince would not react well to seeing Cinderella - she was named Elvira in this retelling - to seeing Elvira transformed back into her ashy, raggedy state. But instead, we were gifted a happy ending! The prince showed that he knew Elvira and that her outward appearance didn't matter. :-)

I was so happy that this story ended well that apparently I forgot to come online to share that I finished it, and then I went to sleep. :-) So I reviewed this one on September 11th.

Empire of Glass, Read 10/09/2017, Reread 09/28/2019.
This story was told from the POV of the Prince. I didn't much like "Cindy," but the Prince seemed okay, if a bit arrogant and very greedy.

Rapunzel, Read 10/09/2017, Reread 09/28/2019.
This story seemed to be a retelling of both the original story of "Rapunzel" (which I've actually read!), and the Disney version. And Rapunzel's tower in this story was just an invention in a story her prince told to his father. :-)

Open Your Window, Golden Hair, Read 10/09/2017, Reread 09/28/2019.
This story is frankly one I wish I could forget reading. It was another Rapunzel story and the thing in the tower... Well... I haven't forgotten it, but if you want to know what it was, read it for yourself.

Kiss, Kiss, Read 10/09/2017, Reread 09/29/2019.
This story is a retelling of The Frog Prince. I think it told the story pretty much as it happened, and continued on a bit? But the prince just wasn't a nice man. :-/

Into Gold, Read 09/29/2019.
This Rumpelstiltskin story was rather long and disturbing. In it, a corn king has a daughter who can spin anything into gold. Our narrator's leader marries her and they have a son. But the daughter eventually does a rite that involves the son and our narrator saves him. The story didn't exactly end satisfyingly, but it was okay.

Blood-Mantle, Read 09/29/2010.
This was a rather disturbing version of Little Red Riding Hood. It features a girl, a "wolf," and a grandmother, and that's really all I want to say about it.

Wolfed, Read 09/29/2019.
And this was a rather erotic version of Little Red Riding Hood. It too features a girl, a boy named Wolf who looks nice dressed as a woman, and a Granny. :-)

My Life as a Swan, Read 09/29-30/2019.
This retelling of Swan Lake was rather long and I found it to be kinda boring. Oh, things happened in it. A woman received the ability to turn into a swan, she found and raised some baby swans, she was captured and rescued and lived, not exactly happy ever after. :-/

The Beast, Read 09/30/2019.
This retelling of Beauty and the Beast was ... I don't know how to describe it, but Isobel was a Beauty and Vessavion did turn out to be a Beast.

The Beast and Beauty, Read 09/30/2019.
In this retelling of Beauty and the Beast, I think the man was the Beauty, and he fell in love with and married a Beast, who killed him after five years of marriage, for whatever reason. I don't think I understood the ending, the reasons, but I suppose that doesn't matter very much.

Below the Sun Beneath, Read 09/30/2019.
This story retold The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It featured a man named Yannis who found out the secret thanks to a few secrets he learned from an old woman in the woods. Eleven of the 12 girls were not very nice, but the youngest, Evira, she was smart and kind and also the old woman in the woods!! I liked this story, as it had a happy ending. :-)

In sum, I liked this book but it wasn't the best set of retellings I've ever read. And apart from saying I'll give it four stars, I can't think of anything else to say about this anthology. :-/

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairytale retellings by Tanith Lee saved my soul, so it's needless to say I dug into this as if my life depended on it. As with any short story collection, my reactions to the content varied from "I have seen the face of god" to "Men In Black please come and neuralyze me", so I'm going to review each of these separately:

★★★☆☆ Redder Than Blood (Snow White) - This previously unpublished story started out so strong (Romantic scholar researches noble Renaissance poet Snow White haunting the ruins of her ancestral Italian home, um yes please), and displayed a few similarities to one of her other works, White as Snow, but ended in a psychedelic mess.

★☆☆☆☆ Snow-Drop (Snow White) - I hate to say it, but this was one of the worst short stories I ever read, and it only proves that I have an aversion against contemporary/slightly futuristic, frigid settings.

★★☆☆☆ Magpied (Pied Piper) - Interesting, because partly written in rhyme and using very peculiar expressions, but unfortunately also one of the shorter stories, and therefore unlikely to arrest one's attention.

★★★☆☆ She Sleeps in a Tower (Sleeping Beauty) - This version obviously falls back to the sexual components of the fairytale. How could I ever have forgotten how much of a central theme rape is in Tanith Lee narratives? Never underestimate her ability to disturb her readership.

★★★☆☆ Awake (Sleeping Beauty) - The Princess awakes from her slumber every night and goes on enchanted travels with her fairy companions while the world around her remains frozen. Unexpectedly cute? If you liked Maleficent, this one's for you.

★★★★☆ Love in Waiting (Sleeping Beauty) - Only half a page long (hence the -1 star), yet following the saddest concept one could come up with. Half a page more and I would have cried.

★★★★☆ The Reason For Not Going to The Ball (Cinderella) - Written as a letter from the "evil" stepmother to the now royally married Cinderella to explain, yes, the magnanimous reasons for not wanting her to attend the fateful ball. At times inconclusive, I admit, but to hell with logic.

★★☆☆☆ Midnight (Cinderella) - In which the protagonist fails to leave the dancefloor in time and is turned back into Aschenputtel right in front of the prince's eyes. I mean... it was okay, but somehow uninspired.

★★★☆☆ Empire of Glass (Cinderella) - I was sold the moment I realized this retelling is set in a semi-fictional Balkan country on the cusp of WWI! And the prince is probably a mustached asshole!

★★★★★ Rapunzel - Oh god, this was by far my favourite reimagining among the collection, because it a) included enough of the original elements to make it recognizable as such, b) had, if not the most creative twist by the standards of 2018, a great central deviation from the fairytale as well as c) for once likeable protagonists, and besides d) presents us with a rarity in Lee's works, namely cute and innocent romance, can you believe it.

★★★★☆ Open Your Window, Golden Hair (Rapunzel) - Straightup horror. Think of Lovecraft's eldritch monsters waiting in a tower.

★★★★★ Kiss, Kiss (The Frog Prince) - Did you know that this particular tale is very dear to me? My theory is that there are so few attempts at retelling it because frogs are harder to convincingly fall in love with than, say, broody beasts, but the friendship developing here is gut-wrenchingly cute and the feminist impact - as so often in this book - very central to the plot. The story goes beyond the fairytale wedding and also examines what happens after the frog is exchanged for a prince. Looks like I love hurting myself with realistic takes on "happy ends".

★★★★★ Into Gold (Rumpelstiltskin) - Woah woah woah, Lee outdid herself with the worldbuilding in this one, because the setting's pretty much post-Fall of the Roman Empire fortress in the woods, with Byzantine and Oriental influences. The gold-spinning daughter is a powerful enchantress who, among other things, is versed in the Egyptian art of necromancy, and instead of a gnome-ish creature is involved with a full-blown demon. So cool!

★★☆☆☆ Blood-Mantle (Little Red Riding Hood) - Have you seen The Company of Wolves, the movie based on Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber? That's what this short story felt like, but not as aesthetically pleasing.

★☆☆☆☆ Wolfed (Little Red Riding Hood) - Probably the weirdest published erotica I have ever laid eyes on, and that's saying something. Be warned, this is full-frontal nsfw, and involves a completely human guy called Wolf who goes down on both the young grandma and the overly sexualized girl the original story was named for. After all these years of being her fan, I'm still amazed at the broad range of sex-related metaphors Lee came up with.

★★★★★ My Life as a Swan (Swan Lake) - The longest and as a matter of course most fledged-out story of the anthology, it subverts the original and does so in detail. The difference is that the pleasure-induced ability to change into a swan is seen as a power the heroine enjoys and misses. Sad, weird, and potentially triggering.

★★☆☆☆ The Beast (Beauty and the Beast) - Do you wanna hear the big reveal? The "Beast" is a rich serial killer. Not very creative.

★★☆☆☆ The Beast and Beauty (Beauty and the Beast) - Another rather weak example of the most retold fairytale ever, wherein a handsome painter marries an unattractive wallflower, much to the displeasure of gossiping society. And again, none of the significant themes from B&tB that mean so much to me.

★★★★☆ Below the Sun Beneath (The Twelve Dancing Princesses) - Following Grimm's pattern very faithfully, though I had been hoping for a bit more sexy underworld magic. Or maybe vampires.

According to mathematics, that would result in an average rating of 3 stars, which sounds fair, although my top retellings are far removed from a three-star rating. Ultimately, I liked the anthology a lot, even the weirder parts of it. Which reminds me, for a while I thought that Redder Than Blood is simply a reissue of Red as Blood, or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer, but it seems that I was mistaken and can now look forward to another collection full of undiscovered gimdark treasures. Now I only have to find a copy...!

[Bailey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Well... I really liked the structure of these retellings (i.e. Sleeping Beauties together, etc.). Perhaps my reading style has changed. And before it went off the rails, "Snow Drop" had some interesting elements (before THAT AWFUL MOMENT happened, you kind of felt like the step-mother was just some pretty thing that lived in her husband's house; the way Lee describes the one sided physical pleasure in the marital bed, the ring he bought that was gorgeous but way too small weirdly humanized her for a time). Maybe I'm biased because Red as Blood was just soo good (I know nothing will top Angela Carter's "TCOW" for RRH retellings... but Lee's "Wolfland" deserves at least the short film treatment). This collection wasn't for me. It attempted to build on a theme (which is kind of a "my bad" in terms of reading anthologies from one specific author; no variation on theme) of... nefarious things happening to people... and every time I was like "oh, I don't have to like that story; the next one will be different.". Yeah... it just kept happening.

Spare me the "you just don't understand the nuances of the dark thematic elements." 🙄. Please. I can dissect the darkness of fairy tales till the cows come home. And purple prose? You know, the sentences so flowery in structure they come fashioned in bouquets? Not only have I analyzed it academically, but I'm pretty sure I just wrote one for you. I'll admit, the buzzwords pulled me in, what with the "vampiric Snow White". But that turned out to be symbolic at best. I wanted more Gothic, less "shock me with your commentary on the complex/bordering on frightening nature that is girlhood ". I've seen Ginger Snaps and Jennifer's Body enough times to know that. Off to a good home, I suppose.

[Bookgasms Book Blog · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tannith Lee is like an irresistible dessert. Rich, filling, and at times overwhelming. Yet I'm powerless to stop. Her words have a certain thickness to them, you don't just read them, they envelope you in their way. She doesn't tell a story, she paints it, adding in little hints of shadow and highlight, pulling your attention to the important details without being obvious about it. So often those important details aren't even the main focus of the art.

Every time I read one of her stories, I am pulled under by waves. Waves of emotion, of passion. I have yet to find a story teller that rivals this one. Even the stories I didn't care for as much were told in such a way that I was glued to the pages.

This is one of my all time favorite authors, and while I know that her style won't be for everyone, I firmly believe that this is one of those classics that shouldn't be overlooked.
~ George 5 Stars

[Ella · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, delightfully creepy collection of fairy tale retellings. Not all of them were a hit for me (the Swan Lake one felt gratuitously miserable even as a retelling of a story I think cries out for horror retellings), but I was inordinately fond of both the Snow White retellings, the subtly Arthurian late antiquity riff on Rumpelstiltskin, “The Reason for Not Going to the Ball”, both the Rapunzel retellings, and the Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling (which captured all the reasons I’ve been obsessed with that story since I was like six). 10/10 would recommend to other devotees of fucky feminist fairy tale decadence. It’s like if Angela Carter met some of the more disturbing classic pulp fantasies and I love it.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written but a sometimes difficult read. Lee's fairy tale retellings are pretty dark, and often, quite erotic. And, not incidentally, often focused on women's experiences of sexualized violence. This might make this collection exactly the thing you're looking for, however. Lee's take on popular fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, Snow White and Cinderella will definitely stay with you. She is a writer who should be remembered and I hope that more of her quite substantial ouevre will be reprinted. If you're new to her work, I'd suggest starting off with one of her novels, but once her pride captures you, this is definitely a collection to add to the reading list.

[Christoph Weber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a - minor - dislike for retellings of old stories, no matter what twist is added. Why did I pick up this book?

I read the first story, it wasn't clunky but it also did not captivate me in any way.

Also, of course, it's won an award. Why? Well, Tanith Lee manages to squeeze woke crap into the story. Which does nothing to help the story, make it more interesting or anything. It's just a bit of hamfisted woke crap added on for the virtue-signalling elite.

[Glenn Neiman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the stories were better than others, as one finds in most collections. This book may be of more interest to others, since I do not enjoy her writing style. The excessively flowery prose just feels like a person writing more to impress a former English professor than to entertain the reader. Though I finished the book, it was more of a slog than a pleasure.

[Edward Amato · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has been years since I have read anything by this author. This is a collection of short stories that gives an adult rendition to a lot of the childhood fables I grew up with. Very dark Goth, clever and naughty.