Warts and All: A Fairy Tale Collection

by Melissa McShane

Beginner witch Chloe has a problem. There’s a frog in her tub who says he used to be a man. Worse, his memory is slipping away from him. Magic doesn’t work, so there’s only one way she can think of to turn him back—but can she bring herself to do it? And that’s only the beginning of her challenges… In these eleven short fairy tale retellings, including “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Frog Prince,” and “The Bremen Town Musicians,” follow the adventures of Chloe and her family as they fall into one fairy tale after another.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Humor, Fairy Tales, Young Adult

183 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 28, 2018

About the author

Melissa grew up a nomad, following her family all over the United States, and ended up living in the shadow of the Wasatch Mountains with her husband, four kids, and three very needy cats. Her love of reading was always a constant during those uncertain years, and her love of writing grew out of that. She wrote reviews and critical essays for many years before turning to fiction, and was surprised at how much she liked it. She loves the fantasy genre and how it stretches the imagination.

Reviews

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warts and All is a fun, light collection of eleven interrelated fantasy short stories, each with a different fairy tale as its inspiration. Some of the stories (like the title story) come closer to retellings than others, like "Picture Perfect," where the original Jack and the Beanstalk tale just provides a loose jumping-off point for a very different story about a young man pulled into a (strangely familiar) parallel world.

The unique thing about this particular set of fairy tale-inspired stories is that they're all connected, as different episodes in the life of Chloe Spurlock, a "kitchen witch" - she develops magical items for household use - and a couple of other characters that Chloe is close to. They're set over a period of time of about 30 years, beginning when Chloe is fifteen and newly awarded a magic wand and recognition as a witch.

In "Warts and All," the first story, Chloe and her best friend from an all-girl magic school, Stacey, are on a school assignment on the palace grounds. When Chloe gets home she finds a rapidly dehydrating frog hiding in her school backpack. Since the frog also talks, Chloe figures that some transformation spell is at work. But the frog isn't much help here ...

The second story, "Baby Steps," involves the old trick of saddling students in a child development class with a baby doll (or, in some variations of the object lesson, an egg) that they need to care for day and night for a few days. This being a magic world, the teacher has hired some five-inch-tall living people to act as the class's babies. They're cute and charming ... except for Chloe's "baby," Thumbelina, who seems determined to make life as difficult as possible for Chloe.

And so it goes, with stories ranging from "If the Shoe Fits" (a Cinderella-inspired story with a pair of magical gold dancing slippers), to "With a Little Help From My Friends," a delightful take-off of the "Bremen Town Musicians," where four lonely animals band together to make things happen (here, it's helping a young man propose to his girlfriend), to "Lost and Found," a poignant variation on "Puss in Boots." That one is a more meaningful tale than most here, dealing with shared losses and grief, as well as a cat who has some tricks and talents. Another favorite was the last one, "On the Hunt," a creative twist on "Little Red Riding Hood." It's a story of criminal intent mixed with a bit of romance.

Chloe is an appealing, down-to-earth heroine, and there's a good dose of creativity in these stories along with the familiar aspects from the fairy tales. Melissa McShane has added a brief introduction at the beginning of each story, with some interesting comments on the fairy tale tie-ins and some of her thoughts on the story. Overall this is a cute collection and a quick, charming read.

I received a free copy of this ebook from the author for review. Thank you!!

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

My non-standard disclaimer applies for this book as for any by Melissa. While I strive to be honest, I have no claim on unbiased. And it's not even that she'd be mad or that I'd be sleeping on the couch if I said I didn't like one of her books. It's just that so far I haven't had an opportunity to test that assertion out.

This is a collection of short stories, but with a through-line. I found it interesting, as Melissa was working on these, how she couldn't resist putting these supposed-to-be disconnected fairy-tale riffs into a timeline featuring consistent characters. So we have Chloe as the main character in most of them with some featuring other members of her family and they're all on a timeline that holds together as a whole. Personally, I love seeing Chloe grow and mature as we get snapshots of her love and family and work and life.

I'm not going to bother reviewing individual stories, though I'll admit that "With a Little Help From My Friends" is by far my favorite. Probably because that's where I developed a crush on Ethan. Such a great guy. I love how he rolls with the setbacks and is willing to engage whatever help he can to put something amazing together for Chloe.

And I'll leave it at that before I gush all over the place. I think the whole works as a wonderfully romantic story, though I'm not tagging this as a romance. A good portion of these left me a crying, emotional mess (happy tears) but that's hardly an achievement, I admit. At any rate, they're short and fun and I hope you find them as entertaining as I do.

A Little Inside Baseball: I really enjoyed picking up the release after it came out. While I had read most of these shortly after they were written, Melissa added notes at the beginning of each story and I loved getting her take on some of the decisions she made in writing each tale. Well worth taking the pains to get the official release, I think.

[Melissa McShane]

This collection of short stories had its genesis in a contest whose theme I can't now remember (it was twenty years ago) for which I wrote the Gingerbread Man retelling "Run, Run, As Fast As You Can." The story won the contest, but I wasn't actively writing fiction at the time, and when I came back to fiction about five years ago, I remembered that story and decided to see how it held up.

Only I couldn't find it. I had a memory of the binder I'd stored it in, along with a number of other early stories (all of which probably deserve to be burned), but the binder had disappeared. (To whatever good fairy stole it, I owe you a saucer of milk or whatever it is you give fairies in thanks.) Eventually I decided it was lost for good, probably wasn't as good as I remembered, and why not rewrite it? I kept the title and all the basic details of Chloe the kitchen witch; her familiar, the cat Arrowroot; her husband Ethan; and the ultimate fate of the Gingerbread Man. It was fun and quick to write.

As I was writing, it occurred to me that I might do some more short story fairy tale retellings, and why not have them all feature Chloe and her family? So I wrote the next one, "Bad Hair Day," riffing off "Rapunzel" (very loosely), and made a list of other fairy tales I liked that I thought I could fit into this idea. Then I set it aside and more or less forgot about it. I was in the middle of a dry spell and desperate to finish any of the three novels I was stuck on, and writing short fiction felt like a distraction.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2018, when I decided I was going to make an effort to learn to write short stories. I don't come up with ideas easily, so I was playing around with various plot generators and half-title experiments, and I remembered the list. I got it out and immediately remembered that I'd wanted to retell "Hansel and Gretel" from the perspective of the witch as a good guy. I finished "Cookies and Milk, Gristle and Fat" in a day (it's one of the shorter tales in the collection) and kept going from there, ending up with eleven short stories in the sequence.

I considered publishing the stories individually, but so many of them depend on earlier stories I decided it was better to just publish the whole collection at once. I really enjoyed writing them, and I hope people enjoy reading them. My favorite is probably "With a Little Help From My Friends," based on "The Bremen Town Musicians," which isn't nearly as well known as it should be, but I also love "Baby Steps," into which I put a couple of Easter eggs for fans of classic film. Sometimes I write solely to amuse myself.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun book (with a beautiful cover as a plus! 😍). I loved the idea of having fairytale retelling novellas but with the same main characters throughout, and my favorites were definitely the Little Red Riding Hood retelling and the Gingerbread Man one.

[Francesca Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent collection of fairy tale retellings, all of them engaging and fresh. I really liked the way that the same set of characters were used throughout the collection and that, if you read the whole collection in order, you can see the lives of those characters progress. The teen at the start of the collection is the parent of a teen at the end.

Some of them were genuinely scary at moments--never in an awful or heart-sickening way, though, for which I'm grateful--and there was a lot of humor, too. I have a hard time picking out a favorite. I have a soft spot for "Lost and Found"; I thought "Homewrecker" was hilarious and traumatizing; "Picture Perfect" had me on the edge of my seat, and "Cookies and Milk, Gristle and Fat" was terrifying in another way. "With a Little Help from My Friends" was all-around charming.

The collection was also perfect for when I wanted to read something short with the assurance that it would also be **good**.

[Jana Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this book. It's a combination of a group of short-stories all retold fairytales and a longer arc all at the same time. It's pretty brilliant and I wish I'd thought of it. :)

Chloe is a kitchen witch in an alternate Earth-like world. We meet her in the first story (The Frog Prince) when she is 15 years old. Over the next 11 tales we follow Chloe and her family as they are developing through relationships and family life and experiencing versions of familiar fairytales along the way.

My favorite - if I had to pick on - among these takes is probably the Bremen Town Musicians. This is a lesser know fairytale about a bunch of talented animals working together to accomplish something which I always loved. I adore the retelling as they work with Evan - Chloe's boyfriend - to create the perfect night. I like it not only for the animals, but for how earnest and hard working Evan is in his quest to pop the perfect question.

This is a collection which will appeal to readers both young and old and is appropriate in theme and content for any reader over about 14. Content-wise it'd be perfectly fine for younger readers but it has that kissing stuff they may not relate to. :)

[Kaitlyn Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Warts and All is another McShane masterpiece; very charming, clever and relatable collection of fairy tales turned upside down.
Each story is independently fun and complete, regardless of length. Together they create an engaging timeline of a bewitching family. The basis of the story is undeniably relatable. The reader gets to skip over the mundane aspects of life and see the most interesting, comical and memorable moments for the protagonist and overlapping characters. It felt much like reading the diary of Chloe, the kitchen witch, with familiar themes of classic fairy tales.
The short preface for each story was surprisingly one of my favorite parts. I wasn't familiar with all the fairy tales retold and I didn't need to know the original to enjoy the story. Each preface allowed me to get a glimpse of the original and build my anticipation to see how Chloe, or her family, fit into the story.
The author anecdotes in each preface added to the depth of my reading experience. I like to feel connected with the author, not just the characters, and this book allowed that in a way that most novels cannot. To a lover of movies and trivia, it's like watching a movie you love with director commentary; a behind the scenes view of the book! I found it very fun.
I cannot possibly pick a favorite chapter, so start at the beginning and read through. The greatest challenge the author took on was a retelling of Cinderella, which, as the author acknowledged in the chapter preface, is a common and repeatedly retold story. The Warts and All take was brilliant and stands out among all version of Cinderella. So clever, unique and completely unexpected, it is easily my new favorite version of Cinderella.
If I had to say anything critical, a few of the stories seemed rushed. That is probably my selfish desire for more, but please judge for yourself. Read this book!

[Lissa Hawley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't often read short stories, but this was a happy exception for a few reasons.
First, I am a huge Melissa McShane fan, her books, including this one, do not disappoint.

Second, the formar of this collection is such that while it consists of a series of fairytale retellings, the same group of characters continues throughout.
And finally, my favorite part was the brief introduction giving to each story, explaining the origin tale, the author's reasons for choosing it, and her thought process while writing it. I found this peek behind the curtain to be delightful and informative.

Recommended.

[katayoun Masoodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

fun retellings of fairy tales. though since they are all short stories, the characters are not that fleshed out and so it's fun but not as amazing as the authors other fantasies.

[Lisa Venerussi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so much fun! I loved the layout: a collection of short stories, complete with introductions to each explaining how they were inspired by the original fairy tale, that contained all the same characters, and therefore read like a novel. An easy read, and set in yet another of Melissa McShane’s inventive worlds, this book puts some of the best-loved fairy tales into a believable context, and shows us how the witch can be the “good guy”! I’d decide to read one of the stories during my lunch break and end up having trouble putting it down (...just one more...). I especially loved when they go through a portal into our world; a world out of fairy tales where magic doesn’t exist. Very cute, very well done, suitable for older children to adults, and a cast of characters I hope we get to meet again! I was lucky enough to receive an advance reader’s copy of this book, but the choice to review was mine and all opinions are my own.

[Shash · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun idea! I enjoyed watching the years pass for Chloe, Ethan and then Belinda through short fairytale snapshots of their lives. I liked Chloe from the very beginning, and Ethan is a dream. I liked seeing them at fifteen in the first story, and then with a daughter that was fifteen in Bad Hair Day (which was hilarious!). Many of the retellings were quite unique, and all of them were great!

I received a complimentary copy of the book, which I voluntarily reviewed. I have given my honest opinion.

[Chrisanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of re-worked fairy tales with varying levels of charm. The tales follow Chloé Spurlock from teenager to middle-age. Not a ton of world- building, but it isn't really necessary. Reading this reminded me how much I enjoy short stories (Vivian Vande Velde style) and several adaptations were wryly clever and included some nice nods to pop culture. I will also admit that I rolled my eyes at the beginning of the last chapter but ended up being pleasantly surprised. I may be a little jaded. 😅

The introductions by the author to each section were largely unnecessary, but that's just personal preference.

[Elaine · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I'm waiting for the next Company of Strangers book to come out, I decided to read more of author Melissa Mcshane's books, since I'm definitely hooked on her stories now. It's very rare for me to find an author I like this much who has so many books published already, and I'm eating them up.

This is a collection of fairy tale retellings, with everything from a new take on Cinderella to lesser-known stories, like The Bremen Town Musicians, which I'd never heard of prior to this book. Each story also has a brief introduction by the author, who gives us her thoughts on the original tale and the twists she made in her retelling.

One aspect of the collection that makes it unique (and that I absolutely loved) is that we follow the same central characters throughout every story, with the tales spanning several decades of their lives. Most of the stories are narrated by Chloe, a "kitchen witch" who is a teenager in the first story and has a college-aged daughter of her own by the last one. But two of the tales are narrated from the viewpoint of Chloe's husband Ethan and one stars her daughter Belinda as the main character.

I really liked that all of the stories were connected in this way, and I wish more short story collections did something similar. Plus, it was really fun to watch Chloe grow up throughout the tales and follow her relationship with Ethan from their initial meeting to their time as happily married parents.

Some of my favorite stories in the collection were the retelling of the Bremen Town Musicians, "With a Little Help From My Friends," in which some talking animals help Ethan plan a very special surprise for Chloe; "Picture Perfect," a loose retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk with a reverse portal fantasy - Ethan ends up stuck in our magic-less world instead of his own; "Lost and Found," a sad but sweet retelling of Puss in Boots as Chloe grieves the loss of her familiar and ends up helping a talking cat who is grieving as well; and "Cookies and Milk, Gristle and Fat," an amusing twist on the story of Hansel and Gretel with Chloe as a far less villainous witch than the one who tried to cook and eat children in the original tale.

My only wish as I finished the collection was that I would have liked the final story to end with the traditional "happily ever after" or at least something similar. But maybe the stories about Chloe and her family won't end here. I would happily read another volume with more retellings that continued to follow their lives.

A charming collection perfect for fans of fairy tales.

Disclaimer: I do know the author, if only through Goodreads, and while that is the reason I was aware of and decided to read this book, it has not influenced my rating. She did not contact me to ask me to read or review this book.

[Gypsy Madden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short novella (about 15-20 pages)

(Retelling of the Frog Prince). A young teenage witch on a fieldtrip to the palace is suddenly rushed off the grounds in a flurry of activity, only to find a talking frog in her backpack when she gets home. She decides that the frog is most likely the prince from the palace and sets about to cure him of being a frog.

It is a cute, frothy, teenage read. Me, personally, I thought it focused too much on giggling over cute boys and superficial looks. And it also spent a lot of time describing things, which really should be kept to a minimum in such a short story. It really didn’t explore much on the heroine being a teenage witch, which I thought would have really given her an interesting dimension. It did have a nice twist at the end, which made it a bit more believable for the story. It also had a lot of light humor, some fun sweet romance, and all the awkwardness expected with a human frog. And, yes, I’m a fan of fairy tale retellings.

[The Mysterious Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a good fairy tale retelling, and Melissa McShane’s Warts and All: A Fairy Tale Collection is a superb, and superbly fun, collection, of eleven of them. The author does this by fitting them into the life of her leading lady, Chloe, who starts off as a beginner witch and then lives her life as the stories progress. This is a great, and truly imaginative, way to handle this and it’s a real treat seeing Chloe, her boyfriend Ethan, her family and friends, her familiar Farnsworth, and untimely her daughter Belinda as they deal with and reinvent one classic tale after another. Its pure fun. But for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review my husband from my hospital bed I could go on and on with praises - the book definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that the book is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend.

[Maria Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a giveaway and then it sat for some time on my tbr pile. I finally had a chance to read it and wished I'd gotten to it earlier. I thought it quite clever.
It is a collection of novellas, each of which is a fairy tale retelling but all of them combined tell the story of Chloe, a witch. Each tale is a little snapshot of her life from her teens and the next 30 years. It was fun to see the each fairy tale retold in clever ways in a mystical world where witchcraft is not unusual. In some cases, the retelling made more sense than the original tale ever did. They had nice little twists and were fun to read.

Sex: a little innuendo
Language: a little
Violence: a little

[Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this. I loved the fairy tail retellings, the main character/family starring in all of them. I love seeing snapshots of her whole life. I love that it includes the Bremen Town Musicians, which I grew up reading and have never seen elsewhere. I love all the things!

I got a free copy of this book, but the gushing is all mine. ❤️

[Shruti · Rating 4 out of 5]

This makes up for nice fun short read. Good story. Liked it.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I casual reading of fairy tales and maybe what happens after!

[Shayne Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute adaptations

I really enjoyed the modern magical twists on well known fairytales. Lovely writing and fun characters that were easy to like and believe

[Erica Sebree · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a wonderfully creative retelling of classic fairy tales, following Chloe and her family through the years. It was funny and heartwarming and I secretly hope Melissa will write a book based on the final story "On the Hunt."