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Tales the Devil Told Me
**2022 World Fantasy Award Finalist**
**2021 Foreword INDIES Silver medal for Short Stories**
**One of Largehearted Boy's Favorite Short Story Collections of 2021**
"A marvel of storytelling filled with delicious surprises." - Sharma Shields
What if Captain Hook gave up marauding and took a gig at the Post Office? How did Hamlet's uncle Claudius become such a rat? What might happen if a plastic surgeon fell for Medusa? If Moby Dick could write a letter, what would he say to Ahab? The answers to these and many other questions can be found in TALES THE DEVIL TOLD ME, winner of the 2020 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction.
These twelve stories examine the possible lives of such classic literary villains as Professor Moriarty, Shere Khan, Rumpelstiltskin, Polyphemus, Mrs. Danvers and others, while illuminating the consumptive nature of love, the crushing weight of isolation, the false promise of beauty, and the power of storytelling itself.
Praise for TALES THE DEVIL TOLD ME:
"With empathy and wit, Jen Fawkes explores the inner lives of reviled or marginalized characters—from Rumpelstiltskin’s desire to nurture a child to Medusa’s struggles with dating to the heartbreaking backstory of the witch who devoured Hansel and Gretel. In re-imagining characters displaced from their own stories, sabotaged by their own wild pasts, Fawkes offers welcome revisions to the familiar stories that have made and unmade us."
—Amy Bonnaffons, author of The Regrets
"What a clever, mercurial, metaphorical, topsy-turvy book of imaginings Tales the Devil Told Me is. By subverting our notions of notorious villains, Jen Fawkes has conjured a magic talking mirror whose words reveal our collective humanity and vulnerability. This is a marvel of storytelling filled with delicious surprises."
—Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra
"Nimble, wired, savvy, unpredictable, playful and poignant, the slant-tellings and narrative shortcircuitings that constitute Tales the Devil Told Me remind us with every story that literature is ever passionately intertextual, every piece a kind of thank-you letter to all the others that have informed, reformed, and deformed it."
—Lance Olsen, author of My Red Heaven
"Tales the Devil Told Me takes our most memorable literary villains hostage and unhinges everything you thought you knew about them. Humorous and heartbreaking, these tales will have you laughing, crying, and questioning the worlds of our literary classics."
--Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go in the Dark
"In Tales the Devil Told Me, Jen Fawkes plumbs the depths of fairy tales and literary classics with equal ease, extending storylines beyond the bounds of the originals or giving rich and complex voices to formerly minor characters. Whether she is inhabiting the stepson of a reformed Captain Hook or the dour housekeeper of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, she moves with such creativity, skill, and confidence that you leave the tale marked by the indelible version she has created, feeling that, at last, you know the real story."
—Anjali Sachdeva, author of All the Names They Used for God
**2021 Foreword INDIES Silver medal for Short Stories**
**One of Largehearted Boy's Favorite Short Story Collections of 2021**
"A marvel of storytelling filled with delicious surprises." - Sharma Shields
What if Captain Hook gave up marauding and took a gig at the Post Office? How did Hamlet's uncle Claudius become such a rat? What might happen if a plastic surgeon fell for Medusa? If Moby Dick could write a letter, what would he say to Ahab? The answers to these and many other questions can be found in TALES THE DEVIL TOLD ME, winner of the 2020 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction.
These twelve stories examine the possible lives of such classic literary villains as Professor Moriarty, Shere Khan, Rumpelstiltskin, Polyphemus, Mrs. Danvers and others, while illuminating the consumptive nature of love, the crushing weight of isolation, the false promise of beauty, and the power of storytelling itself.
Praise for TALES THE DEVIL TOLD ME:
"With empathy and wit, Jen Fawkes explores the inner lives of reviled or marginalized characters—from Rumpelstiltskin’s desire to nurture a child to Medusa’s struggles with dating to the heartbreaking backstory of the witch who devoured Hansel and Gretel. In re-imagining characters displaced from their own stories, sabotaged by their own wild pasts, Fawkes offers welcome revisions to the familiar stories that have made and unmade us."
—Amy Bonnaffons, author of The Regrets
"What a clever, mercurial, metaphorical, topsy-turvy book of imaginings Tales the Devil Told Me is. By subverting our notions of notorious villains, Jen Fawkes has conjured a magic talking mirror whose words reveal our collective humanity and vulnerability. This is a marvel of storytelling filled with delicious surprises."
—Sharma Shields, author of The Cassandra
"Nimble, wired, savvy, unpredictable, playful and poignant, the slant-tellings and narrative shortcircuitings that constitute Tales the Devil Told Me remind us with every story that literature is ever passionately intertextual, every piece a kind of thank-you letter to all the others that have informed, reformed, and deformed it."
—Lance Olsen, author of My Red Heaven
"Tales the Devil Told Me takes our most memorable literary villains hostage and unhinges everything you thought you knew about them. Humorous and heartbreaking, these tales will have you laughing, crying, and questioning the worlds of our literary classics."
--Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of How High We Go in the Dark
"In Tales the Devil Told Me, Jen Fawkes plumbs the depths of fairy tales and literary classics with equal ease, extending storylines beyond the bounds of the originals or giving rich and complex voices to formerly minor characters. Whether she is inhabiting the stepson of a reformed Captain Hook or the dour housekeeper of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, she moves with such creativity, skill, and confidence that you leave the tale marked by the indelible version she has created, feeling that, at last, you know the real story."
—Anjali Sachdeva, author of All the Names They Used for God
190 pages, Paperback
First published October 5, 2021
1 person is currently reading
254 people want to read
About the author
Jen Fawkes
4 books75 followersJen Fawkes is the author of MANNEQUIN AND WIFE (LSU Press), a 2020 Shirley Jackson Award Nominee, winner of the 2023 Phillip H. McMath Post-Publication Book Award, and Foreword INDIES gold medalist. Her collection TALES THE DEVIL TOLD ME (Press 53) was a Foreword INDIES silver medalist, one of Largehearted Boy’s Favorite Collections of 2021, and a finalist for the 2022 World Fantasy Award for Single-Author Story Collection.
Locus has called Jen’s work “witty and dark, extravagant and savage,” and according to Library Journal, she is “a writer to watch.” Her short fiction has won numerous awards, including the 2021 Porter Fund Literary Prize, and has appeared in One Story, Lit Hub, The Iowa Review, Crazyhorse, Best Small Fictions, and many others. A two-time finalist for the Calvino Prize for fabulist fiction, Jen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her debut novel, DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS, is coming in July 2024 from Abrams Books.
Locus has called Jen’s work “witty and dark, extravagant and savage,” and according to Library Journal, she is “a writer to watch.” Her short fiction has won numerous awards, including the 2021 Porter Fund Literary Prize, and has appeared in One Story, Lit Hub, The Iowa Review, Crazyhorse, Best Small Fictions, and many others. A two-time finalist for the Calvino Prize for fabulist fiction, Jen lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her debut novel, DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS, is coming in July 2024 from Abrams Books.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 3, 2021
This inventive story collection considers the full emotional and motivational scope of famous villains from literature and myth, often illuminating the personal histories and tragedies that may have engendered their villainy, or, with time, sparked a desire to turn over a new leaf. The result is a nuanced and emotionally engaging immersion in the at-times-fantastical, yet eerily plausible, worlds of the stories. For my review of the book, see https://smallpresspicks.com/tales-the....
June 13, 2022
Super fun re-telling of popular stories from the villain's perspective. Highly imaginative, superbly written, and witty.
October 7, 2021
This is a beautifully written collection, highly literary with exquisite humor. The stores reminded me at times of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and also Andrea Barrett's short stories (Ship Fever and others). Reading the author's unique take on minor and marginalized characters will make you want to go back and read or re-read the original texts on which they are based. Highly recommend.
December 20, 2021
The stories in TALES THE DEVIL TOLD ME reimagine well-known works of literature and myth - including HAMLET, REBECCA, and MOBY-DICK - from the POV of the villain. Once you've read these stories, you'll never see the originals in the same way again. Jen Fawkes's second book of stories is as intriguing and impressive as her first.
November 29, 2021
What a beautifully brutal, surprising, funny, and original collection! Can't recommend this enough.
April 5, 2022
A wildly inventive and entertaining collection of stories!
May 17, 2022
Loved the new take on older stories. Very well written.
March 22, 2022
Jen Fawkes is so inventive. In Tales the Devil Told Me, she reimagines fairytales, myths, and even Hamlet. Always entertaining, in this collection, Fawkes gives new life to age-old villains, often inviting them into contemporary times. I especially liked her retelling of Rumpstiltskin and Captain Hook. The latter stayed with me long after I finished the book. The unexpected turns in these tales delight.
December 4, 2021
It's easy to see why this won the Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. Twelve exquisitely skillful tales, perfectly written, focusing on villains you will recognize but probably haven't thought of in quite this way before. If you care about the short story, if you are a practitioner of the form, you can't afford not to read this book.
April 1, 2023
This was really great! I have a hard time giving short story collections 5 stars, but this one came close. There were some definite 5-star stories in here, including "As You Can Imagine, This Makes Dating Difficult" and "The Tragedie of Claudius, Prince of Denmark."
November 17, 2021
This book will make you rethink many of the tales you grew up reading. It will make you laugh and cringe and ache. It is beautifully written and biting.
December 5, 2022
1. "Tigers Don't Apologize"
2. "Demerol, Demerol, Benzedrine, Schnaps"
3. "Never, Never"
I probably would have appreciated these stories more if I were more familiar with the works that inspired them. I'm a poor student of classic literature.
2. "Demerol, Demerol, Benzedrine, Schnaps"
3. "Never, Never"
I probably would have appreciated these stories more if I were more familiar with the works that inspired them. I'm a poor student of classic literature.
October 9, 2023
Honestly I really didn't like it.
June 11, 2024
My favorite story was "The Tragedy of Claudius."
August 3, 2025
Brilliantly reimagined classics from a very talented writer. Highly recommend.
February 25, 2025
Beautifully written recontextualizations of older stories. Confident, lovely prose dances across the twists of tales. Classic villains become complex characters; Captain Hook and King Claudius become longing romantics. Snow White, The Arabian Nights, and The Jungle Book transmogrify into dreamlike mediations of masculinity, loneliness, jealousy, and parenthood. Not entirely consistent, some may be a little long, some a little short, but others are just right. Compared to the author's first collection Mannequin and Wife, I think this is more literarily ambitious. But I may have favored the dreamlike ambiguity of the former and this was a little more cut-and-dry.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews