The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales

by Angela Slatter

Slatter, Angela

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

205 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2010

About the author

Angela Slatter is the author of the urban fantasy novels Vigil (2016) and Corpselight (2017), as well as eight short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and A Feast of Sorrows: Stories. She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, and six Aurealis Awards.

Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories.

She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth.

Her novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (from Tor.com), and Ripper (in the Stephen Jones anthology Horrorology, from Jo Fletcher Books) were released in October 2015.

The third novel in the Verity Fassbinder series, Restoration, will be released in 2018 by Jo Fletcher Books (Hachette International). She is represented by Ian Drury of the literary agency Sheil Land for her long fiction, by Lucy Fawcett of Sheil Land for film rights, and by Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Publishing Services for illustrated storybooks.

Reviews

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.



Just when it seemed classic fairy tales couldn't be any more disturbing, along comes Angela Slatter with a short story collection of fairy tales from around the world, re-imagined to be more gruesome, more carnal, and more seductively written than one ever fathomed.

Her hair is spun like golden sugar, her eyebrows so light they may as well not be there, her lashes so contrastingly black that they must be dyed, her skin pale pink, and her mouth a rosebud pout, filled with small pearly teeth. Around her neck curls a long string of beads, wrapped twice and still long enough to hang to her waist. The dress is diaphanous, shimmering yellow, damp in places with traces of her last client. She is nothing if not lush.

[Caro the Helmet Lady · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Girl with No Hands or Fairy Tales for Very Grown Up Girls, as I would call it - and I absolutely loved it. Retellings of well known fairy tales and also some original stuff by Angela Slatter was indeed dark and not much optimistic in a traditional "and they lived happily ever after" way, but I liked it this way. She's really inventive and you never know what to expect from her heroines, even if they are classical fairy tale characters, be it Russian or European ones. I enjoyed much how she played it all. I wonder how her take on the Greek myths would look like?

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angela Slatter gives us a book of faerie tales. Some are short, some are a bit longer. All are great. Some you may know Some are brand new. All are wonderful. Some are a re-telling. Some are original. All are awe inspiring.

Contents:

13 - Caressing With Razors By Jack Dann
23 - Bluebeard
35 - The Living Book
43 - The Jacaranda Wife
55 - Red Skein
65 - The Chrysanthemum Bride
77 - Frozen
85 - The Hummingbird Heart
93 - Words
101 - The Little Match Girl
107 - The Juniper Tree
119 - Skin
125 - The Bone Mother
139 - The Dead Ones Don’t Hurt You
151 - Light As Mist, Heavy As Hope
161 - Dresses, Three
179 - The Girl With No Hands
197 - Afterword by Angela Slatter

Cover Illustration by Lisa L. Hannet

[Karen Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been dipping in an out of this collection of short stories based on some well-known and not so well known folk and fairy-tales for a few weeks now. The reason for this is that I wanted to prolong my reading pleasure because, believe me, it would be too easy to sit down and read all of these in one sitting. Slatter is one of the most gifted writers I have read. Her ability to craft a tale using haunting, languid prose is, in my humble opinion, among the best. She lures you into tale and after tale, leading you, much like Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumbs, down dark and treacherous paths, that have unexpected and thrilling twists and turns. While the tales have what I will reluctantly call a feminist lean (reluctantly, because, unfortunately, the use of that term as an adjective can function to deter readers when, really, it should challenge and excite them), in that they give voice and presence to often silenced females in traditional tales, they also manage to cast a spell of binding beauty - the beauty of words - that means the stories dwell in your imagination long after you finish them. I have bought a number of copies of this book for my daughter and some friends, and they have thanked me profusely for adding such an exquisite collection to their libraries. I can only urge others to do the same. I think, no, I know that Slatter is a writer to watch. Reading her is the most wonderful of reading adventures.

[Rosemarie Short · Rating 5 out of 5]

Angela Slatter wowed me recently with Of Sorrow and Such - making me hungry for more of her brand of dark, fairytale like writing. Female characters are Slatter's specialty and she certainly shines in this, a collection of short stories; some fairytale retellings, others original fantasy - all presenting the reader with a great array of female (and a few male) protagonists, antagonists, as well those who sit in between.

My particular favourites were the anthologies titular tale, The Girl With No Hands, The Hummingbird Heart and the Jacaranda Wife. For such short tales each and every one presents the reader with a fully formed cast of characters and a world which sparks with magic. The genders are treated and represented with equal care and consideration, and even the foulest of villains is written in a way which is very far from the cardboard, black and white view presented in traditional tales of their kind.

A beautiful read, highly recommended.

[Marquise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having now read three anthologies by this author, I can see now where comparisons with the other Angela are coming from and can form my own opinion.

And I tend to mostly disagree, whilst still maintaining that the comparison isn't entirely undeserved. Because, whilst Miss Slatter lacks the exquisite sensuality and lulling prose of Angela Carter, what with her style being more workman-like, cruder, more crass and overtly sexual with little sophistication at times, the very opposite of Carter's polished eroticism, she does go for the same style to retell classic fairy tales. I suggest you look for the short story "Skein," which Slatter says was inspired by Carter's "In the Company of Wolves," to get my point as to why I'm not in agreement. The comparison is way too flattering for the product.

But Slatter is still young, a good number of her stories in these anthologies were made for college assignments and do show the rough edges and need for edition that beginners usually do, so who knows if in the future she'll be a polished diamond to shine on her own. She also tends to lack Carter's ability to rework tales with an agenda in mind without coming off as preachy, as it's easy to guess what idea she's trying to push on the reader, you can see why and for what reason she twisted some of the plots. Moreover, a few of the "retold" fairy tales remain just as they are in the originals by the Grimms, so much so that they're practically just the same Grimms' tales with extra fat in the form of dialogue, which begs the question: what exactly is the retelling here? Then there's that some other stories aren't done with the vaunted twisting it for feminism and anti-patriarchy intentions the somewhat presumptuous Foreword toots but rather because the author got inspired by strange news and the intro's just overthinking it.

For that and the other reasons listed, I've only liked a measly 3 stories in all her anthologies: two in the first ("The Jacaranda Wife" and "The Badger Bride") and one in the current collection ("The Chrysantemum Bride"), which doesn't show much for three collections with over a dozen retellings each.

[Marina Vidal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todos los relatos me han fascinado. Angela Slatter se va a mi lista de autoras favoritas. 💖🔝

Relectura: Me sigue pareciendo una colección de relatos cojonuda. Me encantaría dibujarlos.

[Izlinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a birthday gift from my sister. I started it Wednesday and finished it Thursday. It's a really quick read. If I didn't have work Thursday and needed sleep I would have probably finished it Wednesday.

Angela Slatter rewrote a lot of fairy tales or folk tales in this book and made them very visceral. The words she uses are unapologetic and sometimes crude, but in the context, the bluntness works. The characters' motives aren't prettied up and we can see how some of them try to justify their behavior. Redemption happens for some of them. The first story was a bit shocking because of the language (the 10 year old daughter cynically calling herself a "whore's daughter" or her mother a "whore" when her mother prefers the word "courtesan" and how a character believes "the only brains a girl needs are the soft, wet pink ones between her legs," but it wasn't upsetting. It really set the tone for the rest of the book.

I didn't dislike any short story or wonder what the point was, which is surprising. My better liked ones are "The Living Book" - holy crap so simple but astounding, "The Juniper Tree" - dark but fantastic, "The Bone Mother" - a different side to Baba Yaga which I found refreshing after seeing her character in Bill Willingham's Fables series, "The Chrysanthemum Bride " - a bit confusing but the conclusion was fitting, "Light As Mist, Heavy As Hope" - redemptive tale, "Dresses, Three" - quite sad and mournful but the steeliness I love and the title story "The Girl With No Hands" - the Devil wants a bride, perversely a girl who is good at heart (I like how they don't emphasize her purity and goodness as physical only). I was a little confused by the ending of "Frozen" but I don't have strong feelings about that.

As a warning it does mention sex, rape, wanting to rape, lust in practically every story. It's not graphic in a "here's a bunch of four letter words" graphic. Again, it's tone in a very matter-of-fact way which I didn't find offensive or triggering.

I would definitely recommend it to people who like to read fantasy stories, whether or not their preferences are fairy tale retellings, with a lot of unapologetic darkness. I haven't read a lot of Angela Carter but people who like her stories would probably like this collection.

[Martin Livings · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are those writers who you read and find yourself inspired by. And then there are the ones who make you wonder why you bother, as you'll never be as good as them.

The Girl With No Hands And Other Tales by Angela Slatter is a beautiful collection from Ticonderoga Books, both in presentation and content. Slatter's stories, many of which are retellings of traditional fairy tales, are deceptively simple, a bit like origami, fragile and exquisite, sometimes very dark, othertimes a ray of sunshine, but always fascinating. Being the horror fan I am, my favourite story was the previously-unpublished zombie romance "The Dead Ones Don't Hurt You", but there isn't a weak story in the entire book. Slatter's stories are like the "Dresses Three" in one of them - composed of feathers and butterfly wings and words, all magically spun together.

There are those writers who you read and find yourself inspired by. And then there are the ones who make you wonder why you bother, as you'll never be as good as them.

You can probably guess which one Angela Slatter is.

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Angela Slatter ever since I read her novella, Of Sorrow and Such, several years ago, and I think I may have read one or two other free short stories online somewhere.

This is a short collection of mostly retold fairy tales (she has an Afterword with story notes if you don't catch the retelling, thankfully--I'm very unfamiliar with anything beyond the most popular fairy tales), and I enjoyed nearly every one of them--but they are relatively dark and creepy.

[Luminea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this collection of dark fairytales. Some are retellings of well known tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Rumplestiltskin, while others are original stories.

All of the stories involve trauma and loss that might be triggering for some folks (but what fairytales don't?). In some of the tales we see the victim triumph, while in others we are left with plenty to think about. There are gruesome deeds, as well as healing, tenderness, empowerment, and beauty.

At the end of the book the author provides a background for each of the tales and what she wanted to explore when writing it. This enriched my understanding, and helped me to see the deeper themes and motifs that I missed on first read through of some of the stories.

[Rjurik Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Girl with No Hands & Other Tales
Angela Slatter
Ticonderoga Publications

Few writers have burst across the Speculative Fiction scene in Australia with as much fanfare as Angela Slatter. Six or so years ago, Slatter began publishing a series of stories that garnered her immediate attention. She seemed to emerge fully formed, a writer instantly at the peak of her powers, offering lyrical, ingenious stories that seemed like a collection of so many rich chocolates. This ‘sudden emergence’ was of course an illusion. For Slatter no doubt went through all the spurts and starts of growth before she began publishing, so that when she started to make her mark, it was as an already mature writer.

Interestingly – something I have noted in a review of Deb Biancotti’s collection A Book of Endings – Slatter could certainly have made her name in the so-called ‘literary’ world, for her stories are indeed literary in the best sense of the word, in that they show attention to the language itself. The deleterious effects of genre division here play out, for Slatter is better known internationally in the SF scene, but less well-known in the local literary scene. Her work is good enough to have been published in any of the local literary magazines, or any of the mainstream local publishers, but she has ultimately gone with the excellent Ticonderoga Publications, which for years has been producing noteworthy collections of Speculative Fiction.

The Girl with No Hands collects many of Slatter’s early fairytales, some of which were written as part of a postgraduate thesis. In these stories, Slatter’s emerging star status is immediately evident. Slatter rewrites well-known fairytales from a feminist perspective, adding (or depending how you view it, restoring) an edge to them that frequently shocks. What most takes the breath away here is Slatter’s control of character and style. The prose dances, sparkles, engrosses. The opening of the first story, a rewriting of the Bluebeard tale, is a good enough example:

Her breath smells like champagne, but not bitter as you might expect.

Something inside her turns it sweet, I’m not sure what. She’s a sugar-candy kind of girl, bright and crystalline as she reclines on the sofa – chaise-longue, more correctly. Her hair is spun like golden sugar, her eyebrows so light they may as well not be there, her lashes so contrastingly black that they must be dyed, her skin pale pink, and her mouth a rosebud pout, filled with small pearly teeth. Around her neck curls a long string of beads, wrapped twice and still long enough to hang to her waist. The dress is diaphanous, shimmering yellow, damp in places with traces of her last client. She is nothing if not lush, She catches me looking and smiles.

It’s all there in this paragraph: the smooth prose that feels so easy; the altered point-of-view that tells us that we’re reading a reconstruction of the original tale; the shock of that line, towards the end, about the dress ‘damp in places with traces of her last client’. This kind of shock is something of a specialty of Slatter’s. In her Red Riding Hood rewrite, ‘Red Skein’, the girl Mathilde sways through the story with an air of danger and sex, ultimately offering herself to the wolf in an unsettling sex scene. Like in all good fairytales, there is darkness and uncertainty here.

Feminist rewriting of fairytales is not, of course, original territory, having been explored decades ago most famously by Angela Carter, who Slatter herself references. Yet Slatter is talented enough to overcome the readers’ creeping sense of having read these stories before. She gives us twists and turns that take us far from the expected narrative beats.

The political task of the tales is clear: to invert and reconstruct a ready-made story in order to reveal its ideological presuppositions, the way it depends or reinforces gender and other prejudices and to assert other ones. Slatter shows us the strength of women and the deleterious effects (for all involved) of patriarchy.

Yet the results are uneven. For Slatter’s radical undermining of conservative narrative tropes still, in slippery ways, accepts their preconditions. To shift a story’s point-of-view is only one task of narrative reconstruction. To reconstruct the narrative so that the characters venture down new and different paths, another. But for the story to exist as a reconstruction, something must remain of the original, so that we might recognize it. In Slatter’s case, the characters themselves remain to be dealt with: ‘Bluebeard’, the ‘Devil’, the delightful and innocent ‘Jacaranda woman’. These characters are not free floating individuals, but themselves an ‘ensemble of social relations’, complete with their own suggestive content. The Devil, for example, must always retain his ‘evil’, and in this case rascal-ish essence, to remain the Devil. He comes complete with cultural baggage. As soon as you place him in a story, you cannot step out of the wider context in which we understand him. So too, for example, the Jacaranda woman is too much the naïf, prey to the dictates of her controlling husband, recalling all those dominated women of the past.

There’s yet another price to be paid. For the fairytale as a form always runs the risk of becoming twee. In the passage from the Bluebeard story, we witness that the character’s breath ‘smells like champagne’, and her ‘hair [is] spun like golden sugar’. The lines are redolent of sweetness, almost overbearing. In older versions of fair tales, the physical symbols – the ‘most beautiful woman in the world’, expressed by her long golden hair, etc – function as indications of the goodness or otherwise of characters. It’s a mode difficult to translate from tales for children into adult fiction; rather, it acts as a brake on the very attempt. Slatter manages to undermine this twee-ness with her technique of ‘shock’ (using sex, mostly, an adult concern par excellence), but the latter can never quite cancel out the former.

Still, in the context of these stories, these shortcomings seem nothing but minor quibbles. Slatter’s achievements in recent times have been well rewarded, and rightly so. Perhaps the most obvious comparison we could make would be with Margo Lanagan, whose brilliant short stories foreshadowed later success as a novelist. There is no certainty that a writer can make the transition between the two, but if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Angela Slatter. And even if she doesn’t make the leap, she is certain to continue as one of Australia’s best SF short story writers, and the equal of any writer going around.

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some myths become fairy tales with the passage of time. As a result, they become more sophisticated and dignified (even Disney-fied)— befitting changing social expectations. In the process they lose their raw power and female voice.
Authors have been trying to restore that raw power and female, non-conformist voice into the popular tales for a long time. Angela Carter and Tanith Lee's name is uttered with great respect in this regard.
Perhaps it would be appropriate to add Angela Slatter's name in the same bracket.
This astonishing collection of tales, each one brimming with violence and beauty, hatred and love, mundane and marvelous, contain enough evidence to support my claim.
Following the introductory piece from Jack Dann, appropriately titled "Caressing with Razors", we have sixteen stories here. Many of them are small works— barely touching the word-count envisaged for even short stories. But the impact they have is stunning.
My absolute favourites, worthy of repeat-reads, are~
1. The Living Book
2. Red Skein
3. Skin
4. The Dead Ones Don't Hurt You
5. The Girl With No Hands
Afterword is rich in describing the birth of these tales, while remaining nuanced enough to provoke the reader to hunt for own interpretations.
Highly recommended.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

What if there was a hot girl who was also magic? And men hated her so much that she died? If you want ten slightly different answers to these questions, this book is for you. For variety’s sake there’s a few stories where she kills the guy instead as well.

Entertaining though.

[Salimbol · Rating 4 out of 5]

[4 1/2 stars]
A very fine short story collection, primarily retelling fairy tales or using fairy tale fragments in interesting new contexts. They're delicate, quicksilver, and delightfully swift reads that nevertheless linger in the mind afterwards. The prose is clear and lucid; the tales themselves are often dark, erotic and violent (as is much of the source material, of course). There's a strong focus on the female side of things, these are re-imaginings that restore female agency, or at least provide a viewpoint that previous male storytellers and narrators haven't. I particularly enjoyed the stories 'The Living Book', 'The Bone Mother', 'The Little Match Girl' and 'Dresses Three', and I also loved the afterword, wherein the author discusses the genesis of each story. Highly recommended.

[Alexander Páez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enero 2020: Me ha gustado incluso más que la primera vez que lo leí.

Absolutamente fantástico. Ni un solo cuento que no me haya gustado o que me haya parecido flojo. De lectura obligada para los que os gusta la fantasía. Angela Slatter, enorme autora a descubrir.

[Stephanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have few words for how beautiful this collection is. Just go and read it. Slatter weaves magic with her words.

[Christine Bongers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four-and-a-half stars for this dark and haunting collection of feminist fairy stories. The very talented Ms Slatter makes her mark on this genre.

[Octavi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brutal. Unos relatos cojonudos y siempre sorprendentes.

[Miss Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rating: 3.5 stars

This book is a case study in why I need to ignore book reviews. Because one of the book blogs I follow gave it a rave review so I was super excited and expecting something that was The Orphan's Tales levels of good and that really was just setting myself up for disappointment. I wish I could remember who posted that review so I could make a mental note to take their recommendations with a grain of salt. :/ It's sad because I think I probably would've liked it alot more if I'd just picked it up at the library without any expectations. But whatever, let's talk about the actual book.

This is a collection of fairy tale retellings, mostly of European origin. My favourites from the collection were Words and The Bone Mother. Words I liked because it managed that feeling of the ordinary living side by side with magic that I've enjoyed in works like Joan Aiken's Armitage Stories. The Bone Mother I liked because it was one of the warmest stories in the collection in terms of telling a story about family love and kindness. Vasilisa should always be Baba Yaga's granddaughter! Universe, take note, this is an idea I would like to see more of.

The rest of the book was...okay? Let me give you an example. In Red Skein I really liked the idea of Red Riding Hood as a werewolf but at the same time I am so tired of Red Riding Hood retellings that have her being ~dangerously sexy~ and getting it on with the wolf. Dear Fairy Tale Writers, This is not actually original. Kindly find some new material. In general the stories had a problem with hewing a little too closely to the original fairytale. Like there were a couple of things I liked about The Girl With No Hands -- rehabilitating the relationship between the heroine and the prince's mother was one -- but otherwise it stuck so closely to the traditional story that I didn't really feel like I got anything new out of it. And this last one is a personal problem but I am so sick of this whole trend of fairytale retellings almost always being about ramping up the sexuality. Blah blah blah, fairytales were originally intended for adults and got censored for children, blah blah blah it is all sex and darkness we are so EDGY, blah blah blah I straight don't give a fudge. THIS IS NO LONGER ORIGINAL. I HAVE SEEN IT FIVE BILLION TIMES. LET'S MOVE ON. >( But like I said, it's a personal problem, and it probably wouldn't bother anyone who doesn't spend as much time reading fairy tale retellings as I do. I'm having difficulty deciding between a 3 or 3.5 star rating but I'm going to go ahead and give it the extra half star because it's not the book's fault I've spent so much time reading its genre that it feels old to me.

[Eleanor Toland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story collection that includes retold fairy tale, original fantasies and, for some reason, a zombie romance. Angela Slatter is clearly influenced by her namesake, Angela Carter, whose lush prose and feminist-deconstructionist approach to fairy tales and archetypes echoes through these stories. But Slatter's straightforward fairy-tale re-tellings often feel a little stale, and bring little that's new to the well-trodden path of the fractured fairy tale. Little Red Riding-hood as a sexy werewolf has been done before, and Baba Yaga as a gentle herb-witch just feels as wrong as turning a beautiful leopard into a fluffy kitten.

The characters are too often flat archetypes- the kind, witchy grandmother, the beautiful but doomed young mother and the curious daughter recur again and again. Men tend to be either a bit dim or outright evil, and stepmothers are always nasty. Interestingly, a lot of bowdlerised fairy-tales stay bowdlerised in Slatter's versions. The evil mothers that the Grimms changed to evil stepmothers are still stepmothers, The Girl With No Hands is pursued by the devil and not her brother.

While disappointed with the fairy-tales, I vastly preferred the original stories with hints of fairy-tale imagery. The whimsical "Words", creepy "The Chrysanthemum Bride", melancholy "The Hummingbird Heart", and the almost perfect "The Living Book" were all highlights, and felt far less like Angela Carter pastiche and more like something fresh and interesting.

[Doungjai · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've only discovered Angela Slatter's work recently; her short story "The Coffin-Maker's Daughter" was one of my favorites in A BOOK OF HORRORS (edited by Stephen Jones) and I knew immediately I had to seek out more of her work. And much like Brian Hodge - another standout contemporary dark fiction writer (whose story "Roots and All" also appears in the aforementioned anthology) - Slatter has yet to disappoint me.

THE GIRL WITH NO HANDS is made up of sixteen short stories, all told in the style of fairy tales. Some are well-known fairy tales with a dark twist (Red Skein and Words), while others are originals (The Living Book and Frozen). Slatter writes beautifully, and isn't one to mince words - several of the stories are very short, almost too short. But then again, to take the those stories and pad them with more details would ruin the fable-like quality they hold.

While none of the stories disappointed, there were a few I absolutely adored:
The Living Book
Red Skein
The Chrysanthemum Bride
The Hummingbird Heart
The Little Match Girl
Light As Mist, Heavy As Hope

Looking forward to tracking down more of Slatter's work.

[Maree Kimberley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Angela Slatter's writing. She is a beautiful, lyrical writer, and if I had to choose one word to describe her writing, it'd be "sumptuous". Although many of her stories are quite sad, even horrific, her writing has a richness that brings out the beauty in every story she writes.

This story collection features some work I was already familiar with alongside some new pieces. A personal favourite that I was glad to find in this collection is The Jacaranda Wife, a uniquely Australian horror story. I also loved The Hummingbird Heart, a tale of a mother's grief and longing, and the haunting Dresses Three. Each of Slatter's stories has the fairy-tale sensibility, however she has her own unique voice and style that lifts her tales above the ordinary.

If you're a lover of fairy-tales, beautiful writing and stories that take you to worlds beyond our own, you'll love The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales.

[Katharine (Ventureadlaxre) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Angela Slater’s ‘The Girl With No Hands’ we are given sixteen short stories (some less than two pages long) that re-image familiar myths and legends, and in turn, give us something new to think about. Most of these short stories are about women in different stages of their life, under different difficulties or blessings, and Slatter makes the reader care for each and every one of them, despite what she makes them do (and some of them really do some terrible things.) We see jealous stepmothers, brave little match-girls, sad mamas and caring zombie-wives, just to name a few.

Full review is found here: http://sentientonline.net/?p=2723

[Marianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book after Slatter was nominated (again) for an Aurealis award for one of her speculative short stories. I'm a big fan of fairy tales and being a writer, I enjoy reading short stories if only to better hone my craft. Of course, I loved this book!
The stories are a mixed bag of retelling and original works. My favourite is The Jacaranda Wife - a perfect blend of European sensibility in the Australian bush. The Chrysanthemum Bride is a bit of a stand out as well - if only for the twist at the end. I'm really curious to read her other anthology The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings

[Vanessa Jaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredibly imaginative and creative collection of stories. And I love the author's way with words and the way she approaches the tales from crazy/oblique angles/pov that it takes you awhile to make the connection to the standard more familiar tale that forms the base. Fractured/re-loaded fairy tales have always been amongst my fav type of stories, and this collection was more than satisfactory. I'm hard pressed to pick a favourite, but I'd say the very clever retelling of Little Red Riding Hood was it. My one nit pick was that the stories were too short.

[Paul Haines · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short short stories, excellently written with enough beauty and darkness to balance every page.

Although I enjoyed all of the stories, I felt that "The Dead Ones Don't Hurt You" didn't fit thematically with the wonderful fairy tale atmosphere of the rest of the collection, and that the retelling of Rumplestiltskin didn't deviate enough from the original.

But then I'm a hard bastard, and this is a great collection of fairy tales and most enjoyable.

[pauliree · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, it took me a while but I finally finished this. The format of short stories collections makes it easy to interrupt your reading as you find other things pop up on your reading calendar. I was entranced with some of these tales. They were dark, erotic, weird, disturbing. Everything you need in a fairy tale. I recommend this collection wholeheartedly and look forward to reading more from this author who has been winning awards all over the place.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong collection. My only criticism is that the stories feel somewhat homogenous. Perhaps this is because her chosen source material - fairy tales - is well known. There is no doubting Slatter's talent though. It's abundantly on display in this book. The challenge for her, I think, is to explore a wider range of genres and voices. Overall, a recommended collection.

[Tarja · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent collection of dark and haunting stories using folk and fairy tales as their basis. The focus is on the female characters in these stories as both victims and as active participants in their fate, whatever it ends to be. It's hard to stop reading in order to treasure each of the stories, but all of the tales in this slim volume are evocative and linger in the reader's mind.