Modern fairy tales NOT for children.

Sent to turbostitcher on 31 May 2008. Send next to:

prollacct

The award-winning editors of Snow White, Blood Red return us to distinctly adult realms of myth and the fantastic - with 18 wondrous works that cloak the magical fictions we heard at grandma's knee in mantles of darkness and dread. From Roger Zelansky's delightful tale of Death's disobedient godson to Peter Straub's blood-chilling examination of a gargantuan Cinderella and her terrible twisted "art," here are stories strange and miraculous - remarkable modern storytelling that remold our most cherished childhood fables into things sexier, more sinister... and more appealing to grown-up tastes and sensibilities.

I received this book, along with three others, as a RABCK. Thanks very much!

Of these modernized myths, the final story, 'The Black Swan', was my favorite.

A PM has been sent to prollacct, to see if she would like to have this book next.

July 14, 2008--Ready to mail to prollacct in Pennsylvania!

Mailed to prollact in Pennsylvania. Happy reading!

Received today. Thanks!

This really wasn't anything like I expected. The stories were very hard for me to get into and I felt like I was spending too much time skipping over paragraphs that I didn't understand and making my own names for the characters that I couldn't pronounce. All in all, the book made me feel dumb. I did like the story by Roger Zelazny.

This book is now a ray. Typical rules apply, please journal upon receiving, reading and releasing, and if you'll have the book more than a few weeks, please let me know. Below is the order of participants, which may change due to shipping preferences. I will keep this ray open as long as there is interest.


Kalise-Austria and international
Jneni-Singapore
Bug2004-US
Maurean-US
Natgirl101-Canada

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Dropped off at the post office and included a RABCK.

Received the book here in Austria. Thank you so much! Looking forward to reading it ASAP!

I love fairy tale rewrites and have a pretty good collection myself. This book was ...let's say, original? definitely provocative and compelling, and yes, somewhat disturbing. Not necessarily "wickedly engagingly fun" like one critic writes. Some stories were great and memorable, others I thought were really boring and hey - just plain badly written! These I broke off mid-story, or just skipped altogether.

The ones I liked:
"Words like pale Stones" --weird!! But kind of in a good way. Made me think and want to re-read Rumplestilskin
"Stronger than time" --really liked this one! Original retelling.
"The Brown bear of Norway" - my favorite, maybe because the fairy tale is my favorite as well. I know it as "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and I think the retelling is superbly original & in beautiful prose. A bit weird, but I understand the bear's shedding of his skin to be a metaphor for growing up.
"The Goose Girl" --told from an interesting perspective, the king. Shannon Hale's _Goose Girl_ is a lot better, though.
Tattercoats -- not bad
Godson -- really enjoyed this one!
Silver & Gold - awesome, simply beautiful.
Black Swan -- wow, sad. But beautifully told.

Stories I didn't like so much:
"The Frog King or Iron Henry" -- HUH?! What the...? Can't make up my mind whether this is lazy storytelling, whether the writer simply copy-pasted parts of his story repeatedly or by accident or whether it's supposed to be that way, with some sort of deep, existential & philosophical message - that I'm simply not getting? LOL.
"Near Beauty" - skipped, don't like sci fi, anyway I didn't want to read yet another story on Sleeping beauty
"Can't catch me" - gingerbreadman's long, rambling internal monologue - yawn.
"Journeybread recipe" - disturbing.

The BEST part of the book is the reference section, though! The list's incomplete, though - some of the best books are missing.

I highly recommend:
Orson Scott Card, _Enchantment_ (Russian Baba Yaga retelling)
Shannon Hale, _The Goose Girl_ (same tale)
Juliet Marrillier _Daughter of the Forest_ (beautiful retelling of The Seven Swans, fantasy)
for some truly excellent fairy tale retellings (that will leave you with a good feeling) :-)

I already have jneni's address & will try to send the book on on Monday!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent on to jneni today! Enjoy!

Got this in the mail! :) Will read it once I finish my current book! :) Thank you so much!

Sorry for taking so long time to read this. I've had a couple of bookrings piling up and I got a bit distracted too.

It was fun reading this book and revisiting some of the 'fairytales'. I never knew that they can be re-interpreted in such different angles. Among all, here's some that I really like:

1. Words Like Pale Stone: A nice re-creation and an extension of Rumpelstiltskin. I have almost forgotten about this! I read this when I was very young. The way the mother got rid of Rumpelstiltskin was ingenious.

2. Stronger Than Time: A wonderful interpretation of Sleeping Beauty with a daring new character. I like the prince and Arven, especially the part where the prince was actually a ghost. The ending was sort of bittersweet - just nice.

3. Journeybread Recipe: Just fun and witty!

4. Tattercoats: One of its kind love-story!

Some I felt was just..mediocre? It felt like the story started out of nowhere and ended abruptly too.

1. Somnus's Fair Maid: This one started okay and ended okay too, but I just felt that it's somewhat mediocre in a sense that it doesn't have a climax. It didn't feel like a story. Instead, I felt like someone was just blandly recalling something.

2. Ogre: Hello? What is this about? A bunch of beings gathering together trying to put up a play. This is one of those that started and ended abruptly. I don't know what was going on half the time.

3. Granny Rumple: Well, I don't really dislike this one. It also started out okay, but I felt that it ended ... somewhat strangely. The idea of a woman with lots of wrinkles didn't sound bad, but I wished this can be elaborated further.

Thank you for including me for the ring! Took me awhile before I have time to journal my read (I even have to re-read some to be sure of what I am going to write! *grins*)

I will PM the next reader and I hope he/she wouldn't mind if this is a bit late.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sorry for being so late! This is finally going to Bug2004. I've PM-ed her earlier and as per our agreement, I will surface mail this to her because it's quite thick and costly. Thank you for including me!

Re'cvd today. Have a couple in front of it, but will get to it as quick as I can. Thanks for sharing!