Best: “Painted Love,” “The Three Lives of Lydia,” “Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea”
Worst: “The Sweeter the Juice”
EverythinBest: “Painted Love,” “The Three Lives of Lydia,” “Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea”
Worst: “The Sweeter the Juice”
Everything else was either fine, or insufficiently stand-alone for someone (me) who hasn’t read the tie-in series. (And there were so many tie-ins.) I checked it out for Seanan McGuire’s story though, which was great, so I’m not too disappointed. I find it interesting that the carnival was a positive or preferred place in only two of the stories, and in all the rest was sinister or corrupt in itself or the site of horrific events.
Warning for rape & CSA (implied and “on-screen”), self-harm, body horror, and some really bizarre and outdated trans stuff. ...more
Amazing concept; the knitting patterns are great, the stories are okay. Fairy tales with no faeries, despite the book title.
Also extremely straight. Amazing concept; the knitting patterns are great, the stories are okay. Fairy tales with no faeries, despite the book title.
Also extremely straight. Only two stories didn’t have a romance, and half of those that did had jarringly quick love-at-first-sight endings. Which is typical with fairy tales but these days I hope for more, you know?...more
Ooh, I wanted to like this more than I did. There’s a lot of world packed into a small story, which makes sense as the lead-in to a themed series. It Ooh, I wanted to like this more than I did. There’s a lot of world packed into a small story, which makes sense as the lead-in to a themed series. It could’ve used another editing pass; there were more than a few typos, but not so many as to be unreadable. Fans of modern mermaid stories or gritty female-led urban fantasy should definitely give it a try. ...more
This is a weird, dark, bitter book and if you are a weird, dark, bitter person you will probably like it. If you are not, prepare to have your Disney This is a weird, dark, bitter book and if you are a weird, dark, bitter person you will probably like it. If you are not, prepare to have your Disney childhood taken apart and put back together wrong way round. Even if you had a Grimmer childhood than that, things will not go quite as expected.
With a few of the stories, I felt like I was missing something, but the list of source material at the back helped clarify matters a bit. Although my favorite was probably the Cinderella story precisely because I had no idea what was going on but the mystery was so intriguing.
Warning for a lotttt of gaslighting and abuse among general creepiness and death. Like, sooo much. I was very uncomfortable. ...more
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