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cj_jones's review
3.0
These are not the traditional Grimm or Andersen stories, and they're drawn from a lot of different places. There's no Ashputtel, no Baba Yaga. But the basic format of märchen still plays out--follow the rules or you face an extremely unpleasant end. And as I read, I remembered why I am so fond of the modern retellings of these stories. Women are allowed agency, and people who break with tradition are still accepted, if not encouraged. Oh, and in traditional stories, things just seem to arbitrarily happen. In Grimm, in earlier Arthuriana, things just seem to happen, for no particular reason. So every time I bumped into that, or sexist/racist events, it dug in under my skin. BUT. The fact that these were new stories, and from places besides Germany and the currently United Kingdom, made it an interesting enough read that I don't regret it.
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