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gailbird's review against another edition
4.0
I somewhat less-than-seriously picked this book up solely for the title, having just re-watched season four of the TV series Once Upon a Time. It has nothing to do with the show but I still imagined something along the lines of a fairytale. Unicorns came to mind. It was not until I had read the first section of the book that I realised what I was reading was a collection of short stories. It was certainly not what I was expecting nor was it what I wanted, having read quite a few collections of shorter works recently. But I kept reading complacently, feeling that if I hadn't stumbled onto a gem it was an entertaining pastime of a book. My opinion changed decidedly for the better the more stories I read. When the stories borrowed predictable forms such as mix-ups, mistaken identities, unforeseen occurrences, and fate, Davis executes them so well that you've forgiven him for the see-through cliches by the time he springs a last completely unexpected twist on you in the last few sentences. The style is engaging, the characters developed, and it is entertaining light reading done well.
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