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Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'
The Starlit Wood by Catherynne M. Valente, Margo Lanagan, Garth Nix, Karin Tidbeck, Sofia Samatar, Dominik Parisien, Stephen Graham Jones, Marjorie Liu, Navah Wolfe, Kat Howard, Genevieve Valentine, Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar, Daryl Gregory, Aliette de Bodard, Seanan McGuire, Charlie Jane Anders, Theodora Goss, Naomi Novik, Jeffrey Ford
1 review
manicpixl's review
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
4.0
This book was what I had hoped Beasts and Beauty would be.
Maybe it's not fair to compare the two, because one is an anthology and the other a short story collection by one author. But I have to mention it, because my personal experience and joy is kind of tied to it.
After reading Beasts and Beauty I thought "ok, maybe I only thought I like modernized fairy tales, and don't really like them" as well as "I guess it's official, I don't like short stories, if I can't like fairy tale retelling short stories".
But against all these odds I got The Starlit Wood a couple of days ago (mostly because I loved the title, I admit). And I was so, so happy that
a) the fairy tale retellings in this book do actually read modernized
b) they do have things to say that connect to our modern world
c) they subvert outdated tropes
all things I was painfully missing in Beasts and Beauty.
Additional bonus is, that all of the stories are so very different in approach and tone, and even in how far they stray from their source material.
As is to be expected with anthologies, not all of the stories spoke to me in the same way, but I enjoyed a lot of them (and, luckily, the ones that weren't for me came later in the book, so I was already full of endorphines :-D ).
Maybe it's not fair to compare the two, because one is an anthology and the other a short story collection by one author. But I have to mention it, because my personal experience and joy is kind of tied to it.
After reading Beasts and Beauty I thought "ok, maybe I only thought I like modernized fairy tales, and don't really like them" as well as "I guess it's official, I don't like short stories, if I can't like fairy tale retelling short stories".
But against all these odds I got The Starlit Wood a couple of days ago (mostly because I loved the title, I admit). And I was so, so happy that
a) the fairy tale retellings in this book do actually read modernized
b) they do have things to say that connect to our modern world
c) they subvert outdated tropes
all things I was painfully missing in Beasts and Beauty.
Additional bonus is, that all of the stories are so very different in approach and tone, and even in how far they stray from their source material.
As is to be expected with anthologies, not all of the stories spoke to me in the same way, but I enjoyed a lot of them (and, luckily, the ones that weren't for me came later in the book, so I was already full of endorphines :-D ).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Drug use
Moderate: Child abuse
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