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Reviews tagging 'Drug 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
trixiez's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
An intriguing collection of fairytale retellings, twisted and re-imagined for a modern audience. As with all anthologies, there were some standout pieces and some that I didn't care for quite as much, but I think that they came together well in a cohesive collection inviting the reader to return to the fairytales they have grown up with (or, perhaps, have never heard of) and reconsider what these tales are allowed to be.
My thoughts on the individual stories:
♦ In The Desert Like A Bone by Seanan McGuire → 4 stars
A retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in a Western landscape where Little Red is no longer a passive victim. Themes of agency and justice, as well as lovely imagery throughout. Easily my favorite Seanan McGuire short story that I've read.
♦ Underground by Karin Tidbeck → 3 stars
East of the Sun, West of the Moon retelling. Interesting premise where a young woman is imprisoned by a man whose face is hidden from her, though she doesn't know why. The writing in this was fine, but the ending fell a little flat for me in the way the protagonist found justice and (attempted to) reclaim her agency.
♦ Even the Crumbs Were Delicious by Daryl Gregory → 4 stars
I've never read anything by this author, but this was a wonderful introduction! Gregory's retelling of Hansel and Gretel is funny and imaginative, building around a premise where the witch's house is built from designer drugs instead of candy. There's also a nice undertone of found family, which I appreciated.
♦ The Super Ultra Duchess of Fedora Forest by Charlie Jane Anders → 3.5 stars
This story is strange, but my understanding is that the source material is equally as weird. I enjoyed the premise of animals and objects gaining cognizance and building a society in a post-human world. Not entirely my thing, but worth the read!
♦ Familiars by Genevieve Valentine → 4 stars
This one reads more like an analysis than a short story, but I liked it all the same. The language was lovely to follow, and I didn't mind the jumps between the two different threads framing the author's argument. This one focuses around the fear of having children and the societal pressures that challenge women's agency on this topic. A darker tone here, but a valuable story.
♦ Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar → 5 stars
Easily among my top three favorites from the anthology! El-Mohtar blends two stories together seamlessly here, creating a new tale that subverts classic fairytale tropes and gives agency to the female characters to determine their own paths in their stories. Very satisfying, and I loved the attention to fine details with the numbers (sevens and ones) that surfaced throughout!
♦ Badgirl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune by Cathrynne M. Valente → 3 stars
Really nice writing in this retelling of The Girl With No Hands. Offers a look into the life of a young girl as she faces the implications of having a drug-addicted father. A nice story, but not really my thing.
♦ A Penny for a Match, Mister? by Garth Nix → 4.5 stars
So many Westerns popping up in this anthology! I loved this spin on The Little Match Girl, and thought that the inclusion of the supernatural (if you can call vengeful spirits that) to be well-done and intriguing. The match-girl's fate is a bit different this time around, but you'll have to read to see what happens...
♦ Some Wait by Stephen Graham Jones → 3.5 stars
Ominous and spine-chilling. I wasn't expecting a horror retelling of the Pied Piper, and was unnerved at how well the story fit into this mold. Told in the collective first person "we," this tale recounts a town whose children are disappearing under mysterious circumstances. The parents grow worried. Secrets are revealed. A computer screen blinks in the background...
♦ The Thousand Eyes by Jeffrey Ford → 4 stars
Ford has been hit and miss with me in the past, but I really like the take on this tale. The setting stood out to me the most, and I loved the imagery of the strange, ramshackle old bar. It's sort of horror and sort of not...maybe more of a suspenseful story as the main character, a painter, must deal with the consequences of his actions after taking a forbidden photo of "The Voice of Death."
♦ Giants in the Sky by Max Gladstone → 3 stars
I'm not really sure if I fully understood what happened in this one, but I enjoyed the formatting and the snark throughout. Jack and the Beanstalk, but if the beanstalk was a ladder to space.
♦ The Briar and the Rose by Marjorie Liu → 5 stars
My favorite story in the anthology. Retells Sleeping Beauty through the eyes of a woman named "The Duelest," who comes to discover that the mistress she guards is hiding a secret and that the body the woman holds does not belong to her. Once a week, when she falls asleep, the mistress wakes as a different woman—a young girl named Rose—whose body has been stolen from her by the witch. A beautiful story of agency and revenge and love.
♦ The Other Thea by Theodora Goss → 3.5 stars
A young girl goes on an adventure to find the shadow that she lost when she was young, but things are complicated when the shadow does not want to come with her. A fun story (there's a talking cat!), but felt a little too predictable for me.
♦ When I Lat Frozen by Margo Lanagan → 2 stars
Some really lovely prose, but the storytelling was hard for me to follow (and a little boring). A new take on Thumbelina that is a bit more threatening for poor Tommelise...
♦ Pearl by Alietta de Bodard → 4 stars
A sci-fi take on Da Trang and the Pearl (a story I had never heard before). Follows Da Trang as he is given a "remora" (a robotic ai reminiscent of the fish with the same name). This remora gives him access to new information that expands his horizons and the interest of the Empress, but the remora's agency is not tethered to him alone... Luscious story-telling here, and a creative take on a classic fairytale structure.
♦ The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle by Sofia Samatar → 2 stars
Probably my least favorite story in the collection. Didn't feel like much of a reimaging to me (though I'll admit that I haven't read the original tale and don't have a comparison to draw). Felt more like a literary analysis than a story, and was difficult to engage in as a reader.
♦ Reflected by Kat Howard → 3 stars
A nice story that integrates science and theoretical physics into the classic tale of The Snow Queen as an experiment with mirrors goes horribly wrong. The ending felt a little too sugar sweet for my taste, but the story was satisfying overall.
♦ Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik → 5 stars
It's been years since I read the novel of the same name, so it was nice to return to Novik's story and see how the tale was originally imagined for a shorter format. Her retelling of Rumpelstiltskin is clever and satisfying as we follow the daughter of a moneylender who is challenged with the task of turning silver into gold. The storytelling in this piece is crisp and beautiful, and Novik does a wonderful job at subverting and questioning the original tale, shifting the agency and power into the narrator's hands, so that her victory is her own instead of fabricated for another.
My thoughts on the individual stories:
♦ In The Desert Like A Bone by Seanan McGuire → 4 stars
A retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in a Western landscape where Little Red is no longer a passive victim. Themes of agency and justice, as well as lovely imagery throughout. Easily my favorite Seanan McGuire short story that I've read.
♦ Underground by Karin Tidbeck → 3 stars
East of the Sun, West of the Moon retelling. Interesting premise where a young woman is imprisoned by a man whose face is hidden from her, though she doesn't know why. The writing in this was fine, but the ending fell a little flat for me in the way the protagonist found justice and (attempted to) reclaim her agency.
♦ Even the Crumbs Were Delicious by Daryl Gregory → 4 stars
I've never read anything by this author, but this was a wonderful introduction! Gregory's retelling of Hansel and Gretel is funny and imaginative, building around a premise where the witch's house is built from designer drugs instead of candy. There's also a nice undertone of found family, which I appreciated.
♦ The Super Ultra Duchess of Fedora Forest by Charlie Jane Anders → 3.5 stars
This story is strange, but my understanding is that the source material is equally as weird. I enjoyed the premise of animals and objects gaining cognizance and building a society in a post-human world. Not entirely my thing, but worth the read!
♦ Familiars by Genevieve Valentine → 4 stars
This one reads more like an analysis than a short story, but I liked it all the same. The language was lovely to follow, and I didn't mind the jumps between the two different threads framing the author's argument. This one focuses around the fear of having children and the societal pressures that challenge women's agency on this topic. A darker tone here, but a valuable story.
♦ Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar → 5 stars
Easily among my top three favorites from the anthology! El-Mohtar blends two stories together seamlessly here, creating a new tale that subverts classic fairytale tropes and gives agency to the female characters to determine their own paths in their stories. Very satisfying, and I loved the attention to fine details with the numbers (sevens and ones) that surfaced throughout!
♦ Badgirl, the Deadman, and the Wheel of Fortune by Cathrynne M. Valente → 3 stars
Really nice writing in this retelling of The Girl With No Hands. Offers a look into the life of a young girl as she faces the implications of having a drug-addicted father. A nice story, but not really my thing.
♦ A Penny for a Match, Mister? by Garth Nix → 4.5 stars
So many Westerns popping up in this anthology! I loved this spin on The Little Match Girl, and thought that the inclusion of the supernatural (if you can call vengeful spirits that) to be well-done and intriguing. The match-girl's fate is a bit different this time around, but you'll have to read to see what happens...
♦ Some Wait by Stephen Graham Jones → 3.5 stars
Ominous and spine-chilling. I wasn't expecting a horror retelling of the Pied Piper, and was unnerved at how well the story fit into this mold. Told in the collective first person "we," this tale recounts a town whose children are disappearing under mysterious circumstances. The parents grow worried. Secrets are revealed. A computer screen blinks in the background...
♦ The Thousand Eyes by Jeffrey Ford → 4 stars
Ford has been hit and miss with me in the past, but I really like the take on this tale. The setting stood out to me the most, and I loved the imagery of the strange, ramshackle old bar. It's sort of horror and sort of not...maybe more of a suspenseful story as the main character, a painter, must deal with the consequences of his actions after taking a forbidden photo of "The Voice of Death."
♦ Giants in the Sky by Max Gladstone → 3 stars
I'm not really sure if I fully understood what happened in this one, but I enjoyed the formatting and the snark throughout. Jack and the Beanstalk, but if the beanstalk was a ladder to space.
♦ The Briar and the Rose by Marjorie Liu → 5 stars
My favorite story in the anthology. Retells Sleeping Beauty through the eyes of a woman named "The Duelest," who comes to discover that the mistress she guards is hiding a secret and that the body the woman holds does not belong to her. Once a week, when she falls asleep, the mistress wakes as a different woman—a young girl named Rose—whose body has been stolen from her by the witch. A beautiful story of agency and revenge and love.
♦ The Other Thea by Theodora Goss → 3.5 stars
A young girl goes on an adventure to find the shadow that she lost when she was young, but things are complicated when the shadow does not want to come with her. A fun story (there's a talking cat!), but felt a little too predictable for me.
♦ When I Lat Frozen by Margo Lanagan → 2 stars
Some really lovely prose, but the storytelling was hard for me to follow (and a little boring). A new take on Thumbelina that is a bit more threatening for poor Tommelise...
♦ Pearl by Alietta de Bodard → 4 stars
A sci-fi take on Da Trang and the Pearl (a story I had never heard before). Follows Da Trang as he is given a "remora" (a robotic ai reminiscent of the fish with the same name). This remora gives him access to new information that expands his horizons and the interest of the Empress, but the remora's agency is not tethered to him alone... Luscious story-telling here, and a creative take on a classic fairytale structure.
♦ The Tale of Mahliya and Mauhub and the White-Footed Gazelle by Sofia Samatar → 2 stars
Probably my least favorite story in the collection. Didn't feel like much of a reimaging to me (though I'll admit that I haven't read the original tale and don't have a comparison to draw). Felt more like a literary analysis than a story, and was difficult to engage in as a reader.
♦ Reflected by Kat Howard → 3 stars
A nice story that integrates science and theoretical physics into the classic tale of The Snow Queen as an experiment with mirrors goes horribly wrong. The ending felt a little too sugar sweet for my taste, but the story was satisfying overall.
♦ Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik → 5 stars
It's been years since I read the novel of the same name, so it was nice to return to Novik's story and see how the tale was originally imagined for a shorter format. Her retelling of Rumpelstiltskin is clever and satisfying as we follow the daughter of a moneylender who is challenged with the task of turning silver into gold. The storytelling in this piece is crisp and beautiful, and Novik does a wonderful job at subverting and questioning the original tale, shifting the agency and power into the narrator's hands, so that her victory is her own instead of fabricated for another.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use and Drug abuse
Moderate: Violence and Rape
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