A review by wealhtheow
Spellbound: Fantasy Stories by Diana Wynne Jones

2.0

A collection of selections from Jones's favorite fantasy stories. Nearly all of these are excerpts from much longer works, and the unfamiliarity works against their charm. The other big problem is that these are almost exclusively old stories, with all the accompanying gender essentialism and thoughtless orientalism (for example, the selection from Langley's [b:The Land of Green Ginger|1749940|The Land of Green Ginger|Noel Langley|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1347956970s/1749940.jpg|1747725] features names like Sulkpot Ben Nagnag, Rubdub Ben Thud, Tintac Ping Foo, Kublai Snoo, and my personal favorite, Chu-Chin-Chow Laundry Man) and a very large helping of twee capitalization. The only story I really enjoyed was Jane Yolen's short story "Boris Chernevsky's Hands," in which a bad juggler tries to get adroit hands from Baba Yaga.