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A review by casey_zi
Two and Twenty Dark Tales: Dark Retellings of Mother Goose Rhymes by Georgia McBride, Michelle Zink
4.0
Great short story collection! Allegorical, interpretive, and entertaining. Except for a few confusions here and there, I enjoyed it very much. Here are my comments for each tale, in the order they are presented:
As Blue as the Sky and Just as Old
Meh. Not a strong opening story. Perhaps it was because I wasn't familiar with the rhyme this one is based on, or perhaps it was a pile of rubbish.
Sing a Song of Six-Pence
Dark, haunting, and eventually rewarding: A story about the lengths a mother will go to be with her child.
Clockwork
This has got to be my favorite one out of the whole anthology. This story has the mouse who ran up a clock turn out to be a girl; how and why she became a mouse is the mystery the girl explores. It keeps you guessing and arrives at a bittersweet conclusion that I approved of wholeheartedly.
Blue
An invisible spirit who writes stories on peoples' skin meets a boy who can see her. This story could have had potential had it been expanded some, but it ended too abruptly, without taking that potential anywhere.
Pieces of Eight
Eh, a lot of complicated, "mysterious" things happened to develop the worldbuiding, but again, this story wandered around aimlessly and ended without taking its potential anywhere.
Wee Willie Winkie
In this one, a girl who has been lying about her age is warned about a curse targeting under-sixteens. The dark atmosphere is particularly strong here; it's a creepy story that will no doubt scare kids into getting to bed on time.
Boys and Girls Come Out To Play
Started out great, but turned into something less than great. It was trying too hard to aim for "dark" and got a lot of "huh?" instead.
I Come Bearing Souls
This one had an interesting premise, but too much of it was unexplained and left me feeling a little bewildered. Why would the pantheon of Ancient Egypt be incarnated in the bodies of American teenagers, and why would they be performing death rituals on their classmates?
The Lion and the Unicorn (Part One)
This is a promising start, but the ARC I recieved of this does not include Part Two, so I can't say anything conclusive about the whole story.
Life in a Shoe
In this one, the situation behind the woman with all her kids living in a shoe is explored with a little realism. (With all those children, neglect and poverty are more than probable.) It was okay; not bad, not amazing. A little too simplified and short compared to the other stories.
Candlelight
A sad story about what comes to people, especially teenagers, who are selfish and petty and do not appreciate what they have.
One for Sorrow
A girl is drawn to a strange crow who shows up every day at her window. He wants her to break a curse that has been set on him, but in doing so, she might just set the curse on herself instead.
Those Who Whisper
Reminded me of the novel Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. A young woman is cast from her village after a mysterious string of murders claims her mother. She lives in a hut out in the forest for years, until one day a familiar face shows up at her door with a horrifying truth. Not bad.
Little Miss Muffet
I couldn't make sense of this one. People turned into spiders randomly and ate each other's friends. Seriously.
Sea of Dew
A haunting story about the fate of people lost at sea.
Tick Tock
A very, very creepy babysitter horror story. Great atmosphere, but it was too bizarre and nonsensical to be a great story. I failed to see how or why any of the events in this story could have happened, even in a horror fiction. Usually the villains/spectres in horror have some kind of reason, no matter how twisted, for what they do; in this tale there was nothing I could infer as to what their motives were.
A Pocket Full of Posy
This one caught my interest very quickly. A boy wakes up in a field, with blood on his hands, and finds his girlfriend dead nearby. But he cannot remember what happened, and won't rest until he does. I liked it, but was disappointed by the solution it arrived at.
The Well
What really happened when Jack and Jill fell down a hill? Unfortunate things.
The Wish
Could practically be the poster story for the phrase "be careful what you wish for." A girl makes a wish upon a star, and a moment later a boy appears to unknowingly grant her wish.
A Ribbon of Blue
A sweet tale about death and the release it can provide.
Thanks to NetGalley.com and Month9Books for providing me with the ARC!
As Blue as the Sky and Just as Old
Meh. Not a strong opening story. Perhaps it was because I wasn't familiar with the rhyme this one is based on, or perhaps it was a pile of rubbish.
Sing a Song of Six-Pence
Dark, haunting, and eventually rewarding: A story about the lengths a mother will go to be with her child.
Clockwork
This has got to be my favorite one out of the whole anthology. This story has the mouse who ran up a clock turn out to be a girl; how and why she became a mouse is the mystery the girl explores. It keeps you guessing and arrives at a bittersweet conclusion that I approved of wholeheartedly.
Blue
An invisible spirit who writes stories on peoples' skin meets a boy who can see her. This story could have had potential had it been expanded some, but it ended too abruptly, without taking that potential anywhere.
Pieces of Eight
Eh, a lot of complicated, "mysterious" things happened to develop the worldbuiding, but again, this story wandered around aimlessly and ended without taking its potential anywhere.
Wee Willie Winkie
In this one, a girl who has been lying about her age is warned about a curse targeting under-sixteens. The dark atmosphere is particularly strong here; it's a creepy story that will no doubt scare kids into getting to bed on time.
Boys and Girls Come Out To Play
Started out great, but turned into something less than great. It was trying too hard to aim for "dark" and got a lot of "huh?" instead.
I Come Bearing Souls
This one had an interesting premise, but too much of it was unexplained and left me feeling a little bewildered. Why would the pantheon of Ancient Egypt be incarnated in the bodies of American teenagers, and why would they be performing death rituals on their classmates?
The Lion and the Unicorn (Part One)
This is a promising start, but the ARC I recieved of this does not include Part Two, so I can't say anything conclusive about the whole story.
Life in a Shoe
In this one, the situation behind the woman with all her kids living in a shoe is explored with a little realism. (With all those children, neglect and poverty are more than probable.) It was okay; not bad, not amazing. A little too simplified and short compared to the other stories.
Candlelight
A sad story about what comes to people, especially teenagers, who are selfish and petty and do not appreciate what they have.
One for Sorrow
A girl is drawn to a strange crow who shows up every day at her window. He wants her to break a curse that has been set on him, but in doing so, she might just set the curse on herself instead.
Those Who Whisper
Reminded me of the novel Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier. A young woman is cast from her village after a mysterious string of murders claims her mother. She lives in a hut out in the forest for years, until one day a familiar face shows up at her door with a horrifying truth. Not bad.
Little Miss Muffet
I couldn't make sense of this one. People turned into spiders randomly and ate each other's friends. Seriously.
Sea of Dew
A haunting story about the fate of people lost at sea.
Tick Tock
A very, very creepy babysitter horror story. Great atmosphere, but it was too bizarre and nonsensical to be a great story. I failed to see how or why any of the events in this story could have happened, even in a horror fiction. Usually the villains/spectres in horror have some kind of reason, no matter how twisted, for what they do; in this tale there was nothing I could infer as to what their motives were.
A Pocket Full of Posy
This one caught my interest very quickly. A boy wakes up in a field, with blood on his hands, and finds his girlfriend dead nearby. But he cannot remember what happened, and won't rest until he does. I liked it, but was disappointed by the solution it arrived at.
The Well
What really happened when Jack and Jill fell down a hill? Unfortunate things.
The Wish
Could practically be the poster story for the phrase "be careful what you wish for." A girl makes a wish upon a star, and a moment later a boy appears to unknowingly grant her wish.
A Ribbon of Blue
A sweet tale about death and the release it can provide.
Thanks to NetGalley.com and Month9Books for providing me with the ARC!