Black Swan, White Raven is a collection of ‘dark’ fairy tale retellings, and I didn’t enjoy a single story in the collection. I adore fairy tale collections, I have always devoured them, but this one was a pain to get through. I’m not sure there’s really a summary to be put in here, I’m sure you’re already familiar with the concept of fairy tale retellings. This book covered a wide variety, from Sleeping Beauty to Thumbelina. The book was originally published in 1997, but was […]
This is what it means to be a woman in the world. Every step is a bargain with pain.
From the blurb: From New York Times bestselling author Catherynne M. Valente comes a brilliant reinvention of one of the best known fairy tales of all time. In the novella Six-Gun Snow White, Valente transports the title’s heroine to a masterfully evoked Old West where Coyote is just as likely to be found as the seven dwarves. A plain-spoken, appealing narrator relates the story of her parents – a Nevada silver baron who forced the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful […]
The girl with the red cloak and the boy with the silver hands – double Cannonball!
3.5 stars From Goodreads, because I’m lazy and it’s mostly a pretty good summary (I will point out the ways in which is it not afterwards): When Rachelle was fifteen, she was good – apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless – straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to […]
Preachy Fairy Tale
Shadow of the Bear is a ‘retelling’ of the Grim Fairy Tale Snow White and Rose Red, the one where they have a bear suitor. You have to specify because there are a couple of Snow White/Rose Red fairy tales and I remember being confused about that when I was younger. I put retelling in quotes because the only real changes to the fairy tale is that it’s set in the modern era and all characters are human, otherwise nothing really changes. It’s this lack […]



