The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales Hardcover – October 18, 2016

When they say fairy tales retold, they don’t mean “Rapunzel in middle school” or “Cinderella in cyberpunk“. This is more “crank up the maturity by adding sex, drugs, and woman abuse” type of retelling. The themes are skewed toward “men are the devil, women are helpless”. The writing is parched and lifeless and bleak. “The man put a seed in her belly. She lay there while he lay on top of her and did his thing.” And I mean literally using the terms “did his thing”.Everything screams “I AM WOMAN” and “my character is defined by my womanhood. Whether I spread my legs and let a man on top of me or a take a lover (male or female because love should be free) or I’m a woman in a man’s role. I scream womanness and I have no point beyond that but to be a woman and exist in relationship to men.”I get that lots of fairy tales are about women suffering due to the actions of men. But when you’re revamping those tales for current sensibilities, they don’t all have to turn it on the same head. Viewing everything from the same lens is dull. Plus it makes everyone unlikable. And I certainly don’t want to read about it over and over.Especially the female authors. They treat their stories like they’re an artsy short film–all experimental and pretentious. Some of them call it “playing with form”. I call it choosing form over function. Construct over content. Should a collection of short stories really be your experimental ground?Oh, and two of the stories are of the “set in a world from another story I wrote” variety, and I HATE that. Making your short story as if it’s an advertisement for your other book series. No wonder short stories fell out of favor.

This book was a great gift to myself. I'm thrilled by the creative approaches to to the classic fairy tales. As I read, I can feel the stories supplant some of the cultural narratives in my consciousness related to gender (as great feminist literature does). The introduction by Dominik Parison and Navah Wolf talks about how the classic wooded environments, which represented mystery and fear in the days of old fairy tales, have been replaced with various other environments the authors explore. While I have not read the whole book yet, the stories I have experienced took my breath away, particularly the first by Seanan McGuire, "In the Desert Like a Bone," which she positions as a retelling of the Little Red Riding Hood story and which contains a dark twist of empowerment. I wish this some of these stories had existed when I was younger--as dark as they can sometimes be (just as the original fairy tales were). They would have given me a profound sense of hope and will that I needed at the time. I have kept all my childhood fairy tale books, just as markers of a time and influence on the shaping of a feminine identity that continues to transform over time. I'm convinced that the woods still are, in childhood consciousness, a place of mystery and fear, the place beyond which they are told they should not roam, in a world that can be devouring. Many women have been "devoured" there and are seeking to become whole again. Instead of cautionary tales, this book is full of character-building triumphs. It's also physically beautiful, with raised artwork on the cover. It looks, feels, and smells like an old book, and it will stay on my shelf for a long time. I will also give it as gifts to women in my family.

I found this book after stumbling upon the whimsical Icelandic illustrator, Stella Björg (check out her mythical sea creatures alphabet, "Here Be Monsters", they're magical), and read that she drew the little vignettes at the beginning of each story in this book. My love of short stories and fairy tales ushered me to buy this book, so glad I was led to it! My favourite was "Seasons of Glass and Iron" by Amal El-Mohtar. You bet yer bum I'll be scouring the interwebs to find more of her work. There were a couple of duds (sorry...), but overall I rather enjoyed reading these tales, and wished some were longer.

I fully admit I am a huge fan of retold fairytales and these stories were excellent. Like any anthology, I had definite favorites, but these were all cleverly told and weren't afraid to shy from the darker aspects of the original tales, while still retaining a sense of hope (however bittersweet in some cases) and wonder.

I'm reviewing the hardcover edition which I haven't read. But I wanted to warn readers that the print is quite small and difficult for some (like me) to read.

One of the things I love about these sorts of anthologies is getting a new perspective on something I've seen before. Every story in this book gives that new view, though sometimes in tangential ways, taking a single moment or image and expanding it wonderfully.

An interesting take on traditional fairy tales with a modern lens. Written by many different writers most were on the mark and intriguing. Some left me cold, but the majority are solid.

These retellings are utterly fantastic. I think I skipped two of them that just couldn't hold my interest, but I'll be haunted forever by a few of the others. I definitely need an entire series set in the world in Theodora Goss' The Other Thea.

... you will love this collection of old fairy tales with a new twist. Enjoyed all the different angles the stories were now told in.

Bit disappointed in the stories and the book itself fell appart

This book is absolutely awesome!It is beautifully made, a real pleasure to watch and also very fascinating to read!

I loved it. This is the book I'll be giving out at Christmas. I now have a number of new authors to follow.