Review by Booklist Review
Adults may think they shed their love of fairy tales with puberty, but these witty, sophisticated stories cast the likes of Cinderella and Rapunzel into new shapes--strong, sexy, clever, and feminist. Angela Carter's fans, in particular, will feel right at home.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this stylized, lyrical collection of revisionist fairy tales, Cinderella falls in love with her fairy godmother, and Gretel remains loyal to the witch in the gingerbread house, who planned to skin Hansel like a rabbit only because of his repeated attempts to rape her. In the same vein as Robert Coover's horrific fairy stories, Donoghue (Hood) brings the sexual violence beneath many classic tales to the surface. Her viewpoint is overtly feminist, at times to the point of predictability, and the book gets off to a slow start. But the book gains momentum, and an innovative, almost musical structure lends coherence. The stories are interwoven: each one ends with the narrator asking another heroine, "Who were you before...?" Beauty's Beast, for example, was once Snow White. Bonds between women are affirmed as an alternative to shallow, handsome princes; as often as not, the bonds turn sexual (e.g., the Beast beloved by Beauty turns out to be a woman). Sophisticated teenagers (and adults too) will be mesmerized by the powerful voices and intricate structure, while the lesbian endings promise controversy. Ages 12-up. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 UpDonoghue has shaped this collection around several traditional and literary fairy tales. What sets it apart from all the other retold tales is that the heroines realize that they are more interested in the princess, witch, or local farm girl instead of the prince, merchant, or woodsman. Each story is loosely connected to the next by the narrator asking another character how they came to be in a particular situation and the answer, "It is the tale of an apple" (or a handkerchief, hair, a needle, etc.) This device cleverly unites the pieces into a seamless, if lifeless, whole. The female characters, while never really demanding any emotional involvement of readers, are at least complex enough to be neither entirely good nor entirely evil. However, the male characters are all weak, stupid, boorish, or a combination of the three. This one-dimensional treatment makes for very dull reading. Like Francesca Block's work, Donoghue's writing is built on vivid images. Unlike Block, she fails to use that skill to sustain a sense of place or bring a character to life. Though Snow White, the Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Beauty, and others roam through the pages, their voices are dismally similar, with the exception of Gretel, who hasn't mastered speaking in whole sentences, and becomes, by default, the only memorable character in the book. The author must be applauded for wishing to provide teen girls enduring the painful process of coming out with characters who are reassuringly similar. However, even when these protagonists are describing their own treachery, their own fears, or their own sorrows, their emotions never break through the fog of monotone narration.Patricia A. Dollisch, DeKalb County Public Library, Decatur, GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The unifying theme of this unconventional collection of thirteen stories based on familiar tales is that its heroines spurn the prince for the fairy godmother, the stepmother, or the beast (as in 'Beauty and the Beast'), who turns out to be a woman. Unfortunately, the one-dimensional characterizations and overwrought tone will probably put off teenagers looking for books on lesbian themes. From HORN BOOK 1997, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Under a surface as seamless as stone worn smooth by the sea are tales readers may know, but with images and perspectives quite different from the canonical tradition. What if the beast in Beauty and the Beast were a woman? What if the shrill voices ordering Cinderella to work were inside her head? Rapunzel, Donkeyskin, Snow White, and other familiar heroines take unconventional shapes within Donoghue's beautifully hewn prose, in deeply female stories, scented with blood and flowers. Each story is linked to the next by the frame of a question that a character in the previous story asks; Donoghue thus nests the stories in a way that each follows the other to become one long tale. The murkiness of desire and the necessity of finding one's way will resonate for adolescents struggling with issues of identity, sexuality, stepparents, and societal strictures. A dark jewel. (Short stories/folklore. 12+)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
