exlibrisbitsy's review against another edition
4.0
This lovely book, Black Heart, Ivory Bones, is a collection of fantasy and horror tales edited by my two favorite ladies of their respective genres Ellen Datlow (horror) and Terri Windling (fantasy). This is one book in a series of six volumes of, as they call it, reconsidered fairy tales. These fairy tales are rewritten to change the focus of the originals or perhaps just to sharpen the point of them to showcase the sinister, the sensual, and the sometimes sadistic roots of our childhood fairy tales.
Some of my favorites were "Rapunzel", "Big Hair", "The King with Three Daughters", "And Still She Sleeps", "Goldilocks Tells All", "The Red Boots", "You, Little Match Girl", "The Cats of San Martino" and "The Golem". And, yes, one of those ("You, Little Match Girl") was by the infamous Joyce Carol Oates, whose work I normally find too harsh to stomach, this particular piece though was one of the most profoundly powerful in the collection. The other piece that was the best in my opinion was "And Still She Sleeps" which brings up the very valid point that if true love's kiss is supposed to wake someone, and the only people available to kiss them were people that had not known them to love them in life, how are they ever to be kissed awake? True love is not determined on beauty alone.
My husband does not enjoy re-written fairy tales so I thought I would bring up his complaint since I don't have any of my own to voice. He says that authors that write these sorts of stories just seem to take the characters in them and drop everything else to make them act out something completely different. I don't completely agree with him because, though some stories do that, such as Big Hair, at the same time they do keep to the spirit of what the original story was trying to say, even if in a more modern, dark or surreal way.
If you enjoy reconsidered fairy tales, short stories of a more modern bent that take your old fairy tales and give them new and interesting life, then I would say definitely give this book a whirl. You won't be disappointed.
Favorite Quote:
"It's my latest," Goldy concluded, "my best, and the one which the New York Times recently described as 'thrilling, sad, heartbreaking' and 'packs a huge wallop.' Entitled The Goldilocks Syndrome, it's currently available in the lobby at a today-only discount of $21.95. And if you act now, I'll sign and date this sucker at no extra charge."
--Goldilocks Tells All
Some of my favorites were "Rapunzel", "Big Hair", "The King with Three Daughters", "And Still She Sleeps", "Goldilocks Tells All", "The Red Boots", "You, Little Match Girl", "The Cats of San Martino" and "The Golem". And, yes, one of those ("You, Little Match Girl") was by the infamous Joyce Carol Oates, whose work I normally find too harsh to stomach, this particular piece though was one of the most profoundly powerful in the collection. The other piece that was the best in my opinion was "And Still She Sleeps" which brings up the very valid point that if true love's kiss is supposed to wake someone, and the only people available to kiss them were people that had not known them to love them in life, how are they ever to be kissed awake? True love is not determined on beauty alone.
My husband does not enjoy re-written fairy tales so I thought I would bring up his complaint since I don't have any of my own to voice. He says that authors that write these sorts of stories just seem to take the characters in them and drop everything else to make them act out something completely different. I don't completely agree with him because, though some stories do that, such as Big Hair, at the same time they do keep to the spirit of what the original story was trying to say, even if in a more modern, dark or surreal way.
If you enjoy reconsidered fairy tales, short stories of a more modern bent that take your old fairy tales and give them new and interesting life, then I would say definitely give this book a whirl. You won't be disappointed.
Favorite Quote:
"It's my latest," Goldy concluded, "my best, and the one which the New York Times recently described as 'thrilling, sad, heartbreaking' and 'packs a huge wallop.' Entitled The Goldilocks Syndrome, it's currently available in the lobby at a today-only discount of $21.95. And if you act now, I'll sign and date this sucker at no extra charge."
--Goldilocks Tells All
libkatem's review against another edition
3.0
It's a collection of rewritten fairy tales, I liked some and didn't like others. But if you like updated fairy tales, this is a solid collection.
virtual_mammoth1013's review against another edition
4.0
The thing I love about an anthology is getting snippets of an author I may not know nor have considered in the past. While there will always be selections that are good or so-so, and some that just don't strike a cord, the gems I usually find stay around.
Those gems, in my opinion,
*And Still She Sleeps by Greg Costikyan
*My Life As a Bird by Charles De Lint
*The Cats of Sam Martino by Ellen Steiber
Those gems, in my opinion,
*And Still She Sleeps by Greg Costikyan
*My Life As a Bird by Charles De Lint
*The Cats of Sam Martino by Ellen Steiber
cheyenneb's review
I just wasn't getting along with these stories. I was reading it for so long and I just never wanted to pick it up. I just thought they were all OK. Some of them were more interesting than others but overall they just weren't really my style of fantasy short story
sephranix's review
3.0
It feels like it took me foreeeeeever to finish this book. The first couple stories were okay, and then I stalled out because some in the middle just didn't hold my interest. My absolute favorite was, of course, the last one in the collection, "Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower."
gripyfish's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
pattydsf's review
3.0
Excellent collection of short stories. I love fairy tales - I grew up reading all the Andrew Lang fairy tale books. I sometimes forget how much I enjoy fairy tales - these made me want to go back and read my old favorites.
These were all rewrites. There were stories based on Rapunzel, Cinderella and other familiar tales - all good. I especially liked "The cats of San Mantino" which was based on a folk tale I had never heard before.
I would recommend this to short story lovers; people interested in fairy tales (of course) and those readers interested in fantasy. Matter of fact, if you don't read fantasy, but would like to try some - any of Datlow's and Windling's collections would offer a fine place to start.
These were all rewrites. There were stories based on Rapunzel, Cinderella and other familiar tales - all good. I especially liked "The cats of San Mantino" which was based on a folk tale I had never heard before.
I would recommend this to short story lovers; people interested in fairy tales (of course) and those readers interested in fantasy. Matter of fact, if you don't read fantasy, but would like to try some - any of Datlow's and Windling's collections would offer a fine place to start.
thuja's review
3.0
Like most collections, some stories worked better than others. Sadly the stories in this collection seemed more dated somehow than the other collections by Datlow that I'd read before. There were several stories that I enjoyed, but none of them grabbed me nearly as much as I'd hoped they would.
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