jadenalex's review against another edition
This is an interesting idea and the illustrations are beautiful. That said, it was due at the library and I didn’t love it enough to be worth putting on hold again in order to finish it.
satan_is_back's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
simonlorden's review against another edition
2.0
This book was sadly a big disappointment to me.
Instead of fairytale rewrites, what this book does is use an algorithm to switch the genders in classic fairytales. It changes nothing else except pronouns and gendered words, to create "new" stories.
First of all, I don't think this is nearly as revolutionary as the authors believe. Second, even if I go along with their idea, I don't think changing "Beauty" into "Handsome" or adding a "Mr" to Rapunzel is actually in line with their thinking. If they truly didn't want to influence the stories with their gender bias, then the boy should still have been called Beauty, and Rapunzel could be a gender-neutral name.
The illustrations were nice, but other than that, I could have gotten this for free with a text replacer.
Instead of fairytale rewrites, what this book does is use an algorithm to switch the genders in classic fairytales. It changes nothing else except pronouns and gendered words, to create "new" stories.
First of all, I don't think this is nearly as revolutionary as the authors believe. Second, even if I go along with their idea, I don't think changing "Beauty" into "Handsome" or adding a "Mr" to Rapunzel is actually in line with their thinking. If they truly didn't want to influence the stories with their gender bias, then the boy should still have been called Beauty, and Rapunzel could be a gender-neutral name.
The illustrations were nice, but other than that, I could have gotten this for free with a text replacer.
rynflynn12's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
unwrappingwords's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
0.5
domskeac's review against another edition
3.0
Forget gender-swappage, this book just reminds me how truly wild western fairy tales are. So many instances of adults eating children.
cecilehvh's review against another edition
2.0
A genuinely well thought out idea, very poor execution.
cat_queen005's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
suspiciouspinecone's review against another edition
3.0
Ok, all they did was swap the gendered words for the opposite gender. This feels very cold and soulless to me, and also super lazy. However, the characters were genuinely more interesting gender-swapped, and the art was decent, if nothing incredible. And the fairy tales themselves were fine.
CW: magic, death
CW: magic, death
anakuroma's review against another edition
2.0
2.5
TW: fatphobia, death
Note: this review comes from a non binary person.
This was the most general 'fine' I think I've given in a while. It was a great exercise when it comes to rethinking your mental expectations of gender when you hear 'guard' or 'nurse maid', etc. I really liked that.
However there was a lot further this could have gone. And while the book never changed anything from the genders (and for some reason changing Rapunzels hair to a beard?) for a very explicit purpose to explore gender expectations, it just didn't feel creative enough to stand alone.
The forward I appreciated of the compiler of the collection, especially mentioning trans and non-binary people, I felt the bragging of the 'special algorithm a bit laughable, considering the changes it made could be done with a simple word editor and the "replace x with y" tool.
TW: fatphobia, death
Note: this review comes from a non binary person.
This was the most general 'fine' I think I've given in a while. It was a great exercise when it comes to rethinking your mental expectations of gender when you hear 'guard' or 'nurse maid', etc. I really liked that.
However there was a lot further this could have gone. And while the book never changed anything from the genders (and for some reason changing Rapunzels hair to a beard?) for a very explicit purpose to explore gender expectations, it just didn't feel creative enough to stand alone.
The forward I appreciated of the compiler of the collection, especially mentioning trans and non-binary people, I felt the bragging of the 'special algorithm a bit laughable, considering the changes it made could be done with a simple word editor and the "replace x with y" tool.