johnsoak's review against another edition
4.0
Kate Berhnheimer’s “Horse, Flower, Bird” is a breath (or a gasp) of a collection, with tales so creepy they make you consider that there are gnomes and children-cooking-ovens hiding in the tales you tell about your own life.
lamusadelils's review against another edition
4.0
Son historias muy breves y que podrían pasar como cuentitos sin trascendencia pero si tienen dientitos.
La última historia, quizá la que más me gusta, también se encuentra en uno de mis libros favoritos de cuentos de hadas (My mother she killed me, my father he ate me) pero el formato del libro físico te lleva a pensar las historias de manera diferente, a otro ritmo.
La última historia, quizá la que más me gusta, también se encuentra en uno de mis libros favoritos de cuentos de hadas (My mother she killed me, my father he ate me) pero el formato del libro físico te lleva a pensar las historias de manera diferente, a otro ritmo.
the_bard's review against another edition
4.0
Brilliantly magical and darkly comical modern fairy tales. Like all the best books, it messed with my head in delightful and disturbing ways.
quilly14's review against another edition
3.0
Some fun, disturbing modern fairy tales. I wish this copy were mine and not the library's so I could re-read it whenever I have a chance.
jonathanwlodarski's review against another edition
4.0
My second round with Bernheimer, very quickly in succession with my first. As before, I'm stunned by the beauty and simplicity of these stories, the way they capture exactly the texture of a fairy tale. Very sad stories that clog up your insides. The best of the bunch are "A Tulip's Tale" and "A Cageling Tale," though I was bored slightly by "A Star Wars Tale" and "A Garibaldi Tale." A blurb for Bernheimer on one of her books calls her the "master of the modern fairy tale," and I'm inclined to agree.
4/5
4/5
nickelini's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
magneticcrow's review
4.0
What a strange little book. The stories read almost like broken poetry. I found myself liking it very much, despite the incompleteness. The author would feel quite at home with Small Beer Press, I think. That sort of book.
tdstorm's review
3.0
A lot shorter than I expected. Each paragraph of each of the 8 short stories in this collection has its own page. The effect is that the stories feel simultaneously shorter and longer than they actually are. But they are quick reads. The first couple didn't capture my imagination as much as stories 3, 4, and 5, which were effective allegories of social isolation. "A Doll's Tale" tells of a quirky little girl who develops close relationships with a doll and then with an imaginary friend, both of whom she loses. "A Petting Zoo Tale" tells of a lonely housewife who has a secret petting zoo in her basement. "A Cageling Tale" tells of another girl alienated from her family, who becomes attached to a caged bird, and then later in life, seeks to inhabit cages herself. These are spare tales, very much in keeping with a fairy tale-esque simplicity, but poignant nonetheless. The common thread is family dysfunction, but Bernheimer doesn't sensationalize the typical realist catastrophes of alcoholism and adultery and the like. Instead, she focuses on more mundane and subtle complications of family, that sort of love/hate relationship we come to have with those we spend a lot of time around. This paragraph from "A Cageling Tale" might be emblematic of the entire collection: "The girl grew to love the parakeet so much it was painful. Sometimes she imagined roasting its sweet body, putting the poor thing onto a stick over a fire--it was so small and delicate, it was not hard to think this" (101).
jct_35's review
2.0
Some stories felt forced and random at times. A lot shorter than I thought it would be. Some pages just had one sentence and others just a paragraph.
queenbeemimi's review
3.0
A very strange little book that isn’t *quite* as fairy-taley as I was led to believe. A lot of it is about the Holocaust.