A review by kieralesley
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale, by Jane Yolen, Jane Yolen
4.0
This was my first encounter with Yolen’s work and it was a delightful surprise.
This collection gathers fairy tales from across Yolen’s lengthy and prolific career that are all twisted or ‘fractured’ in some way from their original telling. The stories range across cultures and traditions, some familiar but many new to me and the ‘fractured’ versions presented here so enjoyable that I’m curious to find more true versions. The fractures themselves take different approaches: new points of view, inversions on concepts, puns, shifts in time and place.
Yolen refers both narratively and as a narrative aside to telling stories to children and it comes through. Her stories are designed to be told. The stories feel designed to be read or performed out loud – they have the feel of an oral tradition. Proper storytelling, with all eyes on the teller and a fire nearby.
My favourites were:
The Bridge’s Complaint
The Moon Ribbon
Granny Rumple
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox and the Dragon King
One Old Man, with Seals
Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale
Godmother Death
Not all of the stories were hits for me. Some felt too quick, the takes too shallow or I found myself skimming because the story hadn’t quite hooked me. The problem with having lots of, mostly quite short pieces, running on a similar narrative theme and tone is that it can read a bit same-y. You also have this feeling of ‘I liked it, but it wasn’t as good as this other one I just read’. It’s not that the collection is uneven per se, it’s more that there’s a lot of similar material back to back and I found myself getting fatigued. The really good ones still cut through and were enjoyable, but towards the end I was done rather than wanting it to keep going.
I liked the short notes on the fractures at the end of the book, though I would have perhaps found them more valuable placed after each story, rather than collected at the end with the poems. It felt a bit like an afterthought and by the time I was reading them it had been a while since I had read the story they were referring to.
On the whole, though, a nice collection of twisted fairy tales and a great sampling of Yolen’s voice and work.
An advance copy of this book was kindly provided by Tachyon Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This review was first published on Chapters in Flux: (http://www.chaptersinflux.com/book-review-how-to-fracture-a-fairy-tale-by-jane-yolen/)
This collection gathers fairy tales from across Yolen’s lengthy and prolific career that are all twisted or ‘fractured’ in some way from their original telling. The stories range across cultures and traditions, some familiar but many new to me and the ‘fractured’ versions presented here so enjoyable that I’m curious to find more true versions. The fractures themselves take different approaches: new points of view, inversions on concepts, puns, shifts in time and place.
Yolen refers both narratively and as a narrative aside to telling stories to children and it comes through. Her stories are designed to be told. The stories feel designed to be read or performed out loud – they have the feel of an oral tradition. Proper storytelling, with all eyes on the teller and a fire nearby.
My favourites were:
The Bridge’s Complaint
The Moon Ribbon
Granny Rumple
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox and the Dragon King
One Old Man, with Seals
Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale
Godmother Death
Not all of the stories were hits for me. Some felt too quick, the takes too shallow or I found myself skimming because the story hadn’t quite hooked me. The problem with having lots of, mostly quite short pieces, running on a similar narrative theme and tone is that it can read a bit same-y. You also have this feeling of ‘I liked it, but it wasn’t as good as this other one I just read’. It’s not that the collection is uneven per se, it’s more that there’s a lot of similar material back to back and I found myself getting fatigued. The really good ones still cut through and were enjoyable, but towards the end I was done rather than wanting it to keep going.
I liked the short notes on the fractures at the end of the book, though I would have perhaps found them more valuable placed after each story, rather than collected at the end with the poems. It felt a bit like an afterthought and by the time I was reading them it had been a while since I had read the story they were referring to.
On the whole, though, a nice collection of twisted fairy tales and a great sampling of Yolen’s voice and work.
An advance copy of this book was kindly provided by Tachyon Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This review was first published on Chapters in Flux: (http://www.chaptersinflux.com/book-review-how-to-fracture-a-fairy-tale-by-jane-yolen/)