I typically love fairy tale retellings, so I was excited going into this and it didn't disappoint. It's a bit bizarre, but I think that's part of the charm! I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be looking for more by Kelly Link now!

Gave me the original Grimm's tale vibe, dark, gory, and unpredictable. I'm not sure if there's a lesson that I need to learn on each of the unassuming stories but I enjoyed it fully!

Kelly Link did not disappoint again! I loved the fairy tale retellings and the style. The writing was eerie and otherworldly.

Kelly Link's short stories often have an otherworldly feel, with odd and unaccountable things happening all the time. So a collection of reimagined fairy tales sounds like it might be something special. Black Dog, White Cat: Stories is exactly this and it is even more marvelous than I had hoped. Link sticks mostly with slightly less well-known stories, like <i>The Musicians of Bremen</i> and <i>Snow White and Rose Red</i>. Each story is wildly inventive and solidly based in its origin story. My favorite was a take on <i>Tam Lin</i> that had an otherworldly, magical atmosphere, even before introducing the supernatural aspect. The best story, in a collection where all the stories were good, was a take on <i>East of the Sun, West of the Moon</i> called <i>Prince Hat Underground</i>, in which a man sets out to find and rescue his husband, who was taken away by a mysterious woman, a journey that leads him to Iceland and an ever increasingly odd set of adventures.

Link knows how to create an atmosphere in her writing, which is a skill that shines in these fairy tales. They are set ostensibly in this world, but each has such a different feeling and air about it, even before the tale gets to the fairies, or the talking animals, or the 300 year old man. Link also knows how to create a story that is hard to put down, even if that story is spent within the walls of a single house or even sitting in the middle seat of a crowded flight. If you have any interest in fairy tale retellings or even a well-told short story, this is the collection to pick up.

Wow! This was an incredibly weird and wonderful collection of short stories. I am so thankful to Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of White Cat, Black Dog. I have added all of Kelly Link's collections to my TBR, I can't believe I haven't read any of her work sooner. Go read this ASAP.

The White Cat's Divorce - 5 stars

Prince Hat Underground - 5 stars

The White Road - 5 stars

The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear - 4 stars

The Game of Smash and Recovery - 3 stars

The Lady and the Fox - 5 stars

Skinder's Veil - 5 stars

In Kelly Link's follow up to the critically acclaimed "Get in Trouble" the author explores Scottish lore, French ballads, and fairytales in reimaginings of familiar and unfamiliar tales.

I adore Kelly Link's writing, so I was really excited to dive into these tales. One of my favorites was The White Cat’s Divorce. It was a magically wild tale about a young son seeking his father's love, who's journey has him meeting humanoid cats that run a weed farm. Not only was it incredibly weird, but so quintessentially Kelly Link. I also really enjoyed Prince Hat Underground!

I actually plan on grabbing a copy of this collection to put on my shelf. Something about Link's writing just connects to me and she's overall one of my favorite short story authors in the modern age. I think she manages to distill stories into their perfect length almost every time. "Get in Trouble" is a collection I still return to frequently to read and enjoy for it's lyricism and underlying meanings. "White Cat, Black Dog" is no different, embracing the weird and wonderful while also leaving an aftertaste of the bizarre that will make any reader remember these stories for the rest of their lives.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me a copy of this book for an honest review!

DNF at 48%. I love fairy tale retellings and I’ve enjoyed other Link stories for their quirky weirdness. I may have picked up this collection at the wrong time but they just weren’t working for me and I decided to DNF. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

White Cat, Black. Dog is a collection of short stories by author Kelly Link. The stories are based on seven fairy tales which have all been modernized and, like in any collection, I liked some more than others. My favourite was The White Cat’s Divorce in which a rich man sets difficult tasks for his sons. But, honestly, I enjoyed them all. They were well-written and entertaining with a nice touch of humour and reminded me of the joy fairy tales provided my childhood. I loved the drawings by Shaun Tan at the beginning of each story and appreciated Link letting the reader know which fairy tale the story is based on. It shoUld be noted that this collection is definitely for adults but my inner child thought it was great fun.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

An intriguing, enjoyably strange short story collection, all based on retellings of fairytales/folktales - most setting the stories in the contemporary world, with a few instead setting them in a dystopian or sci fi future.

I actually wasn’t familiar with all the source stories, but I love that each story title has the title of the story it was inspired by in parentheses, so I could go look up the original story after reading it. Some of the stories were very much a retelling, just changing the setting, while others were more abstractly inspired by the original stories (or in one or two cases, I couldn’t quite figure out the connection, maybe it was more thematic). Regardless, the writing was quite good and I really enjoyed reading them.

This is the second of Kelly Link’s short story collections I have read (I also read Get in Trouble), and I definitely would like to check out her other three as well. And if she ever writes a novel, I’d be there for that too!

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a huge fan of retellings, especially ones that are a little off-kilter or introduce horror to a genre that wasn't necessarily horrific to begin with. I think this collection does just that; it was unsettling and funny and tense. The appearance of an old romance story I read years ago was a welcome change of pace, but I really loved the uncanny nature of the other stories.

4 stars.

I will update the review with the link to on our blog as soon as I can.

I'd like to thank the publisher Random House, Pushkin Children's Books and Netgalley for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review

This book makes me feel the same zing I remember from my days hauling a stack of books home from the bookmobile every Tuesday and reading one every night by a nightlight when I wasn't supposed to be reading until 2 am, but screw sleep in favor of the fantastic, right?

Link balances the tension between expectation and surprise so well in this collection. I felt satisfied and turned around in equal measure by these stories. I find myself thinking about them on first waking, which means they've delighted me all the way to my subconscious attic space.

My absolute favorite story was Skinder's Veil. Oh, how I leaned forward at Andy's dissertation inefficacy and carnal roommate torture. And then I find myself immersed in a ghost story in which the only ghost mentioned directly is never seen, only felt, and everyone seems like a ghost of something by the end. I just gestured wildly as I attempted to describe the plot to my sweetie over breakfast, looking out the window, and realizing new connections even days after finishing the story.

From the opening white cat story, I felt a crescendo of bewilderment and acceptance as the stories seemed to pass energies and creepy whispers to each other like a narrative heat exchanger. I loved the way Link uses modern references almost as a kind of punctuation. Those references are often both a smile and a jolt, followed by another trip down a strange passage.

I've had a white cat (Sirena Millay Vincent - miss you sweet girl) and a Prince(ss) Hat (redacted). Link knew both of them, it seems, and took them on a vacation to forests and subterranean Icelandic troll schools. Long live this imagination and the oddly beating heart that powers it..

TL;DR REVIEW:

White Cat, Black Dog is a delightfully weird little collection of stories inspired by fairy tales and folklore. It’s funny and layered and excellent.

For you if: You like weird short stories and/or fairy tale retellings.

FULL REVIEW:

This was my first read from MacArthur genius and Pulitzer finalist Kelly Link (I think her last collection came out in 2015), but it definitely won’t be the last. I can see that she’s a queen of short stories for a reason!

It helps that this collection (and the kinds of stories Link tends to write in general) is extremely my sh*t: A smart mix of modern-day realism with magic and speculative elements. These stories, specifically, are all inspired by fairy tales and folklore from across the globe. They’re super weird and sorta dark and often quite funny. We’re talking like, a third son whose father sends him on a quest and he ends up staying in a commune with a talking cat in Colorado, smoking weed. (That story is called “The White Cat’s Divorce” and I think it was my favorite one.)

I really liked the fact that each story notes which fairy tale inspired it so that I could look them up on Wikipedia before reading, if needed. They’re pretty loose “retellings,” so it was fun to try to make the connections and see how they inspired Link to go in the direction she went.

TLDR, this is an inventive and fun and layered collection, and I liked it very much!



CONTENT AND TRIGGER WARNINGS:
Infidelity; Drug use (weed); Blood; Murder (minor)

What an absolutely delightful book! It has been awhile since I've read fairy tales, but this book of stories made me feel like a kid again.

When I was a child, I used to read fairy tales and fables constantly. I'm a daydreamer so reading about talking geese, girls locked in castle towers and witches who ate little children was the norm for me. My parents encouraged reading in my home so I read every single day. This book of stories brought back so many memories and I enjoyed reading each one.

I am always amazed at adults who write with such imagination. Kelly Link has such an imagination, giving me everything I needed in a fairy tale, but for adults. Some of the stories were bloody, some sexy but all are imaginative and very interesting. My very favorite is the last story, "Skinder's Veil," because it has elements in the story I usually fear. The author found a way to make those elements both scary and intriguing. Not gonna lie, I wanted to be Andy so I could experience what he experienced, although I'm not sure if I would have been as easy going as he had been.

If you're into fairy tales and want to read a more adult version, then please grab a copy of this book.

Kelly Link is such a unique, magical author! Each story is engrossing. Will definitely be recommending this!

I do not wish to understand magic, but I recognize it living and writhing inside the artistry of WHITE CAT, BLACK DOG. These are bejeweled dreams and secrets, nestled in Fable Forests that drip with moonlight and blood. Kelly Link is the Queen of mesmerizing, haunting, mysterious tales.

I'm still processing some of these stories, but wow! What an amazing book! The stories in this collection, based loosely on fairytales, are often stunning and unpredictable. I would love Kelly Link to make a companion volume with a new, closer interpretation of the original fairytales—I'm not sure she could reign herself in, but it would make for an interesting follow-up. A mix of realism and speculative fiction, White Cat, Black Dog takes us on a raucous journey that is wildly imaginative and fiercely compelling.

This was the first book I read by Kelly Link and I truly enjoyed it. I'm a sucker for fairy tales and stories in the vein of Twilight Zone and this hit all the marks for me. All of the short stories were a blast to read and I enjoyed all the different characters and worlds. "The Lady and the Fox" was my favorite of the bunch. Kelly LInk is honestly so creative and can effortlessly blend genres to craft perfect stories.

My review for Chicago Review of Books https://chireviewofbooks.com/2023/04/03/enchanted-retellings-in-kelly-links-white-cat-black-dog/

Kelly Link’s fiction always brings to my mind the old-timey phrase “spinning a yarn.” Although I’ve learned this idiom has nautical origins, for me, it evokes spindles, spinning wheels, and the realm of folktales. And while Link tends to reinvent her own style so that no two stories are alike, all of them can be identified for their craftsmanship, spun as they are into bewitching, twisting knots made of the gossamer threads of language itself.

In her previous collections, Link has dipped into fantasy, horror, magic realism, science fiction, and the list goes on. Her writing is frequently described as “hard to classify.” In contrast, White Cat, Black Dog—Link’s first book since 2015’s Get in Trouble—stands out for its straightforwardness. It has a unified mission that is easy to sum up: This is a book of retellings, and Link isn’t shy about that. Following each of her story’s titles is a second, parenthetical title, alerting the reader to the traditional folktale she retells. But true to form, each story takes a different approach to retelling.

Opening the collection—and providing one of the two eponymous animals—is “The White Cat’s Divorce.” Here, Link retraces many of the same major plot points as the French fairy tale “The White Cat.” In the original, a wealthy king sends his three sons on a series of quests, ostensibly to see which will become his heir. There are classic tropes: the rule of threes, talking animals, and magical transformations. In Link’s version, these elements are infused with a contemporary context. The rich father is a member of our modern billionaire class. He is obsessed with maintaining his youth, receiving “blood transfusions from adolescent donors.” While absurd, this pursuit is not altogether far-fetched given the current hobbies of our planet’s wealthiest men. We follow the youngest son, a boyish man desperate for parental love—like so many children of billionaires. Lost in a snowstorm, he asks a group of cats for help. “Please, can you assist me? I have AAA, but my phone has no reception out here.” The story is full of such one-liners, starting firmly in a fairy tale but tendriling out to reach us with our roadside assistance and our overreliance on smartphones. The cats—by the way—work on a marijuana farm in Colorado.

In “The Game of Smash and Recovery,” Hansel and Gretel are cast not into our world, but into science fiction. This story’s protagonist is Anat, a young girl who lives with her brother. She has limited memory of her past or understanding of her present. We learn that the siblings are on a planet inhabited by vampires. Like the original fairy tale, their parents have abandoned them. The fun—and tragedy—of this story is putting the pieces together, following the proverbial breadcrumbs, if you will, along with Anat toward the revelatory conclusion.

“Skinder’s Veil” is the final story, a reimagining of “Snow-White and Rose-Red” that spins a layered philosophical and psychological tale. “Once upon a time there was a graduate student,” it begins. And so we meet Andy, who is struggling through his dissertation and annoyed with his roommate. He’s agreed to house-sit at a remote cabin that belongs to someone named Skinder. There are only two rules to follow: allow any friend of Skinder’s to come inside, but never let Skinder in. This story features quirky characters, embedded fairy tales, and a puzzle that circles around and in on itself. It also features a black dog so that, in a lovely symmetry with the opening story, we have our bookended title.

It is a standout in the collection and I am left still thinking about it. Elsewhere in the book, Link reimagines a Scottish ballad, a Norwegian tale, and German stories collected by the Brothers Grimm. Link brings us a love story that takes us to hell, a main character stuck at an airport hotel, and a post-plague future where corpses must be left on display to ward off a vague evil.

Kelly Link’s fiction always brings to my mind the old-timey phrase “spinning a yarn.” Although I’ve learned this idiom has nautical origins, for me, it evokes spindles, spinning wheels, and the realm of folktales. And while Link tends to reinvent her own style so that no two stories are alike, all of them can be identified for their craftsmanship, spun as they are into bewitching, twisting knots made of the gossamer threads of language itself.

In her previous collections, Link has dipped into fantasy, horror, magic realism, science fiction, and the list goes on. Her writing is frequently described as “hard to classify.” In contrast, White Cat, Black Dog—Link’s first book since 2015’s Get in Trouble—stands out for its straightforwardness. It has a unified mission that is easy to sum up: This is a book of retellings, and Link isn’t shy about that. Following each of her story’s titles is a second, parenthetical title, alerting the reader to the traditional folktale she retells. But true to form, each story takes a different approach to retelling.

Opening the collection—and providing one of the two eponymous animals—is “The White Cat’s Divorce.” Here, Link retraces many of the same major plot points as the French fairy tale “The White Cat.” In the original, a wealthy king sends his three sons on a series of quests, ostensibly to see which will become his heir. There are classic tropes: the rule of threes, talking animals, and magical transformations. In Link’s version, these elements are infused with a contemporary context. The rich father is a member of our modern billionaire class. He is obsessed with maintaining his youth, receiving “blood transfusions from adolescent donors.” While absurd, this pursuit is not altogether far-fetched given the current hobbies of our planet’s wealthiest men. We follow the youngest son, a boyish man desperate for parental love—like so many children of billionaires. Lost in a snowstorm, he asks a group of cats for help. “Please, can you assist me? I have AAA, but my phone has no reception out here.” The story is full of such one-liners, starting firmly in a fairy tale but tendriling out to reach us with our roadside assistance and our overreliance on smartphones. The cats—by the way—work on a marijuana farm in Colorado.

In “The Game of Smash and Recovery,” Hansel and Gretel are cast not into our world, but into science fiction. This story’s protagonist is Anat, a young girl who lives with her brother. She has limited memory of her past or understanding of her present. We learn that the siblings are on a planet inhabited by vampires. Like the original fairy tale, their parents have abandoned them. The fun—and tragedy—of this story is putting the pieces together, following the proverbial breadcrumbs, if you will, along with Anat toward the revelatory conclusion.

“Skinder’s Veil” is the final story, a reimagining of “Snow-White and Rose-Red” that spins a layered philosophical and psychological tale. “Once upon a time there was a graduate student,” it begins. And so we meet Andy, who is struggling through his dissertation and annoyed with his roommate. He’s agreed to house-sit at a remote cabin that belongs to someone named Skinder. There are only two rules to follow: allow any friend of Skinder’s to come inside, but never let Skinder in. This story features quirky characters, embedded fairy tales, and a puzzle that circles around and in on itself. It also features a black dog so that, in a lovely symmetry with the opening story, we have our bookended title.

It is a standout in the collection and I am left still thinking about it. Elsewhere in the book, Link reimagines a Scottish ballad, a Norwegian tale, and German stories collected by the Brothers Grimm. Link brings us a love story that takes us to hell, a main character stuck at an airport hotel, and a post-plague future where corpses must be left on display to ward off a vague evil.

It's always hard to review short story collections because it's inevitable that some stories are stronger than others. That's not the case with White Cat, Black Dog - there really were no stinkers here! This is my first collection by Kelly Link and it won't be the last.

There's truly something for everyone in White Cat, Black Dog. The stories all have elements of magic, with some being more whimsical (The Lady and the Fox), some spooky (The White Road), and even a bit of sci-fi (The Game of Smash and Recovery). I'm not familiar with the fairy tales behind retold here, and while I imagine you will get more from the stories if you are, I still enjoyed them very much.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite story from this collection so I will narrow it down to three:

The White Cat's Divorce: A wealthy man sends his three sons on errant tasks to earn their inheritance/prove their love to him (really he just wants them to leave). Elements of fantasy - dogs small enough to fit in nut shells, magic swords, talking cats. I loved the silly moments here (a dispensary full of weed farming cats? Say less) and the puns were great.

The White Road: Eerie and super unsettling post-apocalyptic tale. A performance troupe travels from town to town. A body must be displayed as tribute or The White Road will come for you. A whole town seems to vanish into thin air. This story reminded me a bit of Station Eleven, but more sinister.

Skinder's Veil: A man is tasked with housesitting in a remote part of Vermont. The house comes with a set of strange rules and even stranger visitors. This story was strange and engaging the whole way through. I thought it was going to get dark and am glad it didn't.

I'd recommend White Cat, Black Dog to anyone who likes fairy tales or just whimsical/weird stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the review copy.