I like collections of short stories because when you are not in the mood or have the time to read a full length novel sometimes it’s nice to pick one of these up, blow through a quick story to pass the time and still feel like you achieved that satisfying ending. No lingering questions of what is going to happen, who did what, how is the author possibly going to make this all work, etc because you got all your answers in those few minutes you had to read – hence ‘short’ story.

Yolen kind of screwed me over with this one because I found her writing so intriguing and was absolutely captivated by her take on well-known fairytale and literary figures I couldn’t stop at just one or two I had to read through her whole collection including the poems and story notes at the end. If you know someone who likes fairytales, who is even a fan of Hans Christian Anderson, then you’re going to want to pick this up which luckily for you comes out before the Christmas holiday – there I just helped you mark an item off your list.

Yolen’s story notes with the poems at the end are worth it all by themselves to pick this up as you feel like you get to know her, as if she’s sitting with you by the fire one late wintry night spinning tales to enthrall and bemuse you. She is the epitome of what the title “storyteller” hopes to define.

I have never read anything by her before and more is the pity that I have missed out on years’ worth of being entertained by her talent. In the Irish culture from which my family comes the Storyteller, or SeanchaÍ, was held in high esteem. They kept the histories alive and were heavily relied on since they were the only way to keep them from getting lost. Yolen does a remarkable job of taking up the torch in spirit.

You get to relive stories and people from long ago in a whole new way such as Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz, Anderson’s Snow Queen, Alice in Wonderland, Edgar Allen Poe with his Raven, Robin Hood, legends from Arthur’s genre and nods to works from across time periods and cultures. Her work entertains certainly but it also leaves you feeling intellectually satisfied.

A collection of short fiction by Jane Yolen. Yolen is known for her fairy-tale retellings, but she doesn't restrict herself to fairy tales here, by any means - though several of the stories combine fairy tales with other literature, history, or author biography. The first story, for example, blends the real life of Hans Christian Anderson (to whom Yolen has been compared) with his story of the Snow Queen; the last has Emily Dickinson in space. In between are several Alice in Wonderland stories, a Peter Pan and Wendy story, a Robin Hood story, a Wizard of Oz story, several Arthurian stories (something else for which the author is known), and stories that play off such diverse originals as Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" and O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" (mashed up with "Beauty and the Beast"). There's one based on Scottish history and legend, with no specific literary model that I noticed, and another on the relationship between Queen Victoria and Disraeli (involving kabbala).

The author's note at the end talks interestingly about each story, interleaved with poems.

Frequently, especially early on in the book, the fictional heroines fight (with some effectiveness) against the patriarchy, but that's not the only theme of the book. The lure and terror of the wonderful is probably the most dominant impression I took away, which is a very fairy-tale element.

Did I love it? I'd have to say I didn't completely love it, and one or two of the stories (such as the Oz one) fell a bit flat for me, being more a series of odd events than a story with an arc of development. That could just be a matter of my taste, or mood at the time I was reading. Yolen is a highly skilled, and highly literate, author, and at their best the stories were moving and thought-provoking.

I received a review copy from Netgalley.

A very powerful, heartwarming and heartbreaking story!