The idea of re-imagining or re-contextualizing fairy tales in order to make a statement isn't necessarily fresh-- I personally have read dozens of books that do the same-- but this collection stands out as one of the best examples of that idea. Gill is a skilled poet, who presents interesting ideas and pulls ideas out of worn-out fairy tales, like Cinderella, as well as less-common ones for American audiences, such as Scheherazade or Baba Yaga. Even some familiar ones, like, the Little Mermaid, come back with siren's teeth.

Wow... this is basically everything I love when someone says “reimagined fairytales.” This collection of poems reads like magic spells and hope and healing. There is some that read a little too heteronormative and amanormative for me, but I still loved this so much. Boy Lost is probably my favorite and several of the others made me cry a little. This is just so powerful and amazing and...wow....

This collection of poems, short stories and other writings by Nikita Gill was a unique look at the fairy tales a lot of us grew up with. Some of the perspectives were reversed, told instead from the villain's side in an attempt to humanize them and to convey the message that there can be more going on than it may at first appear.

The writing itself wasn't very strong, and some of the points/messages got a bit repetitive. However, the addition of doodles and sketches was a really nice touch!

After reading the first few pages, I thought for sure that this book was not for me.
By the time I got to the end of "The Fable in Thermodynamics" I was officially a Nikita Gill fan.

This book is full of incredibly brilliant, and beautiful verses. Verses that will stay with you, verses that you will want to share with your friends, or just read to yourself over and over again.

Nikita Gill takes the fairy tales we were all told as kids, and turns them completely around. She turns the helpless heroine into an empowered, free woman, and turns the villains we all loved to hate, into a flawed human being who is simply misunderstood. Maybe Little Red Riding Hood doesn't need a woodsman to save her. (The Red Wolf gave me goosebumps) Maybe Captain hook is a scared little boy whose only friend left him.
She also writes moving original stories about why the sun sets, or why the leaves change colors in Autumn.

This book was beautiful. I could not get enough.