3.5 Stars. I haven’t read anything by Jane Yolen since middle school, but I remember that I had enjoyed her writing, so I was excited to receive these reimagined fairytales and fables. Most of the stories are very short and fast reads.

The stories I enjoyed most were ‘The Bridge’s Complaint,’ ‘Granny Rumple,’ and ‘Sleeping Ugly.’

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an unbiased review.

Jane Yolen is a master at fracturing fairy tales and other myths and legends. She fractures them in many ways; some change the story so that it becomes more inclusive or so the villains get what they deserve. Others bring out a sense of warmth or poignancy that was lacking in the original tale. Still others create darker twists, hinging on darker aspects of these tales that often get ignored. She finds inspiration from a wide variety of sources, some of which may be unfamiliar to readers.

Fair warning: some of these stories do deal with sexual violence and other difficult themes. That shouldn't be too surprising, as once you get past sanitized versions in children's books, the original tales can be quite disturbing. I think Yolen does a great job of handling these issues, but I thought I'd call attention to it because while some of the stories in this collection were previously published for children, this volume as a whole is not.

This is a wonderful collection of stories. Yolen's writing is beautiful and thoughtful, and this collection demonstrates an impressive range of what one can do with old folklore.

Really enjoyable collection of short stories based on fairy tales. The re-imaginings are both creative and enjoyable, with new perspectives and unexpected narrators.

In this book Jane Jolen decided to recreate fairy tales giving them an alternative ending. I laughed through all the stories. Some of the stories were well known to me, others were new since I had never read the original story, but now that I finished the book I'm anxious to read the originals that inspired Jane Yolen to re-imagine such wonderful stories. My favorites I have to say we're the Snow White story that she centered in mother times U. S. A. Then there was the one about the Bad Wolves in the Happy Den old home. I also loved the story of Rumpelstiltskin set as a Jewish money lender who was misunderstood and killed at the end for no fault of his own. Love all the stories, can't wait to talk about this book with other people.

I feel terrible saying this as a Jane Yolen fan, but I wasn't in love with this book. It's an anthology of fractured fairy tales, and I love a reinterpreted classic story, so I'm frustrated I can't write a more positive review.

This is NOT a "bad" book. It's fun, it's an interesting concept, and there are some lovely standouts. "Mama Gone" is both a twist on a vampire story and a thoughtful piece on loss. "Happy Dens" is a hilarious take on the antihero story, with the most famous of fairy tale villains, wolves. "The Bridge's Complaint" gives voice to the rather important, voiceless Bridge.

But a lot of the stories just felt like creative writing exercises. Really good writing exercises that make me want to read the final product, but unfinished pieces nonetheless. It was frustrating and by the end it felt like I hadn't really read a book.

I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a collection of retold and twisted fairy tales so much since I read Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber and other stories’. I’d never read any Jane Yolen books before but this has made me keen to seek out more. If I had one small niggle it was that some of the stories felt a little too short. Very enjoyable collection otherwise.

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, ranging from lush to outwardly bizarre takes on classic well-known tales. I liked it a lot more than I originally thought that I would. But as with books consisting of short stories, I find it difficult to review the book as a whole, so instead, I'm going to highlight a few of my favourite stories from this collection.
The Bridge's Complaint.
I really enjoyed this one, and it was unique because of its central point of view, that which is from an inanimate object, a bridge. I enjoyed reading about the bridge's tales originally told from a troll.
Godmother Death.
I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I absolutely love any sorts of re-tellings and/or personifications related to death, the angel of death and others. And so this story was especially interesting to read, and I quite enjoy tales told from somebody simply recalling a story somebody else told them. In this case, godmother death.
Happy Dens.
This was by far my favourite story. An original spin on a nursing home, certainly, this story entails the untold stories of well-known wolves in classic tales like the Three Little Pigs, where of course the wolf is portrayed as the bad guy of the story. This story sets out to paint such wolves in a different light, cleverly suggesting there are two sides to the same coin, and so far a world has only looked upon one side and taken it as absolute fact.
Brother Hart.
I just found the very present theme of family in this story very heartwarming, though it has heartbreak as well, but the enchantment in this one is interesting, especially since it's never really explained. But in this case, it makes it more enchanting to have finished reading.
Slipping Sideways Through Eternity.
This one was a bit confusing at first, and by the end, you're a bit less confused but still haven't really been explained anything to. However, there's a payoff so it's acceptable. This was really sad, taking place in the Holocaust. You really just need to read it to really understand the emotions that come with it.
Great Grandfather Dragon's Tale.
Told in the point of view of an old grandfather dragon to his young dragon grandchildren, this story entails the history of how dragons and humans came upon an agreement that impacted both creatures of this very day. This has a present theme of story-telling, as most of the stories in here do, however, this one is more impactful considering it's centred around dragons.
The Golden Balls.
What the hell. I don't know what else I can possibly say about this one.
The Woman who Loved a Bear.
I was getting serious 'Brother Bear' vibes with this one, once the bear of the story actually shows up, and the child which the grandfather is telling this story to is very impatient for the bear to come in. This is fantasy but one that clearly mirrors colonialism, it was transfixing from start to finish, and if you didn't see the plot twist from the beginning, the payoff at the end should be just magnificent for you.

I really liked a few stories in this collection, but overall it didn't wow me. The fact that the stories were drawn from other anthologies shows, as there was a huge variation in the tone of the stories that I found a bit jarring. This is worth reading if (like me) you love fairy tale retellings, but it isn't the best option out there.

3.5 stars actually

This book was a joy to read. I really love short stories and the ones I enjoy the most are retellings of fairy tales or those that are reminiscent of the old tales I have known by heart since I was a little kid.

This is the first Jane Yolen book I have ever read and I was gripped by it with the synopsis alone. When I was granted an ARC of this book, I got excited and immediately read it.

I enjoyed reading this book but it had its negative points. There were stories I wasn't able to comprehend that much, mostly because of the seemingly archaic writing style and the confusing allusions and innuendoes imbedded in them. Also, there were stories that were TOO SHORT to be insufficient and I was left hanging and confused at the end.

Nevertheless, there were stories I completely loved. I also adore how Yolen "fractured" the tales and gave them different twists. I would also love to praise this book for its dragon content.

All in all, How To Fracture A Fairy Tale is an entertaining book for fans of fairy tales and retellings, like me. If you also love dragons, I highly recommend this book.

This is a beautiful collection of stories that feels like I'm discovering fairytales all over again. Yolen's constant awareness and wit fractures plots and characters archetypes into something new and familiar. Granny Rumple in particular brings this to mind as Yolen gives it a haunting familiarity for those who know their Jewish history - the spilled blood, fear in the air, and a family torn apart in a patter that repeats for hundreds of years. Her other stories also demonstrate how fairytales do not exist in a vacuum, and are products of the cultures and people that give birth to them. This reminds us the power of stories, and is something she expands on in her notes in the end. In fact, I wish more anthologies had these author's notes because it really does show the fun and creativity that was involved.

I would recommend this to fans of fairytales, those who suffered hearing my undergrad research on monster narratives, and folklorists, Buy a physical copy because this should be something to cherish.

On a side note: do you know how hard it is to find reimagined Jewish folktales? I am literally going to throw copies of 'How to Fracture a Fairy Tale' at my friends because there are now more to read.

Thank you to Tachyon publishing for the arc of this book, I did enjoy the retelling of these old fairy tales, Cinderella was my favourite, but I have come to the conclusion short stories aren’t for me, they are too short, I wanted a couple of these stories to carry on, but over all a good read.