Although well-written, this book just didn't fully capture my interest the way I wanted it to. However, this would be the perfect book to offer a child during readers advisory looking for a collection of intriguing and unique short stories.

This is a collection of fairy tales, popular and not, that Yolen has "fractured." Some of them were close to the originals, while others strayed so far that I had to search for their inspiration.

I'm torn on my feelings about this book. Some of the short stories I quite enjoyed, while others I found bizarre and off-putting. My favorite part was the end, where the author revealed a bit about the inspiration for each story, as well as included an original poem for each. I almost wish that they preceded or followed each story directly instead of being grouped together at the end.

This was a very interesting book, and I honestly have never read one like it. The premise is that the author takes common fairy tales or stories and changes them around. She even explains what she changes somewhat in the back of the book. I thought that this was super interesting, and I loved seeing a bunch of my favorite tales. The changes she made to some of the stories made them so much more interesting and fresh. I just haven’t seen those kinds of renditions of my favorite stories. However, some of the stories were just kind of dull. As much as I loved some of them, others just didn’t have the same quality to them. I’m sure that a lot of people would really enjoy this, if only for some of the stories in it.

I'm usually a big fan of fairy tales retellings, they're so flexible and have evolved so much already. I even wrote a paper on that subject in college, comparing several versions of Sleeping Beauty. But sadly How to Fracture a Fairy Tale didn't live up to my expectations.

I'll start with a few Trigger Warnings: murder, rape, violence, concentration camps, hate crime, incest (and paedophilia, I guess), ... This sure ain't Disney.

I did love a few stories.
- Godmother Death has a very calm but sinister atmosphere and I really enjoyed it. The ending was unexpected and I thought the story made a great fairy tale.
- Granny Rumple moved me. Rumplestiltskin being jewish makes total sense and I'd very much like to read the author's paper about the original tale. This was a unique and fresh retelling, like I was hoping to get in this book.
- Sun/Flight was an interesting idea too, because I like the idea of writing fairy tales out of actual mythology. I would have loved to read more of these.
- Mama Gone was heartbreaking but beautiful. Probably my favourite.
- Wrestling with Angels is another mythology retelling, though Christian this time, and again, I thought it was interesting to read. Just like Sun/Flight, I thought there was a lot of potential in rewriting this type of legend and I would have liked more.

The other stories didn't really stick with me, two being actual disappointments:
- Slipping Sideways through eternity is the first one. Not only was I not so won over by the actual tale, reading in the notes that we could have had an Hansel and Gretel instead of this recycled concept of a book the author had already published? Missed opportunity here. I would have loved to read about a Nazi getting thrown in one of their own ovens (is it bad taste?).
- Allerleirauh, but mostly for an inaccuracy, the tale itself is okay. Yolen says she based this story on a variant of Cinderella but the incestuous father who promises to only marry a woman as beautiful as his dead wife and the dresses the colour of the sun, the moon and the stars sound closer to Donkeyskin.

Overall, what really bugged me was the lack of consistancy. We have 28 fairy tales, mashed together. No structure, no logic, they were written and published seperately over the years (ALL of them, there's no previously unpublished tale in the book, "only" 20 new poems) and brought together with no common theme. Why no Beauty and the Beast while there are three (four, if you count Allerleirauh, which I don't) Cinderella retellings? The possibilities were endless. Parallel Perrault's books in the structure. Write completely new tales. Write fairy tales out of biblical stories, or any mythology out there. Famous tales with a jewish perspective. There are many "fractured" fairy tales out there, now, I was hoping for a sharper angle.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed reading the jewish angle in those who had it. I already mentioned Granny Rumple but I'll do it again because it's in my opinion one of the best. It sticks very close to the original but has a completely fresh perspective. Another thing I was glad to read was the author's notes at the end, though I did wish they'd followed each story instead of all being at the end of the book. It was interesting to learn how each of them had come to life.


In the end, I'm not impressed. I definitely see some potential in some of these stories and some I really loved, but they were too few for me to consider the whole book worth reading.

Thank you so much to Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book!

Good for fans of the classic fairy tales and those who love twisted stories. I can see this studied in a classroom setting for folklore and fairy tale scholars as easily as I can see it on a casual reader’s bookshelf.

This was my first foray into the fairy tale world of Jane Yolen and it has definitely persuaded me to return to her again. This collection of re-tellings/fracturings throws sand in the face of some of the most well-known stories and has a strong feminist streak running through that I enjoyed. Some of the tales are funny, some are melancholic but all of them are well crafted and compelling. One of my favourites was 'Happy Dens or A Day in the Old Wolves' Home', which features a group of famous wolves, now in their old age, telling their stories from their own perspective. It was funny and heart warming and certainly poked a finger at the way in which we in the West treat our elderly citizens. Another favourite was 'Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale', which shows how George really tackled the dragon. All in all, this is a great collection with a little something for everyone and I really liked the notes on each story included, giving an insight into the creative process behind the tales.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review,

Rating 4/5

ANY fairytale retelling I need in my hands yesterday so of course when I saw this I requested and ARC! This is a collection of short stories in which the author takes beloved classics and tears them down to reveal their darkest secrets and twists them into her own versions! I loved each and every retelling - it was such an eye opener to the different POVs here vs. what I've seen with other retellings and movies. Ms. Yolen captures your heart from the very beginning and far exceeds your expectations! I cannot wait for Volume 2 if she chooses to do one!

A major problem with fairy tales is they were written for a very different era. A time when science was barely known, and a woman’s only acceptable career choice was to be a wife. So I loved seeing Jane Yolen updated them in How to Fracture a Fairy Tale.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is more Brothers Grimm than Disney Princess. It’s dark and gruesome, and I couldn’t recommend them to small children. Not all the stories have a moral (not all traditional fairy tales have a moral either). Some reviews claim they are all re-writes of existing fairy tales, but I can’t name all the originals. That could be more my limited fairy tale knowledge though. There’s a behind the story section at the end, what I wish was with each fairy tale.

There are 28 tales over more than 300 pages. It drags in part, but with 28 different stories it makes sense I wouldn’t love them all. It opens with Snow in Summer, a Snow White retelling of what happens to the evil witch. Personally, I loved this for the accent it was written in. I heard a Southern US accent while I read, but the next story had a totally different voice. Happy Dens was a snippet of life in a retirement home for wolves. It seems the Big Bad Wolf didn’t get boiled in the pot after all.

My favorite fairy tale was Slipping Sideways Through Eternity. I don’t know what is the original story, but it’s a Jewish girl in New York who can see a spirit. The spirit takes her back to the WWII concentration camps where she saves her grandmother.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale wasn’t really a how to (more a here are), and it’s not a binge read, but it is a good read.

I have to start with the forward (introduction). Meyers is a Queen in her own right, and reading her intro to the stories was a pleasant, easy read that made me even more eager to jump into the collection.
Over all, I really enjoyed the collection. Yolen's stories were well thought out. It was a collection of stories, most easily identifiable, with each story not exactly as it should be. I expected each story to be based on a different tale, much like a typical collection of fairy tales, but that is not the case. While there truly are about a thousand different ways you can spin the story of Cinderella, the repetitive nature of those types of stories did bog down the global feel of the book. Several times I felt like I was reading something I'd already read, simply because the basis was the same. This could be because I read them all in one sitting. Maybe if broken up over the course of a few days, it would not have seemed redundant.

ALL THAT ASIDE.... These stories. WOW. The original ideas were flowing, the metaphors were strong, and the puns -- yes I picked up on puns -- were spot on. Yolen took tales that we thought we knew and shed new light onto them. From a stepmother swallow up by the earth, to a Godmother that decided who lived and who died - there is literally something for everyone. The characters were well written and dynamic, even in such a short amount of characters. Each story created it's own world, a distinct place - different from the last. It was beautiful and heartbreaking all at once. Each story gave me a shred of hope, and many yanked that hope and drug it deep down into the belly of hell. I could not get enough of this collection, and I was telling people about specific stories (Particularly Godmother Death) for weeks afterwards.

Yolen's brilliant use of analog and world building left me breathless, and some times in awe of the investment I'd made in such a short time. While I have read some complaints of works going over reader's heads, I found that not as true for me. There were some that really made me think about what Yolen was saying, but over all - I felt like the stories connected solidly. I loved that there was an index of notes about each story in the back of the book. This was immensely helpful when sorting out my own feelings about each story.

I give this collection a 4/5 stars! I did not care for the repetition, and I do want to warn people that it is not sunshine and rainbows. Some of this is dark, and twisted. But, if this is your thing **It's totally mine!**, then dive in and enjoy!!

Here's the funny thing about fairy tales: they change their shape everytime they're told. Tell them a thousand times and you may not recognize them anymore. They could turn grim, or fantastical or fanciful. Fairy tales are what you make them, it seems. I found this especially true whilst reading Jane Yolen's How To Fracture A Fairy Tale.

As a lover of fairy tales and their various retellings, I was quite excited to start on this book and I was not disappointed. Jane Yolen spins beloved fairy tales into funny anecdotes, dark stories, and even not-so-fancy origin tales.

Each short story is delivered with a different style, which I enjoyed. This collection truly shows Ms. Yolen's versatility and knack for whimsical storytelling.

My only regret, really, is that most stories are way too short. I found myself wanting more.

I absolutely loved this book! I am in the process of writing a more detailed post for my blog later this week and will update it here as soon as it goes live. I wanted to make sure to get this feedback in as quickly as possible.

I really enjoyed this anthology of reworked fairytales.

While I could recognise the majority of tales within, each story is unique from the original. Dependant on the story in question, some make subtle nods while others tell the fairytales from a different point of view.

I feel like Happy Dens, Sliding Sideways Through Eternity and The Bridge's Complaint were my favourite but most others were enjoyable as well.

I found the explanations of how each was rewritten at the end of the book to be insightful as i find the whole process rather genius no matter the author. As an added bonus, the foreword is written by Marissa Meyer, a master of the twisted tale herself.

3.75- What an interesting take on fairy tales! This was an entertaining read with a different version of fairy tales,some I had heard of and some not. My favorite was the Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs story in which it is told from the wolves side of the story(see they weren’t as bad as you thought!).

A collection of 28 fractured fairy tales by the author as well as notes and poems related to each one. Some of the material is tied to other works by the author. There were several stories I enjoyed in the collection. Others were not my style. The notes could make this a good resource for writers and writing classrooms.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is an absolutely astonishing collection from the mind of Jane Yolen. If you’re a fan of fairy tales, or reading twisted versions of them (not to say that the original versions aren’t exceptionally twisted to begin with…) then this is something you may want to look into. Yolen has mastered the art of looking at a story in a different light, breathing new life into a tale told thousands of times.
But this novel isn’t just a compilation of short stories (though I would have been very happy with that much) but also notes on the stories, and even some poetry. Not every story has an explanation or a poem, but most of them have one or the other. It really adds to the depth of the tales being told. Personally, I loved this touch as I wasn’t always able to identify the fairy tale her works were being based off (more than one of them I was not familiar with in the first place, as it turns out).
The stories and poems here vary from whimsical to disturbingly dark; leaving the reader feeling haunted or chilled. Being that these are fractured fairy tales, most of them have a darker undertone. Sometimes the elements used could be considered disturbing, but they’re all beautifully written despite that.

Snow in Summer
It’s fairly easy to guess which tale Snow in Summer is based off of. And yet Yolen still was able to make reading her tale an experience. While one would assume it’d go a certain direction (the one we’ve all become so used to) Jane Yolen put a slight spin on it, not altering the core of the tale…but making it hers and adding unexpected elements.

The Bridge’s Complaint
Warnings: Animal death
The Bridge’s Complaint is one of my favorites in this collection; if nothing else than for its utterly unique view on telling the story. Who would have ever expected to hear The Three Billy Goats Gruff told from the perspective of the bridge it was set upon? It certainly wasn’t something I expected, but I have to admit that it worked really well in this instance.

The Moon Ribbon
I was able to identify The Moon Ribbon as a retelling of Cinderella – you can see some obvious elements from it right away. But I missed the second story that was pulled into this tale, to create the unique telling. Jane Yolen mentions in the back that she also used George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin as inspiration. While elements of both have been woven together here, the work is purely Yolen’s doing. You can see what she added (even without my knowing much about The Princess and the Goblin). I loved this tale. It read like a poem, and very appropriately it gave Cinderella the poetic justice I also felt it deserved (and by that I’m obviously referring to the step-mother and step-sisters).

Godmother Death
I’ll confess that I’d never heard of the tale that this one is based off – at least I don’t remember it if so. It’s a folklore called Godfather Death. So you can already see how it’s been altered to suit our writer’s needs. This is another one of my favorites from the collection. I loved the nature of Godmother Death – from her agreement to be a godmother to the way she handled her duties. It was all brilliantly done. And it wouldn’t be a true fairy tale if there wasn’t punishment for any attempt at trickery.

Happy Dens or A Day in the Wold Wolves’ Home
This one is more a collection of short stories within itself, but I love that change as well. How often do you hear of all the wolf based fairy tales being merged into one telling? (Well, conversation in this case). Never! By this point in the collection I found myself thoroughly impressed by all the unexpected elements I’ve come across. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised though, this sort of writing is exactly the reason why I’m a fan of Jane Yolen.
Here we see references and retellings of the Big Bad Wolf, The Three Little Pigs, and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. The first was my favorite of the retellings, but I don’t want to explain the reason and spoil it for everyone. Let’s just say that I really enjoyed the little reference made there.

Granny Rumple
Where Happy Dens made me smile, Granny Rumple broke my heart. It’s a retelling of sorts, though it feels too rooted in real life to be able to really say that. Essentially the story explores the concept of Rumplestiltskin being Jewish. This one broke my heart because there are times in our history where this sort of event truly would have happened. I suppose it struck too close to home, but that made it feel more real and less whimsical…but at the save time it was a terrifyingly good perspective. After all, fairy tales are meant to teach a lesson, and I certainly learned one here.

One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King
This was another tale that I didn’t recognize, but I was okay with that. This one is based off of Chinese folklore – pulling bits and pieces from several different tales (I couldn’t tell you which ones specifically – I’m going to have to add a few compilations of folklore to my TBR pile after this).
It’s a longer story, with lots of repetition and buildup…but I like the point that’s being made here. On the whole it’s much more positive than many of the others included in this collection, and I’m sure that was intentional (in the description at the end Jane Yolen mentioned that she considers Eastern folklore to be much more positive with their dragon lore).

Brother Hart
Brother Hart is based on another Grimm tale, which I think so far have all been my favorites by Yolen. I’ve noticed that she has come back a couple of times to the Hart/stag theme, and both times I’ve loved it.
The tale is based off of Little Brother, Little Sister. Though really it shows the events that follow the original story. That makes it unique among the others so far, in that it twists the fairy tale but also carries it forward.

Sun/Flight
Right away I could tell that this one was a variation on the tale of Icarus. It is more sea based than the original (or at least it felt that way to me) but in a way it also made it feel so much more…human. So I’m happy with every change that was made here.
I think this tale might actually continue after the tale of Icarus…but I don’t want to say that for sure. In this case I feel like knowing that as a fact may change the story. At least for me I think it would have.

Slipping Sideways Through Eternity
This is another sad tale, but again it’s because it’s so heavily rooted in the real world. It’s another tale by Jane Yolen where the main character is a little Jewish girl. Here she also travels through time, but for a different reason. It’s a retelling of Elijah, though I’m not an expert in that tale either. Still, it is breathtaking and heart wrenching and absolutely worth reading.

The Foxwife
This story is focused on the legend of kitsune, and it’s one of the lores that I personally can’t get enough of. Apparently this short story had originally been printed in Year’s Best Fantasy (from 1984), something I didn’t know before (I really should start reading those yearly collections!).
I love the take of the kitsune here. Even though she isn’t the main perspective, you can almost feel her emotions and see what she’s thinking. It was beautifully written, all the more so by having an unknowing human be the main perspective.

The Faery Flag
The Faery Flag is based on a real item – it’s a flag hanging up on Dunvegan Castle on the Isle of Skye (Soctland). It isn’t much to base a tale off of, but it’s no surprise that Jane Yolen succeeded in doing just that. It’s a tale of bargaining, faery deals, lore and rules, and oddly enough, of love. This is one that is better off read than described.

One Old Man, with Seals
According to Jane Yolen, One Old Man, with Seals is based off of Proteus, the Greek shapeshifter. It’s the tale of getting older, accepting the time one has left, and enjoying it. But it feels so much richer than the way I described it. It’s beautifully written, with a slightly eerie and ethereal tone to it.

Sleeping Ugly
Just by the title you can clearly tell that this is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Ever since I learned the much more disturbing original tale of this one I’ve had trouble enjoying it, so it was nice to see a new perspective take the reins.
Here the princess is quite beautiful on the outside, but very ugly on the inside. Then there’s the young maiden in the woods, who is the exact opposite. Now I’ll ask you, which one of those two would you say deserves the happily ever after of her dreams?

The Undine
This one is mostly based off the original Hals Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid, but it also has some influence in other French stories about mermaids (aka the undine). I’m using the terms mermaid and undine interchangeably here, which some people may argue with. However I believe that they have the same intent and connotation, especially in this story, so it’s okay.
It certainly has the more somber and despondent tones of the original tale; a sort of romanticized view on doomed love and the pain it can cause. However, it is from the undine’s perspective, and the prince feels like he would fit in with today’s time.

Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale
Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale is told as two stories in one. One is past tense, it’s the story the Great-Grandfather Dragon is telling, and the other is of the reaction to the little ones he’s telling it to. It’s an interesting tale, and oddly relaxing to read.
The tale itself is based off of St. George’s Dragon, and was inspired when Jane Yolen was compiling her dragon stories into a collection titled Here There Be Dragons.

Green Plague
Green Plague is a more modernized retelling of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. It’s satirical and doesn’t really look all that kindly on the townspeople, though I suppose that isn’t terribly new, is it? Here the people of Hamelin prosper from their past and the lore that they carry, only to let themselves fall into the very same mistakes all over again.

The Unicorn and the Pool
The Unicorn and the Pool blends an older unicorn and Jesus into the same character. The wise unicorn is willing to sacrifice himself to save others, even though it’s one amongst them that caused the problem to begin with.
It’s a short tale, and it is utterly heartbreaking as well. You can tell right away where the tale will lead, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

The Golden Balls
The Golden Balls is a retelling of The Princess and the Frog. I never read the original tale (well, either of the originals, as it turns out) so I can’t speak directly to the changes made. I will say that this one unsettled me the most. There’s implied rape, which to be fair not only fits in with the time (it could be an allegory to the arranged marriages many princesses faced) but also the brother’s cruelty for allowing (encouraging more like) it to happen.

Sister Death
Sister Death is a blend of Lilith and the Angel of Death. This is one of those stories that starts out interesting, even as you know it’s bound to break your heart. And it certainly does. Based heavily in Jewish lore, the Sister Death has to carry away countless dead children – especially during the time of the Holocaust. It’ll break your heart, I promise you that. But it is still worth reading. Sometimes the hardest tales to read are the ones that we must read.

Sule Skerry
Sule Skerry is a tale of selchies. If you’ve read any selchie lore, then you’ll know that they’re fairly famous (infamous) for finding and impregnating young maidens. Apparently they can even do so when they’re at deaths doors. Truth be told, I’m not surprised by that revelation. What made this tale fractured was the time Jane Yolen chose to base it in, and how it all played out.

Once a Good Man
Once a Good Man is based off of Jewish and Chinese tales. Here the main character, and older and quite wonderful man, has asked to see both heaven and hell so that he may be happy knowing it. The differences between two are surprisingly slight, but incredibly important to make note of.

Allerleirauh
Allerleirauh is another retelling of Cinderella. I think that makes two (so far) in this collection. However, it is very very different from others, even the first one included here. I’ll be honest with you here – I didn’t realize it was a Cinderella variant when I was reading it. I can see it now though. It’s based off of one of the three original versions of the tale (all very dark, of course). This one is fairly disturbing, and incestuous (as was the original it’s based off), so consider yourself warned.

The Gwynhfar
This one is a retelling of Arthurian legend, while also very much being commentary on the practice to marry off (aka sell off) princesses to dukes and other esteemed men. There’s no doubt left on how Jane Yolen feels of the practice, not after you’ve read this tale.

Cinder Elephant
Cinder Elephant is the third Cinderella retelling in this collection. It’s also the last Cinderella retelling included, in case you were curious. With this tale we have all three of the original versions in one fractured form or another. This was probably my second favorite of the three, and there are many reasons for that. It feels like the happy medium you’d expect between the original and the Disney version, but of course with a twist or two. The only thing that wasn’t changed was how dull the prince was (who needs a shoe to identify the woman he supposedly loves?).

Mama Gone
This one is a vampire story. It’s very straightforward, but the emotions and turmoil in it will keep you reading until the very end. You never really see a tale quite like this one. The vampire is not a wealthy count, nor do they really appear to be capable of rational thought. It’s brilliantly written, and that’s coming from a vampire snob.

The Woman Who Loved a Bear
According to Jane Yolen, The Woman Who Loved a Bear is based on Native American lore. I love that Jane Yolen pointed out that she isn’t Native American, and that she hopes she did justice to the original tale. It’s not every day you see somebody that sensitive to the original material. It’s easy to read the title and assume that the bear is an actual bear, as opposed to a person (and member of a specific tribe). This one was really well written, though I really can’t comment on the original lore and the differences between the two.

Wrestling with Angels
This one is a modern retelling of Jacob and the time he wrested an angel. I honestly never would have expected to see this tale based in New York, and yet here we are! It adds an interesting perspective to the well known tale.

I've said it before I love me a good fairy tale re-telling but........... this was not at all what I expected to be honest. These didn't even feel like fairy tales, some of them sure but the rest not so much. I had a very hard time finishing this book. Meh.

This is a stunning collection of fairytales that are slightly or sometimes monstrously twisted. fractured totally changed in intent and content to the brilliant pen of Jane Yolen. A chapter at the end features an author's note and poem for each tale often explaining how the tale was fractured.The book is full of tales from around the world some familiar others not so much but all enchanting. A fun read!!!! Great as bedtime stories for adults.

First of all, I'm a complete sucker for fairy tale retellings. All the more when they aren't your typical, prince-rescues-princess-and-they-live-happily-ever-after type stories. I love a good twist and a dark underside to fairy tales (which, if you read a lot of the ORIGINALS...was often the case!). When I saw this book was a collection of short retellings I immediately requested it and was absolutely delighted to receive it just a few days before it came out! It's now available and totally worth checking out. :) Also, apparently Jane Yolen is something of a MG/YA fantasy scion...and I had never heard of her. Ever. Never read any of her books, didn't have any of them on my TBR.

The Stories

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale contains tales from many different countries. Some of them I recognized, some of them I did not. They were all interesting and most of them entertaining! Some of them were funny, like one of the two Cinderella shorts. A couple raised the hairs on the back of my neck (most specifically the very last one in the book, "Wrestling With Angels." My favorite of all the tales though, was "Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale," which is a cute and funny remake of Saint George and the Dragon.

A few of the tales are most definitely only suited to a YA or older audience, as they contain heavy implications of sexual assault or rape if they don't state it outright. I was a bit startled by these, to be honest, as they don't really seem to fit in with the overall tone of the book...but then, the collection is very random. The author has included, in the last section of the book, an explanation for why she told each tale the way she did, as well as given a poem for each. It is extremely fascinating, but I think due to the randomness as well as the content of this particular section, a lot of younger readers will lose interest and probably only read the stories - which are the important part, anyway!

Review will be posted at the link below on 10 November 2018.

This is a collection of Ms. Yolen’s stories, all having to do with fairy tales or legends. They span the gamut from the traditional European Cinderella tale, to China, to the Cheyenne plains, to a concentration camp, to Ninety-Sixth near Central Park. All of the stories were published previously, though the notes and some of the poems at the end of the book are new. There are quite a few of them, some only a few pages and a few near novella length, so I’ve written a quick sentence review for each.

Miss Nancy’s stories had always ended happy-ever-after. But she used to add every time: “Still you must make your own happiness, Summer dear.”


“Snow in Summer” – four stars. This read a little bit like Little House on a Prairie Snow White.

“The Bridge’s Complaint” – three stars. Three Billy Goat’s Gruff from the POV of the bridge.

“The Moon Ribbon” – four stars. If someone takes something from you, are you giving it?

“Godmother Death” – four stars. Can you trick death?

“Happy Dens or A Day in the Old Wolves’ Home” – three stars. Retellings of various wolf fairy tales (Peter and the Wolf, Three Little pigs, Little Red Riding Hood) as told rom the the wolves’ point of view, as they’re waiting for dinner in a retirement home. An interesting view of “spinning” stories, but a bit much for me.

“Granny Rumple” – four stars. Rumpelstiltskin, but as a Jewish pogrom. This was.. difficult to read, but it was thought provoking as to how family stories handed down through time start to resemble fairy tales.

“How can I choose between my dear sons?” she always answered. “I love you each the best.” And with that answer, they had to be content.”


“One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King” – 5 stars. I loved this one. I had an old book of Chinese fairy tales, and this particular tale reminds me of them. I loved how the brothers worked together to save their mother.

“Brother Hart” – 3 stars. I’m not familiar with the source material, and I’m not quite sure what to make of this one.

“Sun/Flight” – 3 stars. A sort of Icarus tale, but with more some parts made more fantastical and some made less.

“Why are we here?” I trembled as I spoke.
“Ah, Rebecca—that is always the most important question.” His r’s rattled like a teakettle left too long on the stove. “The question we all need to ask of the universe.” He smiled at me. “You are here because I need you.”


“Slipping Sideways Through Eternity” – 5 stars. Oof, this story. Absolutely heart wrenching, but it is amazing the insight Ms. Yolen has into the mind of a teenage girl. It felt like being fifteen again.

“The Foxwife” – 3 stars. There is something here, I think, about angry men and the changing love of fatherhood, but I think I missed the point.

“The Faery Flag” – 3 stars. Love between partners, and love between a mother and child.

“One Old Man, with Seals” – 4 stars. A fairytale for a voracious news-consuming retired librarian? Why not?

“Sleeping Ugly” – 4 stars. Cute and funny, felt a bit like a children’s book.

“The Undine” – 3 stars. Little mermaid, but more focused on the prince than the mermaid.

“Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale” – 5 stars. St. George and the Dragon, as told by an elderly dragon to his grandkids. One of my favorites!

“Green Plague” – 4 stars. A modern day Pied Piper, but with frogs and rock bands. Amusing, and a bit of small town political commentary, as well.

“The Unicorn and the Pool” – 2 stars. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea about this one. It feels like a parable about Jesus.

“The Golden Balls” – 3 stars. I loved the Frog Prince as a child, but did always wonder how the princess would get along with the frog, and if the frog would actually be happy with a princess who keeps losing her dang balls.

“Sister Death” – 4 stars. Unsettling story about Death becoming a mother.

“Sule Skerry” – 4 stars. A Selkie tale, set during World War II. Another one that’s from the POV of a semi-modern girl.

“Once a Good Man” – 4 stars. A short parable about heaven and hell, almost Biblical in nature.

“Allerleirauh” – 3 stars. Unexpected incest.

“The Gwynfahr” – 3 stars. Arthur and Guinevere, if Guinevere was an albino and Merlin was, well, a merciless conman intent on reunifying the clans.

“Cinder Elephant” – 4 stars. Ridiculous and hilarious, with three! morals to boot.

“Mama Gone” – 5 stars. Probably tied with the dragon tale for my favorite. A vampire tale set in an rural area, but most of all, how a teen girl says goodbye to her dead mother.

“The Woman Who Loved a Bear” – 4 stars. A Cheyenne tale. I loved the interjections from the grandson an the grandfather’s response to him saying it couldn’t be “real.”

“Wrestling with Angels” – 3 stars. An interesting end to the book.

The rest of the book is notes on each tale, each with an accompanying poem, some of them written especially for the book.

Overall, this was quite an eclectic collection, and it was wonderful “catching up” with Ms. Yolen again. Highly recommended for fans of fairy tale retellings!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Fairy tales!
I absolutely love fairy tales and reading how people retell them or "fracture" them into different versions. I actually picked this book up because I recognized the author's name from picture books (that's just my life as a Children's Librarian), and wanted to see which tales she would pick and how they would be fractured.

I will say I was surprised at how many tales are featured! The last fairy tale type book I read was Language of Thorns which has longer tales, but just a few. This book has a different take with them being more fairy tale-like than full stories. Some make sense, some almost prompt an immediate re-read to more fully understand, and others were just a bit too out there for me.

These are not your children's fairy tales. Some of them are pretty intense. Others you might be able to read to your children but they might not understand the morals or what actually happened in the stories.

Ones I really liked:
Snow in Summer
The Bridge's Complaint
The Moon Ribbon
Happy Dens
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King
Brother Hart
One Old Man, with Seals
Sleeping Ugly
Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale
Cinder Elephant
--These tended to be longer ones because that is the style I like.

Most of the stories featured are bittersweet, you've got to realize that going in. There are also fairy tales fractures from outside the Western world, as well as some Jewish ones or takes of tales, which gives it a nice diversity. Honestly, I found myself thinking "wow, why so religious??" then realized how religious some stories are and I just never thought about it before because of my own privilege! Learn something new every day...

After the tales, there is a section with explanations about the tales--either how they came about and/or why they were included. This section includes poems that go along with the tale's theme or as a companion piece. I'm not big on poetry, but some were pretty nice. Just... by the time I hit the poems I was already feeling melancholy. Life is cruel...

Do I recommend this? If you like fairy tales and seeing different versions of them, you should really check this out. I'd also recommend this one to people looking for fairy tale inspired poems.