I jumped at the chance to read this early. I love all fairy tales, even those who have been re-imagined with new endings. Jane Yolen is a masterful storyteller and keeps the stories dark yet charming which is a difficult balance. There are stories from Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, Native American stories, Greek Mythology, Japanese folk tales, Celtic mythology and more.

They remind of the old Fractured Fairy Tales. There is a Snow White located in West Virginia and many other tales from around the world. I read an advance copy on my kindle and I’m pre-ordering it to add it into our geography studies.

I absolutely loved this collection of modern fairytales. Couldn't put it down.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

The title alone caught my attention, and then when I saw that this book was written by Jane Yolen, I knew I had to read it!

In an introduction by Marissa Meyer, she writes, "There is a history of tales told and retold that spans centuries--even millennia--and reaches to all corners of the globe."

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale, by Jane Yolen, is a collection of short stories and poems based on familiar fairy tales--but altered in fun, creepy, and imaginative ways. Yolen explains, "A fracture is a break . . . [it] can hurt like a sprain or reveal like a geode being split apart to show the jewels within."

Yolen takes well-known fairy tales and splits them apart, sometimes leaving them still quite familiar and other times shining a light from an unfamiliar angle to reveal new truths and possibilities.

This collection is a perfect choice to read when you have only a few minutes at a time to devote to the book. Read it while you're waiting at the doctor's office, or waiting in line to pick up your kids, or waiting anywhere!

Some of my favorite lines from the book:

"I felled her with a single blow of the fry pan."

"Of course he had the big bran-muffin eyes and the sled-jump nose and the gingko-leaf ears that identify a troll immediately."

"Instead she floated like a swan and the river bore her on."

3,5 stars

I will admit that I have never read anything by Jane Yolen before. But when this cover with that title, I mean how can you pass up How to Fracture a Fairytale as a title, passed me by I knew I had to give it a shot. This book is a collection of short stories Jane Yolen has read over the many years of her career. She is in her seventies. I had no idea.

A lot of these stories have been published in other anthologies before because of various prompts and anthology ideas. This book puts all of the explanation per story in the back. I think it would have done my reading a lot of good had each story had their explanation right after. There were some interesting things to read in there and each explanation came with a poem. Some of those had been published before too. Others were written just for this collection. It just felt weird to have all of the explanations in one go, like a big info dump.

There is a variety of stories in here, all retellings of fairytales or mythologies. Cinderella was however quite a reoccurring one with at least 3 stories based on it. It was fun to see though how each story was twisted a bit. My personal favorite of those three was Cinder Elephant as the main character here was fat. Unfortunately there was also some bodyshaming going on in this story which she does slightly address in her explanation but not enough.

I think what I liked seeing most was how a bunch of the stories had a Jewish character or Jewish influences. Jane Yolen herself is Jewish and I thought that was great to see. One does not often see Jewish characters in fantasy. With that came however some heavy topics like the concentration camps.

I had a large fondness for the story Mama Gone. I suppose that cut into my own mom heart. The emotional feelings along with the rising of a vampire. Of having to say goodbye. But there were also funny bits like the wolves in retirement home and a goat nurse.

Overall I think this is a great collection of short stories and poems to read if you enjoy fairytales. Yolen certainly has her own style and twists she makes. Not every story hit home for me, but what didn’t hit for me will hit for someone else. It is certainly worth the effort. But be aware of some heavy hitting subjects and triggers.

Note: I received a copy of How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am an absolute sucker for a retelling (as noted, in the fact that I participated in #retellathon this year). So, it should go without saying that I jumped at the chance to get an ARC of How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen.

Jane Yolen's name sounded familiar to me, but I'm unaware of any of her works & I'd have to admit that this short-story collection was a fantastic introduction to her writing.

Jane Yolen’s writing is beyond fantastic in each of these fairy tale retellings & with each story, her voice seamlessly changes to blend into the next fairy tale. Some are read in a more modern tone, while others read like the fairy tales that we are familiar with. I’ve also noticed that some of these retellings were based on stories I couldn’t quite place; thankfully, the afterwords dives deep into each story. Jane Yolen’s collection expands from Chinese Folklore to Greek Mythology.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale definitely takes creative license. For example, we get a retelling of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, but instead of hearing it as the troll is the villain, whilst the goats are the victims — we get the bridge’s point of view. Yes, what we might consider as an inanimate object, is actually telling us this story. & plot twist! Those darn goats are the bad guys here.

As Jane Yolen is Jewish, there is quite a bit of Jewish representation here. Although I’m not #ownvoices when it comes to being Jewish, I absolutely adored that this was something that How to Fracture a Fairy Tale contained.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale consists of several stories that stood out, but unfortunately, there were some that hung back in the shadows. My favorites include: Once a Good Man, Cinder Elephant, The Bridge’s Complaint, Happy Dens, and Stepping Sides through Eternity.

Although I’m only rating this book THREE STARS, I definitely understand how this collection can be well loved by others.

I often don't have too much to say about collections such as these, because often their stories are too easily spoiler-able to go into too much detail. What I will say is that this collection goes above and beyond the usual culprits when it comes to fairytale retellings and truly draws from a range of inspirations.

My absolute favourite of the collection is the idea of retelling 'The Three Billy Goats Gruff' from the perspective of the bridge. Personal anecdote time! My family used to play this game when I was very little whenever we went out onto the moors. Somewhere there is a picture of tiny Judith about to dash over the bridge, presumably while my mother sang the troll song which I do recall to this day, some eighteen years later. So that story touched a place in my heart. I think that the sheer number of fairytales covered in this collection should ensure that most people have a similar experience.

There are always going to be a mix of stories, some stronger than others, but I would say that, on the whole, there were more stories I enjoyed than stories I didn't - which is pretty much all you can ask for from a compilation.

I think this would make a lovely gift for the fairytale enthusiast in your life (it might be you). What I particularly appreciated was the author's notes at the back of the book, which just gives you a little bit more insight into the background of the story or her own process in writing it. I'm a sucker for reading about backgrounds and inspirations so this was a big selling point for me.

My rating: 3/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

What is there to say except “Jane Yolen wrote it.”? As with all the books of hers that I have read (no, I haven’t read them all), she catches hold of you and pulls you in. Some are traditional in feel, others make me want to go back and explore the originals again so I can try and see how she changes and morphs them about. I enjoyed every one!

Anthologies have always been difficult for me to review, which is why I will rarely request one from Netgalley. How do you rate an anthology? I suppose I took the lazy way out by simply looking into the number of stories that I really enjoyed, and I’d say it was about 3.5/5 of the book, so this gets 3.5 stars.

I will, however, tell you what I loved. In no particular order, I really enjoyed Godmother Death, The Foxwife, Brother Hart, Sule Skerry, The Woman Who Loved a Bear, and Wrestling with Angels. I gasped at the ending of Snow in Summer, teared up at Allerleirauh, felt awe for Slipping Sideways Through Eternity, giggled at The Green Plague, and rooted for the underdog in Sleeping Ugly. I didn’t feel much for the other tales, unfortunately, although none of them are bad.

My absolute favourite has got to be Once a Good Man. It’s a story about, well, a good man, who is allowed a wish from the Lord. He decides that he wants to see heaven and hell. I won’t spoil the end of the story, but I had somehow never heard the original folklore. I see in the notes that this was originally made for a children’s book, and I have to say, I would totally tell my future children this story. I cried, I read it again, and then I read it out loud to my fiancé. It will stay with me a long time.

I’d like to thank Tachyon Publications for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#HowToFractureAFairyTale #Netgalley

I’ve always loved Jane Yolen’s work. This collection of fairy tales retold was excellent. It covers mythology from around the world and puts an entirely new lens on time honored stories. I also enjoyed the poems at the end that went with every story. I look forward to recommending it to anyone in the mythology section, especially since it can be enjoyed by a large age range.

I will start by saying I love fairytales which is why the title How to Fracture a Fairy Tale enticed me. However, I feel like the book was more author notes than it was actual poems or stories of fairytales. I feel like something should have been done to make the poems stand out more especially since this is the first time I have ever heard or read anything from this author.

For my full review check out my blog at https://bookgirlreviewsbooks.blogspot.com

3.5 stars

When I started high school, I used to be this really awkward kid. Like I was very socially inept and I found it difficult to talk to people or make friends. I was in a new school and I found it difficult to adjust. My refuge then was the library. There, I spent hours scouring bookshelves and borrowing books. One of my great loves then were fairy tales. I read and re-read anthologies and collections of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. I must have re-read those countless times and had known the stories by heart then. I've forgotten a lot of them by now, but the love remains.

Eventually, I found my way towards twisted re-tellings of fairy tales and the love rekindled. I read short stories and even novels, marveling at the way various authors took the stories I loved and modernized them or made them darker. There were of course, some I liked, and some I didn't.

This short story collection is no exception. There are a lot of stories here, some I'm familiar with and some that I'm not. The stories are beautifully written with a whimsical writing style for some, and something more modern and utilitarian (?) for others. I don't know how to describe it, but there are some changes between writing styles I picked up in different stories. There are some which are more lyrical and poetic, and those which are not. There are also notes on how the author "fractured" the various fairy tales, which I really liked.

I'd say it's kind of a mixed bag. I have some that I loved here, and some that I felt meh about. I didn't really encounter anything that I hated and most stories I didn't feel strongly about are just okay to me.

I do have my favorites though and those are:

Happy Dens or A Day in the Old Wolves Home- As the title says, this takes place in a retirement home for wolves. I loved it because it involves the wolves telling their new nurse their sides of famous stories where they were the villains. I thought it was rather humorous and interesting.

Granny Rumple- This one is pretty dark. It re-imagines the story of Rumpelstiltskin and features Jewish moneylenders. Again, it's dark and also shows a lot of anti-semitism. It has a rather sad ending but the story is good, if tragic. Avoid reading this story if you don't want to see the anti-semitism.

The Faery Flag- A shorter story about an actual faery flag that exists in a castle in Scotland. Lyrical and poetic, it is about a Scottish lord who falls in love with a faery.

Sleeping Ugly- Re-imagines the Sleeping Beauty story featuring a princess with a bad attitude and a plain common girl with a heart of gold. Kind of short, maybe a little abrupt but I enjoyed the twist on the classic tale.

Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale- The myth of St. George basically. It talks about why the dragons and humans live separately and the boy (St. George) who negotiated between them. I liked how it re-imagined St. George and the dragons.

Overall, How To Fracture A Fairy Tale is a pretty good short story collection if you're a fan of twisted fairy tales. I highly recommend it for fairy tale fans, and even if you're not, I still think there's something here for everybody.

I love a good retelling and these are some of the best. I enjoyed trying to figure out the basis for each of these stories and was surprised at how dark some of them got. There were a couple that were downright disturbing, but still appropriate, considering the origins and intents of most fairy tales.

I've been a fan of Jane Yolen since I was a teenager in the 1970s. I am now (much) older than she was when I first starting reading her. Many of the books and authors I thought were brilliant as a teenager have not held up... this is not the case with Yolen, whose brilliance cannot be mistaken.

Some of these stories are funny, some are sad; some are old friends, some were new to me, but all were wonderful. Yolen is just a treasure, that's all.

This was my first encounter with Yolen’s work and it was a delightful surprise.

This collection gathers fairy tales from across Yolen’s lengthy and prolific career that are all twisted or ‘fractured’ in some way from their original telling. The stories range across cultures and traditions, some familiar but many new to me and the ‘fractured’ versions presented here so enjoyable that I’m curious to find more true versions. The fractures themselves take different approaches: new points of view, inversions on concepts, puns, shifts in time and place.

Yolen refers both narratively and as a narrative aside to telling stories to children and it comes through. Her stories are designed to be told. The stories feel designed to be read or performed out loud – they have the feel of an oral tradition. Proper storytelling, with all eyes on the teller and a fire nearby.

My favourites were:

The Bridge’s Complaint

The Moon Ribbon

Granny Rumple

One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox and the Dragon King

One Old Man, with Seals

Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale

Godmother Death

Not all of the stories were hits for me. Some felt too quick, the takes too shallow or I found myself skimming because the story hadn’t quite hooked me. The problem with having lots of, mostly quite short pieces, running on a similar narrative theme and tone is that it can read a bit same-y. You also have this feeling of ‘I liked it, but it wasn’t as good as this other one I just read’. It’s not that the collection is uneven per se, it’s more that there’s a lot of similar material back to back and I found myself getting fatigued. The really good ones still cut through and were enjoyable, but towards the end I was done rather than wanting it to keep going.

I liked the short notes on the fractures at the end of the book, though I would have perhaps found them more valuable placed after each story, rather than collected at the end with the poems. It felt a bit like an afterthought and by the time I was reading them it had been a while since I had read the story they were referring to.

On the whole, though, a nice collection of twisted fairy tales and a great sampling of Yolen’s voice and work.

An advance copy of this book was kindly provided by Tachyon Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I liked the stories, but I had to take a break every couple of stories.
These stories are short and very nice to read

Note: I received an Advance Reading Copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

Even though I own several works by Jane Yolen (thanks to Humble Bundle) I hadn’t read anything by her before. I was still intrigued by this work up on NetGalley and couldn’t resist requesting it. I’m glad I did, because I think I found myself a new writer whose style I love.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is a collection of previously published short stories, all in the realm of fairy tales. However, these aren’t the ones you know and love from bedside story time. These tales are fractured and changed. Some have a different viewpoint (Granny Rumple, in which Rumpelstiltskin is a Jewish money lender), some are a bit (or a lot) more dark (Allerleirauh and The Gwynhfar) and some are just a short bit (Once a Good Man). The stories are accompanied by notes and poems, one for each story. About half the poems have been published before, the rest are new to this collection.

If you don’t know Yolen’s style, based on this book alone, I’d compare her to Neil Gaiman. Like Gaiman, she uses existing stories, myths and legends and weaves her own tale, and like Gaiman, she is a storyteller. Not surprisingly, one of the stories was even written for an anthology Gaiman was making of Sandman inspired stories (but did not end up in it). If you are looking for fairy tales with a twist, for stories that could be told at the fireside, for something on a cold winter night, look no further than this collection. Four out of five stars from me.

Jane Yolen tackles both well-known and more obscure fairytales in this new book. A new spin on the usual stories makes them new and exciting, though there are a few that fall flat.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

I was drawn to this book, because I love Jane Yolen and will always go for the chance to read some of her fairy tales. She has the ability to create such unique perspectives in stories that I just couldn't pass it up. My favorite "fractured fairy tales" in this collection include: a Rumplestiltskin retelling, a Three Billy Goats Gruff retelling from the perspective of the bridge, and a story about Death.

This collection includes stories with poems to go with them and a brief description of Yolen's process for fracturing and reworking the story for herself. I really liked learning the background and history of some of these stories, so I found this fascinating and well worth the read. Anyone who is interested in the writing process will enjoy these additions. However, I did find myself enjoying the stories much more than the poems, but the poems were short enough and fairly interesting that they weren't a great detractor of my enjoyment of the collection overall.

What I most appreciated is how Yolen reworked some of these stories to relate to today's world, and others are just timeless. I found each story to be moving and speak to something universal about our world, which is what fairy tales, at the end of the day, are supposed to be for. As usual with short story collections, some stories spoke to me more than others, but there wasn't any story that I felt was a letdown; I enjoyed them all.

I highly recommend How to Fracture a Fairy Tale to any fan of fairy tales, but I especially see a lot of value in using this as a teaching tool for writing and studying fairy tales.

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley for an honest review. While I really enjoy Yolen's writing I found this collection much more hit and miss. Some of the stories I loved. I found the Cinderella re-writes especially interesting. My favorite was The Moon Ribbon. Her use of symbolism and character descriptions always move me. Some of the tails were not as much to my liking, but my favorite thing is at the end of the book she goes into little descriptions of each story. Learning the thought process or the idea that sparked the story is a fascinating to read. And I'm so glad she included these extras.

I have mixed feelings about this anthology, making it difficult to give it an overall rating that feels accurate. There were a few stories that I really enjoyed, but a few too many that never sufficiently grabbed my interest. I love fractured fairy tales, and think I was looking for more drastic changes from the original source material in some cases. What's the point of writing a retelling without turning the whole story upside-down and making us think about it in a totally new light?

One thing that I loved about this collection was the sheer variety of stories and cultures represented. This anthology includes dragons, princesses, a vampire, and even time travel; you will find stories that feel like they could have been plucked out of a Brothers Grimm book as well as much more modern tales. The Jewish themes seemed to be the most prominent throughout the anthology, but Yolen has reworked tales from Europe, Asia, and more.

Here is a small sampling of the sources of inspiration for some of Yolen's stories:

The Bridge's Complaint - Billy Goats Gruff, Norwegian
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King - Chinese dragon stories
Brother Hart - Brothers Grimm story (Little Brother Little Sister)
Sun/Flight - Icarus, Greek Mythology
The Foxwife - figure from Japanese folklore
The Faery Flag - Scottish folklore
One Old Man, With Seals - Greek mythology
The Undine - inspired by Little Mermaid and various French stories
Sister Death - Jewish myth
The Woman Who Loved a Bear - Native American myth

The stories vary quite a bit in tone; many of them use somewhat antiquated language, while the occasional tale reads like something a friend is telling you over coffee. These differences helped to break up the anthology and keep it from feeling overly uniform or repetitive. The variety assures that there will be something in this collection for just about everyone. Whether you're looking for something totally re-imagined, something with a classical feel, something whimsical, or something dark, you'll find it somewhere in these pages.

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