This is the first book I have read of Jane yolen , so I dont know about her writing style.

I love the stories told from different point of views. The one from a bridge and from death herself are just mind blowing.

I wasn't born and raised from english speaking origin , so I dont know the original versions of many stories.

This was a fun and light read . Short stories are always my favourites and they are finished soon (too soon though).

I've always been a sucker for a good fractured fairy tale and I love Jane Yolen. I wish I could say that I loved every single fractured fairy tale in this book. However, I did not. Don't get me wrong. Some stories were cute, fun, darkly intriguing, and entertaining. I loved the story of the Billy Goats Gruff told from the point of view of the bridge, and Cinder Elephant, where Cinderella is a "pleasingly plump" heroine. However, some stories were just too long and tiresome to get through. If you enjoy fractured fairy tales, I would recommend reading this one. It's just not one that I'm going to rush out to buy a copy of.

Ordinarily, I love fairytale retellings, so I was excited about this, I even enjoyed the sheer randomness of the premise of these tales, fractured indeed, one told from the perspective of a bridge, and lots of other reimaginings in between, but overall, it didn't really do it for me. I felt like by the end, each story had the same pattern, and the writing wasn't too engaging, in fact, I found it tiresome and repetitive by the end.

This book was a fresh take on classic fairy tales (three punk pigs), but also included original stories.
The stories were thought provoking and interesting.

The end of the book was really interesting when the Author described the thought behind her "fractures"

While this book was really fun I did recently read a book with the same premise, and I couldn't help but compare the two while I was reading.
While I know that this was not fair to this book, nor its author, it was inevitable and unfortunately this book fell a little short.
I still really enjoyed it, I loved the cover art, and would still recommend this book to friends

This Collection Of Fractured Fairy Tales Is A MUST Read For People That Thoroughly Enjoys Folklore, Fairy Tales And Retellings

"Fairy Tales always have a happy ending.' That depends... on whether you are Rumpelstiltskin or the Queen.".
-Jane Yolen

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is a collection of twenty-eight revamped, refined, and rewritten fairytales. Before reading these tales, I had not heard of Jane Yolen, though the book included several claims to her great fantasy-writing skill (a quick Google search shows she has written or edited more than 365 books). I went in with high expectations, and though some of her twisted tales were misses, others were a pleasure to read. In this review, I’ll cover some of the highs and lows in the collection, with passing notes on Yolen’s own commentary concerning the “behind-the-scenes” for the tales.

HIGHS (Five to Four Crowns)
Happy Dens or a Day in the Old Wolves’ Home: In this story, a lamb nurse starts her first day at “Happy Dens,” which she quickly learns in a nursing home for wolves. The frightened lamp wants to quit, but instead lends an ear to the wolves, who assure her that the terrible tales she has heard about wolves are all wrong. Yolen gives a new twist to several wolf-centered stories in this fairy tale, characterizing the old wolves that were previously just villains in tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood.” At the end of the story, you’ll find sympathy for the old wolves and question tales you’ve grown up loving.

Granny Rumple: Yolen retells the tale of Rumpelstiltskin where the dreaded child-snatcher is a Jewish man. In this version, the question of guilt is complicated by racial prejudices. At the start of this story I was disoriented (consider this was the first short in the collection that integrated concepts of racism and real world prejudices, against the previously humourous stories of retired wolves) but by its end I was applauding Yolen on the thought-provoking ties she made between a childhood story and the lives of Jews in the ghetto. This is not the only fairy tale in the connection that weaves in tales of Jewish life, antisemitism, and faint-to-full on mentions of the Holocaust but this is the only one I found a success.

One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King: Three sons travel across the land to gather magical items and persuade a dragon king to come to their aid when their mother falls ill. This may be my favourite story in the collection. It has the formulaic set-up I expect in fairy tales (One Ox goes to get a magic item, Two Ox repeats those steps) and then the plot twist ending with magic sprinkled all around. It took Yolen almost a year to complete this story, and she wove Chinese and Western fairy tale influence together to create it.

Brother Hart, The Faery Flag, Green Plague, and The Woman Who Loved a Bear: These four stories are separate, but for the sake of your time (I don’t want to make this review 2000 words long!) I will condense them to a quick mention. Green Plague is a hilarious retelling of The Pied Piper (I love the loud-mouthed mayor) and The Woman Who Loved a Bear was a sweet tale. As the book summary states, not every fairy tale has a happy ending, and Brother Hart broke my heart at the end. The Faery Flag is based on the actual Faery Flag in Scotland, and comes to life in Yolan’s telling.

LOWS (One to Two Crowns)
Slipping Sideways Through Eternity: In this tale, Shanna continues to a see a man that no one else can. On the day she finally follows him, he takes her through time and space to a death camp, where she lives amongst the prisoners and looks for a way to escape. I was very confused with this tale. I didn’t quite understand who Elijah (the man) was, or why he took Shanna to this death camp. At the end of the tale, we learn that one of the little girls Shanna befriended (and subsequently saved from the death camp, with Elijah’s help) was her great-grandmother. Was this the purpose, to go back and save her great-grandmother? But why is her great-grandmother so important, out of all the victims? Also while in the death camp, Shanna is instructed to paint Elijah’s face to start a movement. Overall, I was very confused with this tale. (EDIT: I just Googled Elijah, and from what I understand, he is a Jewish prophet. But that doesn’t clarify the events of this book.)

The Unicorn and the Pool: [SPOILERS] Several animals are gathered around a pool of water, drinking, when they notice poison in the water. They stop drinking but a unicorn approaches, not noticing. A monkey warns the unicorn away and instead, the unicorn cleanses the water with his horn. A few days later the unicorn dies. I didn’t understand this story. Obviously the plot is quite clear, but the meaning was lost on me.

The Golden Balls: A retelling of The Princess and The Frog, where the princess sleeps with the frog and bears his child. This story just made me uncomfortable. I don’t know if I read it wrong, but the story depicts a sexual tension between the frog and the princess. I went over the story three times trying to understand lines like “she lay upon [her bed], trembling, moist as a well” (when waiting for the frog to come) but also “[the frog] took from her what she did not wish to give.” Sadly, Yolen’s comments at the end of the book do nothing to clarify this tale.

Allerleirauh: A queen dies in childbirth and the father, devastated, refuses to look upon his daughter. Many years later, the king requests a ball to find a new wife, wanting to wed only a woman who looks exactly like his former love. This story started out strong, and I would have loved it, except right at the climax Yolen steps in and … basically spoils the ending? The king has announced the ball, tension is high, and then Yolen takes a paragraph or two to say, “This is how everything unrolls now: the king does this, the daughter does this, the end.” Which is so abrupt and clumsy that any ambiance created with the beginning of the tale is ruined.

Sister Death: A woman is turned into an immortal blood-drinker by G-d and feeds on the blood of sickly and/or dying children for five thousand years. Then one day she saves a child from a death camp. This was another story was confused me. I think part of the problem is genre — I wasn’t prepared for a story that dealt all of a sudden with real death and the Holocaust and G-d. The ending was also abrupt, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to learn, or understand.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS (Three Crowns)
Godmother Death, The Foxwife, Mama Gone: Godmother Death is a twisted tale that personifies death and shows her power over mortals. I enjoyed the story up until the end, which I’ll say was creative but much too abrupt. The Foxwife was another story that I loved for its creativity but could have done with more time spent on its ending. An angry man is sent to live alone on an island for however much time is needed to reign in his rage. To his surprise, he finds a woman living there. The two form a bond and end up married … but the man never really clears up his rage? I’ll admit the way it ended left me a bit worried. Lastly, Mama Gone was another story that shocked me because of the genre shift (though at this point I was used to it). The mother-daughter relationship is really sweet and interesting to see played out.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
One thing I can see clearly is that Yolen is a master at adopting different writing styles. She can glide into Western fairy tales as easily as she adopts Chinese myths. Her characters are equally flexible, changing to the time and space of the tale she weaves. No, this collection is not entirely similar, but at its core all the stories put forwards themes and morals — and entertain.

In general, I preferred her high-fantasy retellings to those based in the real-world. I did not understand enough of her cultural references, or connect with the characters (such as Shanna in Slipping Sideways Through Eternity). Because this is a collection, I received all sorts of genres in one. For this reason, I think I would have more success picking individual Yolen books than searching within her collections.

RATING
Three and a half crowns. As I mentioned at the beginning, there were stories within this collection that I enjoyed and others that simply did not hit the mark. I would let you decide if this is a collection worth getting based on my review, BUT I do think Yolen’s individual books are worth exploring as clearly she is the master of fairy tales that reviews claim her to be. If I could have full-length versions of tales in the vein of One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox […] I would be set!

Review posting on Goodreads on November 15 2018: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2516410364
Review posting on blog on November 15 2018: https://bookprincessreviews.wordpress.com/

As with the other Jane Yolen anthology I've read, The Emerald Circus, this book contains retellings of classic fairytales

However, I think this one was more of a mixed bag. I enjoyed The Emerald Circus a lot more.

I think my issue with some of the stories were that at the beginning of the story the character would be warned about a legend or myth and then the character would immediately do the things they were told not to do and they become a victim of the legend/myth. I got so frustrated. The stories I enjoyed tended to be the longer stories, because I think they were more fleshed out.

My favourite stories were Brother Hart, Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale, The Foxwife, Sister Wife, The Woman Who Loved a Bear and One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox and the Dragon King.

Loved this book. Give the author a fairy tale and she can definitely fracture it. I loved all the stories, but Godmother Death was my favorite one. Great collection of stories. New take on old fairy tales. Great book. I received this book from Net Galley and Tachyon Publications for a honest review and no compensation otherwise.

3.5*

I'm a sucker for fairy tale retellings and Yolen does a fantastic job of re-imagining the classics, as well as a few that I'm personally not as familiar with. I enjoyed these less than the more universally known ones such as Snow White, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and the likes.
This is only because the stories are so short I believe that they benefit from the reader already having an understanding of the themes that are being explored, and the enjoyment lies in seeing how the story unfolds through the authors interpretation.

~ Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title ~

I enjoy a good fractured fairy tale and some of these stories were brilliant and engaging but unfortunately most of them either rambled on or came abruptly to an unsatisfying and altogether confusing conclusion. I'm also unsure about the intended audience. Some tales are suitable for YA while others clearly contained more adult content. That being said, these tales have potential and if they had undergone additional plot development I probably would have enjoyed them a great deal more.

I'm a sucker for twisted fairy tales, and i adore Yolen's work, so i expected to fall in love with this book. Alas, i didn't. I can admire Yolen's creativity, but these tales just didn't do much for me.
Teens that i teach may enjoy it more than i did.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this collection of fairy tales that author Yolen "fractured" or changed from the original tale.

Hands down my favorite story was Happy Dens which was a retirement home for wolves! I also really enjoyed Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale and Cinder Elephant. Yolen took stories across backgrounds and from all other the world and I really appreciated the mix of history that comes out in the stories because of that. Also the cover is fantastic, it's really what drew me to the book in the first place!

As with any essay collection I really loved some of the stories while there were several I could take or leave but over all I enjoyed this collection and think it's a great choice for someone who loves fairy tales to pick up.

Thank you Netgalley for my free review copy!

As the title suggests, this book offers alternative versions of traditional fairy tales from various cultures. Many of the stories I already knew, but certainly not all of them.

As with many books of short stories, I absolutely adored many of them and simply tolerated a few. I think my favorite was the tale of Snow White set in Appalachia, with the dwarves as coal miners. The retooling of the Daedalus and Icarus tale so that Icarus did not die was intriguing as well. At the end of the book are backgrounds about each of the fairy tales. I only wish that these backgrounds were included at the end of each story individually. I would have liked to learn more about the tales I didn’t know when they were still fresh in my mind.

I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This fine assortment of fractured fairy tales, written by " the Hans Christian Andersen of America" are a well-written set of tales that please the eye and the imagination. Some of these I have read previously, but are still a worthwhile re-read.

I have fond memories of reading Jane Yolan's books many years ago and so was drawn to this new collection of 'fractured fairytales,' offered to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review. I am also fond of retellings of traditional tales and saw several titles right away that made me smile: Happy Days in the Old Wolves Home, Big Bad Wolf stories from another point of view, and Green Plague, a retelling of the Pied Piper with amphibians.

There are about two dozen short stories and the quality varies. Some were quite enjoyable. My favorites were The Foxwife and Ox One, Ox Two, Ox Three and the Dragon King.

Like many fairytales a young innocent girl is taken advantage of by a slimy prince or selkie. I wish these stories had been fractured and broken further, and then rebuilt into tales where the girls are empowered to escape this particular trope.

Jane Yolen is, as many know, an award-winning and oft-hailed writer of fantasy. However, her work has never stuck with me much, and I wanted to read this collection, which includes work from throughout her career and author's notes on each story, as well as a poem for each story, to try to figure out why. Having read the book, I find her work rather dated and stuck in a 1970s ethos of second-wave feminism, and where she tries for inclusivity--borrowing Appalachian speech patterns and the like--her work comes off as being appropriative. I think it's also aimed for readers we don't really have anymore: young readers who have never heard a fairy tale from the "villain's" POV; readers to whom the hint of sex is titillating, and who only know the cliches of heternormativity; readers who have grown up with characters and plots more sophisticated than what Yolen delivers. I wanted to find stories here that really stood out, that I could recommend to young readers and even older or more experienced readers who like subversions of the norm, but Yolen's writing is prosaic and dull, the issues she deals with are old and tired, and there's unfortunately little magic to be found here.

I’ve always loved Jane Yolen’s fairy tale adaptations. I grew up with The Curse of the Thirteenth Fey on my bedside table, and her twists on old tales always hooked me just as well as the originals did. I liked the varied settings and voices in this anthology, with “The Bridge’s Complaint,” “Sister Death,” and “Slipping Sideways Through Eternity” standing out as my favorites. They range from humorous to serious, and include fun twists on originals (what if the beautiful princess had a horrible personality?) as well as complete reshapings (what if the Big Bad Wolf’s side of the story wasn’t left out?).

However, I feel like some of the stories should have been longer, especially those with unfamiliar sources. Some were only a page long, and at the end I was left confused because I hadn’t read the original, and couldn’t tell what had been changed. I will give points for the notes at the back of the book, though, which briefly summarize how Yolen chose to tell the story and a short poem for each which recounts the source material, but I don’t feel that this makes up for the lack of detail in the adaptations shown here.

Totally worth a read from both hardcore fairy tale lovers, as well as readers just looking for a fun anthology! 4/5 stars.

Yolen definitely has a way of enchanting her audience just like the original tales she's fracturing. 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. It's a beautiful collection of stories that feels like I'm discovering fairytales all over again.

Thank you to Netgalley, Jane Yolen, and Tachyon Publications for the pre-pub access.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book of modified/retold/"fractured" fairy tales. However, some of them seemed stunted -- they had a good start, a good/fair middle, then suddenly ended, as though only the outline of the story was ready at publication.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen is one of those once in a lifetime books you’ll probably love but never fully reread. My anticipation of this book was immense, largely due to the subject matter of this book and the introduction written by the wonderful Marissa Meyer. I admit, I did squee a bit upon seeing her name. Yolen does a fantastic job of reworking the stories from this world’s past, weaving deeply moving and poignant reimaginings of the tales many of us know and love.

And they were quite fascinating in a great number of ways. From Granny Rumple to Cinder Elephant, Yolen’s writing has an adicting quality and manages to touch on some very important topics with some very important morals to be gleaned from them. The thing about How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is that you will likely enjoy a great many of her stories very much. Others, however, you will grow bored of and wish to skim. I think the most difficult piece of reading this book was the fact that I would fall in love with a story, grow increasingly interested, and then it would be over and I was on to the next one, still reeling from what I’d read moments previously. As such, some stories seemed quite subpar when they followed masterpieces like Granny Rumple.

Overall, I am rather fond of this collection of stories. Yolen even goes so far as to leave a few paragraphs at the end of her book to give the reader further information regarding where the tales came from, their inspiration, and what brought her to write it. I really enjoyed the experience of learning these bits and pieces, especially since I (shockingly) did not recognize all of the stories which had inspired her work. How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is certainly quite worth reading and I think a great number of people will have a blast of a time with it. I know I did.