I received an advance reader copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. How to Fracture a Fairy Tale comes out on November 5th.

Summary

What if Icarus survived his fall into the sea? What if the village that once wronged the pied piper made the same mistake again? What if Cinderella was fat in a world of thin people, and the prince still loved her more than anyone else?

In this collection, author Jane Yolen fractures well-known stories to reveal the beauty–and ugliness–within.

Review

If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you may have already realized that this book sounds a lot like the last one I reviewed, Can’t Catch Me. And it is very similar, except for one major thing: this collection is everything I wanted from the other, and more.

These stories are not merely the same story from a different perspective (although sometimes they are from a different perspective). Some of them are stories weaved together from many inspirations in one culture’s folklore, some move the story to a new time and/or place, and some play on the expectations for the story and fairy tales in general to make a point. My favorite, the one that moved me the most, is the fracturing of Rumpelstiltskin. I won’t go into details about it, because I believe it is much more moving if you read it for yourself, so if you’re curious, you’ll just have to get the book.

What made the collection even better is that at the end, there is a section of notes and poems; each story has about a paragraph explaining how Yolen came to write it, and an accompanying poem on the same story, though not always with the same take on it. I love reading about how someone came up with their ideas, and the notes being at the back means that if you don’t care to read them, you can easily skip them.

Rating

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 5/5 stars

This collection of fractured fairy tales is a must-read for any lover of folklore. All of the stories are beautiful in their own way, and some are truly amazing. If you like fairy tales, especially retellings of them, you need to read this book.

This book is a bunch of short stories/poems, which can make it hard to review. Like with all short story books, some of the stories I enjoyed, while others were just ok. There weren't any that I hated. The whole book together was a very quick read. The author did a great job with fracturing fairy tales to make them entertaining. I will be adding this to my fractured fairy tale bookmarks for the library.

Thank you to net galley for providing a copy for review.

I've never read anything by Jane Yolen before but I really liked this collection of fairytales. She put such a unique spin on some well known classics. There were also some from other cultures that I had never read as well. I'm going to break this down and highlight some of my favorite stories from the book.
The Bridge's Complaint: This was so unique. It's a twist on the billy goats story but told from the perspective of the bridge. It was interesting having a story from the POV of an inanimate object.
Happy Dens: In this story we have a retirement home for the famous wolves from Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs, but we get to hear their sides of the stories.
Slipping Sideways Through Eternity: This was a tale centered around Elijah (from the old testament) and the effects of the Holocaust. I really enjoyed this one and liked how it shows how consequences can be felt through the generations.
Cinder Elephant: This was a fun quirky take on the Cinderella tale.

I really enjoyed this collection. If you like to see classic fairy tales and fables flipped on their heads I recommend checking this book out.

I love listening to cover songs. Sure there are a lot of really crappy versions where the singer is simply mimicking the sound and stylistic flourishes of the original artist, but I am talking about cover songs where the new artist brings a reinterpretation to a familiar piece of music, and makes me hear that classic song in a completely new way.

For just the same reason, I love reading retellings of classic novels or fairy tales. I love comparing my knowledge and memories about the original with the new interpretation and understanding that I find in a successful reworking. And finding this book on NetGalley has been like stumbling upon a treasure chest for me.

Jane Yolen’s How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is a collection of short stories that are reinterpretations of folk tales and fairy tales from a large variety of traditions. She resells classic fairy tales from Hans Christian Anderson and the Brothers Grimm, Native American stories, Greek Mythology, Japanese folk tales, Celtic mythology and more. And I found each and every story different in tone, in style and from a different point of view, both from the original and from each other.

The last chapter of the book is an explanation about how she came to create each of these stories, accompanied by a poem she wrote for each one. It was only after reading this chapter that I understood that this book is a collection of stories taken from her 50 year writing career. I am absolutely thrilled to have the opportunity to seek out her other work.

Yolen definitely has a way of enchanting her audience just like the original tales she's fracturing. When I was younger I used to select fairytales from the library and spend entire days just reading different versions of a story, or huge collections of Grimm, Andersen and Perrault. Yolen's writing gave me those same feelings back but with even darker twists.

I usually select a few favourites when reviewing an anthology, however, despite how strong this anthology is as a whole I didn't really feel any standouts. None of the stories really caught me. There were definitely some strong ideas and fascinating fractures in this book but none of them really resonated with me. Perhaps the issue is I couldn't quite see myself in any of these stories, though I have no doubt plenty of young adults will find themselves among these pages.

There were also several stories I didn't really...understand? I've never had much trouble understanding a well-written book. Yolen's prolific natures leads me to believe this is in fact well written. They read like real fairy tales of old which is no doubt the intentions. Occasionally though, I found myself struggling to understand exactly what had gone on. Was that a rape? I'm not certain it was so very lightly and vaguely implied I can't tell if anything happened at all.

This book brought me joy, it reminded me how much I love old fairy tales and I'll definitely be picking up a fairy tale collection in the near future because of it. I don't love this book though and that breaks my heart. It's clear that Yolen is a master of her craft, but it just wasn't for me. I did find the explanations of why/how she fractured each story at the end to be enlightening though, even if the poems were a bit much.

— I received a free eARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher! —

In this book, Jane Yolen retells familiar tales with a twist, and in a second part explains her reasoning for some of the tales and accompanies them all with poems. What needs to be kept in mind here is that these are very much grown-up fairy tales, and many of them are not suitable for children.
I really enjoyed the story part, but as someone averse to poetry pretty much suffered through the second part. Some of the stories were absolutely fantastic and led to much reflection, especially the ones referring back to the author’s Eastern European Jewish background - one of my favourites was her retelling of the tale of Rumpelstiltskin as a Jewish money lender. I am more critical towards others, where the author incorporated traditions taken from other cultures but presented it in a way that is familiar to western readers.

Written by Jane Yolen, this is a collection of common/traditional/not so common fairy tales that have twists. And these twists were delightful.

Some are a few stories, some are a single, some are a theme in tales, some aren't. But they are all well written, each stands on its own, and they are all interesting.

This is a great book for anyone who likes TRADITIONAL, you know, not small child approved today, fairy tales. Very, very good. If you are a fan of urban fantasy or any kind of fantasy, I think you should give this collection a try. You might not like all of it, but there is likely at least one you will enjoy.

I was definitely on the fence with this collection. I enjoyed some of the tales. I found them to be great reimaginings of the stories I grew up with and liked to see the different outcomes and perspectives. The stories that I did like were quirky and had a clear flow to them. They did not stray too far from the original except for a few key points. I also liked the way yhte the stories were tied together with the old wolves' home.
Some of the tales were very unfamiliar to me and left me wondering what was changed (other than a happy ending usually). I did not necessarily dislike these tales, they seemed to have a different vibe that did not quite work for me. Some tales were a bit to drug out and lost my interest. I would have liked them better with more explanation. I did like their look into other cultures and new ideas.
On the whole, I felt this was more of a text book for writing than it was a book of fairy tales with twists to be enjoyed by the average reader. It became a chore to read and lost its enjoyment throughout the collection.

Jane Yolen frattura davvero le fiabe classiche: anzi, le frattura, scompone, smembra, sviscera, lima, e infine ricompone in pezzi nuovissimi con il sapore antico delle fiabe che conosciamo da sempre, in tutte le loro multiformi varianti.

Spesso brevissimi, sempre scritti bene, i racconti compongono un'antologia ricca di suggestioni, personaggi, soluzioni; e se ho apprezzato meno i brani più grotteschi o surreali (come Happy Dens), la bellezza impeccabile di altri (Godmother Death o Granny Rumple fra tutti) più che riequilibrano la bilancia.

Una raccolta da leggere e gustare, con calma, e un sorriso pronto.

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.

How to fracture a fairy tale presents a series of alternatives for stories that we're already mostly familiar with. These are alternate versions of various fairy tales that are sometimes humorous and sometimes moving. Some of them where very interesting and quite intriguing. Other stories I found quite anticlimactic, and sometimes they felt too short or written in a haste. Overall it is a well-written anthology that can be a quick and pleasant read.

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.

Lovely, lovely collection of re-told, fractured and twisted fairy tales. The author puts a new and fascinating spin on tales from all over the world. I enjoyed this very much.