3.68 Stars

With a wide variety of contributors, this anthology of short stories about the realm of the fey has great selection of tales.

Of the 14 stories including within this book, none of them were lower than a 3 Star read for me with 6 of the stories rating as a 4 or 5 Star read.

Some of the stories felt really rushed or had unsatisfying conclusions but overall a really fun read!

I LOVED the stories in this anthology by Yuen and Rocklyn. Where the Veil Is Thin succeeds in bring a creative breath of life into old faerie tales, ones that haunt as much as entertain. Overall, a lovely anthology filled to the brim with retellings spun anew in contemporary worlds.

The only con, in my opinion, was these felt like they were very much for children. It felt very much aware that it was trying to show the strange cruelness of the fae as they continued to terrorize the characters from the shadows. It never fully departs from fairytale-like vibes.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have mixed feelings about this book of collected fairy stories. Some stories were fantastic, but some were not. I have to admit I skimmed the choose your own adventure story, as it does not read well on kindle.

There are definitely better collections out there, but if you like a particular author, or fairies in general, this might be worth picking up.

This is.a fantastic collection of faerie stories! They did a great job putting this collection together with so many different kinds of stories. I'm not familiar with most of the authors and now will have to go check out their books!

As each anthology, it contains good stories, bad stories, and everything in between. I liked McGuire and Paris' stories most. I would recommend it to readers interested in stories focused on supernatural creatures and fae lore from Europe and other cultures.

Murphy and Abbott have curated a solid collection. The focus is on Scottish and Irish folk lore and fae stories, but about 1/3 of the stories featured supernatural creatures from cultures outside of Europe, Personal favorites were The Tooth Fairies by Glenn Parris, Or Perhaps Up by C. S. E. Cooney, The Loophole by L. Penelope, and Old Twelvey Nights by Gwendolyn Nix.. The Tooth Fairies draws clever parallels between tooth fairies and vampires. Or Perhaps Up had beautiful descriptions and an imaginative depiction of the afterlife. The Loophole was an imaginative take on paranormal romance. Old Twelvey Nights had a tender story of friendship and a suspenseful plot. Your Two Better Halves was a goofy choose-your-own adventure that I was hoping to like more than I did. Summer Skin was a foreboding story that I wish I knew the folkloric basis for.

An enjoyable fantasy fiction anthology. For the most part, I enjoyed the stories. However, there were one or two I just couldn't get in to.

I received a free advance copy of this book. I am leaving my honest opinion.

Interesting of collection of stories about fairies. Some of the stories were stronger than others. I really read the book for a new story by Seanan McGuire but I enjoyed some of the stories by authors I hadn’t heard of.

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Where the Veil is Thin is a collection of short stories from various authors, all surrounding the fae folk. Each story has a somewhat different take on fae lore or explores a different aspect of fae lore.

As I seem to say with all anthologies, some stories struck me more profoundly than others, and my reactions to each story were mixed. I will say that this anthology had more stories that hovered around the 3 to 4 star level, rather than having a broad expanse of ratings.

I did enjoy the types and variety of stories, and am glad to have been able to read this early.

Around the world, there are tales of creatures that live in mist or shadow, hidden from humans by only the slightest veil. In Where the Veil Is Thin, these creatures step into the light.

Some are small and harmless. Some are bizarre mirrors of this world. Some have hidden motives, while others seek justice against humans who have wronged them.- Goodreads

This is an interesting short story collection and the fae.  Most of the stories are extremely modern and they mention not the absence of fae but the re-emergence of fae in the modern world.  It is a very good touch but for some stories it was a miss rather than a hit.

My favorite stories of this book were The Loophole by L. Penelope, Glamour by Grey Yuen,  and The Last Home of Master Tranquil Cloud by Minsoo Kang. 

The Loophole was my top favorite. It had it character development, it was detailed with just enough myth that I wanted to read more about these characters in a bigger story. The short story itself ended at a good spot but I want more of it. I want to know the characters history, their pains, their futures. I want to see them fight and live. If you never read anything by L. Penelope, this short story is a good introduction.

Glamour is what you get when a detective sees magic before his eyes when investigating a murder. Just like The Loophole, this can be a bigger story. Not one where the detective investigates magic crimes but where he gets sucked into the particular crime mentioned in the story. There was a lot of imagery in this story and the modern spin to fae world was done easily and I was impressed. I have never read anything by Grey Yuen but I would love to.

The Last Home of Master Tranquil Cloud was different. Different in the sense that the way it started did not go in the direction that it ended. I was expecting something else. This is not to say that this was not a good read but it wasn't as full of fae or even mythology like the other stories in this book. That didn't really come until the end. I enjoyed where the story was going but unlike The Loophole and Glamour this read as a prelude to a bigger story. 

Overall,  I enjoyed this collection a lot more than I thought (I have a hard time with short stories).  Each of the authors were unique in how they tackled fae and mythology and their writing styles keep me interested. As I mentioned before, there were some that missed the mark but for me they were introductions to new authors. 

3 Pickles

Am I messed up for really enjoying this book?? It has some pretty harsh things that happen in it, but I read it so fast! It was a rare situation where I enjoyed almost every story. I loved the rawness of some of them. I love reading the original fairy tales and how messed up they were and I almost feel like this was like that. Very unique and cool!

I like anthologies and some fantasy, and this was a mixed bag. Good concept but some were over the top for me. Maybe I wasn't the right target for this one.

Thank you so much to the publishers and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Where the Veil is Thin is a delightful collection of stories about different varieties of Fey. This book was high on my priority list from the second I received a copy, and I was not disappointed. These stories explore many different kinds of Fey and don't just stick to your normal garden fairies or Tinkerbell types. The authors find ways to pull you in and decor their stories like it's enchanted fairy fruit, all while giving stellar endings for each story. Never once did I walk away from a story feeling like it wasn't resolved or complete in the best possible way.

Like all anthologies, I had my favorites that I liked even more than some others, but I won't tell you which those were in hopes of you finding a story or two that really speaks to you without prejudice. All of these stories were really enjoyable and paced beautifully. My only complaint about this collection is that there isn't more! While there are quite a few stories to be enjoyed, I could read twenty more and be satisfied. I know I'll be picking up a few copies for some of my friends who love fairies and lore, and highly recommend this book to any fantasy lover.

This collection of short stories contains many imaginative and unique stories concerning fairies. There are great love stories. horror stories, and absurd stories.

Quest for Tear Haven: A story about fairies who are like little vampires who drink blood from lost teeth.

Glamour: A hard to follow story about changelings.

See a Fine Lady: Fairies and unicorn enter a Target.

Or Perhaps Up: A story of those who die in a river, and awake river made.

Don't Let Go: An adorable love story.

The Loophole: A cute love story with an interesting take on fairies.

The Last Home of Master Cloud: The story of an ancient scholar who wrote an addendum in the defense of women.

Your Two Better Halves: An absurdist choose your own adventure story.

Take Only Photos: A cute Christmas story about elves and new friendships.

Old Twelvey Night: Apple Spirts protect their orchard.

The Seal Women's Tale: A surprising narrative about a seal women who can change her skin.

The Storyteller: A grandmother tells stories to her grandchild.

Summer Skin: A creepy horror story.

Colt's Tooth: he last story is like the first... tooth fairies.

Thank you so much to net galley for sending me a copy of this book! I loved reading all these stories and reading about the real thing and not just some little pixies. I would read this book again and definitely want to read more from the authors.

My overall rating is 2,5 stars

Where The Veil Is Thin is an anthology written by several different authors. Throughout the book we encounter several different stories, with varying genres, but one thing they all have in common are faeries. Stories about faeries from around the world.

I will start by saying that this might possibly be the most gorgeous book cover I have ever seen! If anybody knows who did the artwork please tell me!

Anyways, this book really takes you for a ride with the different stories, some where good and some not so much as it often is with anthologies.

I will do a short review for each story, or well just short descriptions really. There might be some spoilers, depending on what you think a spoiler is, so continue with caution!

If you don't want to continue reading my short thoughts about the stories, I will let you know in advance that I might just be really slow because I didn't understand most of what happened, but overall I found this book okay, it's not bad, but it's not the best either. There where stories I really enjoyed and others I just wanted to get over with, but it was a good blend of different themes.
And I guess maybe I just don't like stories about faeries.


The Tooth Faeries: Quest for Tear Haven by Glenn Parris - 2 stars, this story was okay, it was interesting, but I wouldn't read it again.
This is the first story. Sharon "Shanny" Prentice is six years old, and she has a loose tooth that the faeries want. Well the tooth and her blood, because these tooth faeries are related to vampires. We learn about these kind of tooth faeries, and what they fear.It was a little interesting but not my cup of tea.

Glamour by Grey Yuen - 1 star, because I didn't understand anything that happened
We are on the murder scene of a pop star that has died, and the detectives aren't sure how she died yet. And I honestly didn't get this story at all, this one was very confusing.

See A Fine Lady by Seanan McGuire - 1 star, two words unicorn poop
Frankie works at the store Target when she sees a horse or perhaps a unicorn with a woman riding on it, the problem is that she is the only one that sees them. This one is a weird story. Or I guess I'm just not into stories like these.

Or Perhaps Up by C.S.E Cooney - 3 stars, because confusing at first but actually kind of heartwarming, but also sad.
A girl goes on a hike all alone, reminiscing about her life, when suddenly her life changes. This story is also kind of confusing and weird, but again, I might just be really slow. This story takes you through different feelings, there was bleakness, warmth and sadness, at least for me.

Don't Let Go by Alana Joli Abbot - 4 stars, confusing but enjoyable.
Rain goes clubbing, whilst wondering why she can't seem to pick up guys. When out of nowhere she meets a handsome and tall man.
This story is short, but it still had suspense, and it was fun reading it. I got both happy and sad vibes from it.

The Loophole: A Story of Elsewhere by L. Penelope - 3,5 stars
We follow a person called Rhenna, and this story is so short that I don't know how to describe it without spoiling everything. It is again confusing but interesting. There as mystery, a little action and fun moments. I liked this story.

The Last Home: Of Master Tranquil Cloud by Minsoo Kang - Not sure if it's 2,5 or 3 stars
This story follows Tranquil Cloud and his life events. The start is slow and boring, but then it takes a turn for the better.

Your Two Better Halves: A Dream, with Faeries, In Spanglish by Carlos Hernandez - DNF
This story is like Black Mirror Bandersnatch or an adventure game. I don't want to switch from page to page looking for the right paragraph to build my own story. I rather just read everything through, because I'm lazy. So sadly I decided to not read this story, maybe if I had this as a real copy and not an e-book then I would have read it.

Take Only Photos by Shanna Swendson - 2,5 or 3 stars
Main character wakes up to find that the things in her apartment are not what it seems to be. But she just sums it up to being drunk the night before. But the same thing seems to happen every morning, is she going crazy?
This was actually a little heartwarming story, it was easy to read and thankfully not confusing at all.

Old Twelvey Night by Gwendolyn N. Nix - 1,5 stars, I just found it boring.
Datura is an apple spirit, and she befriends a mischief thing called Tibb .

The Seal-Woman's Tale: A Tale of Arilland by Alethea Kontis - 3,5 stars, beautiful and tragic
The Seal Woman can take on the skin of anybody for a day, but lust is what destroys her.

The Storyteller by David Bowles - 1,5 or 2 stars because this story was just okay kind of boring because it's so short. Very very short only three pages, the story is about a family.

Summer Skin by Zin E. Rocklyn - 1 star
The main character has skin problems.The main character is practically a psychopath, it's a pretty creepy story.

Colt's Tooth by Linda Robertson - 2 stars
Colt is a little boy. This is another take on the tooth faeries. And it's creepy.

Like most anthologies, this has a lot of highs and lows and in-betweens. Unfortunately, I felt like there were more lows than anything while reading this, and even the highs were more like just okay stories that I found entertaining. Overall, my biggest grievance is that the overall reading level of the stories felt like YA or younger, despite the content being very adult. If this was a YA collection that would be perfect, but NetGalley has this categorized as adult. (I double-checked halfway through reading it because I genuinely couldn't remember.)

My rating is based on an average of all the story ratings, rounded to the nearest integer.

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Individual story ratings:

Quest for Tear Heaven - 2 Stars
This one just sort of seemed like it was written for young kids.

Glamour - 2 stars
I didn't care for the plot or the characters. The dialogue also wasn't that well-written, in my honest opinion.

See a Fine Lady - 3 stars
This was cute and whimsical. It was a pleasant enough read, but nothing really special about it.

Or Perhaps Up - 1 star
I honestly felt like the writing in this story was trying too hard to sound descriptive, including what I suspect was the misuse of a thesaurus. Did not end up even finishing the story as I didn't care for it.

Don't Let Go - 3 stars
This was engaging and fun to read, but nothing particularly blew me away about it.

The Loophole - 4 stars
A pretty solid story overall, but the romance aspect seemed a little contrived.

The Last Time of Master Tranquil Cloud - 2 stars
Took too long to kick off, I think a lot of the exposition could have been cut. I ended up skipping the story because I was bored in a few pages.

Your Two Better Halves - Not Rated
I decided to skip rating this one. It's a choose-your-own-adventure, which sounds fun in theory, but in practice is a pain in the fucking ass to try to read on a kindle. I don't want to rate the story poorly because of that, but I wasn't really able to engage with it in the way intended so I ended up skipping the story completely.

Take Only Photos - 2 stars
The writing felt like geared toward a YA audience, despite the main character being a full-on adult. That just didn't work for me.

Old Twelvey Night - 4 stars
Very well-written, entertaining, the perfect amount of whimsical. I really enjoyed this one.

The Seal Woman's Tale - 4 stars
The best story of the bunch. I thought this was really well-written, engaging, and the character work was just right for the length. Maybe more like 4.5 stars, but I only rate in whole numbers.

The Storyteller - 3 Stars
I'm not mad at this one, but it also didn't do anything for me.

Summer Skin - 3 Stars
I don't know how to feel about this one. The writing was decent, though, so I guess 3 stars is fair.

Colt's Tooth - 2 stars
Not a very strong ending to the anthology. I feel pretty shrug emoji about this.

trigger warning
child abduction, eating of corpses, torture

This anthology is all about the fair folk in various places in the world. Most of these tales are about the keltic/ nordic side of things, but one story felt eastern. I am just not sure where in Asia it's set.
As it goes with anthologies, some tales appealed more to me than others, but there was not one I really disliked. All of the authors in here are talented and know what they're doing.

To be honest, I could have read a book twice the length of this because I enjoyed it so much.
I have not read anything else by any of those authors before, though I am familiar with Seanan Macguire's work, but I'll make sure to look up those people and what else they've done. Again, an anthology proved to be the perfect way to stumble upon new-to-me authors.

There is no fluff in here, so I'd recommend this anthology for young adult and adult readers.
You need to like fantasy, but apart from that: Go for it! You won't regret it!

I recieved a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Francamente mi aspettavo di più, visti alcuni dei collaboratori (prima fra tutti Seanan McGGuire, che infatti scrive il più stravagante, divertente racconto della raccolta).
Invece c'era poco di interessante, non molto di originale, e anche un livello stilistico alquanto mediocre: ho iniziato pressoché subito ad assaggiare e abbandonare, rimanendo con in mano, alla fine, davvero pochi pezzi che valessero la pena di esser letti.
Un'occasione sprecata.

I really enjoyed this book. It was great to get so many different takes on fairies (they don't like that name!) - some were funny and entertaining, and some had a fairly high creep factor.

I will be completely transparent and honest here, I was interested in this collection of short stories because I saw Seanan McGuire had contributed so I knew it had to be good. As expected, her story was fantastic, and I will forever be watching to see something that no one else does, in case it's my turn.

In general though, I love anthologies because it IS fun to see how different authors can take a certain topic and spin their own tales. I still have regrets that I read the very last story - Colt's Tooth by Linda Robertson - right before bed. That was not my best idea because that barber will haunt me.

I absolutely recommend this anthology to anyone who wants to believe that somewhere, perhaps just beyond your sight line, there lies a whole other world full of magical folks who may want what's best for you - and who may not.