Sadly, something about this one just didn't click with me, even though I'm normally a sucker for retellings. I think it might be because it tries to do so many things at the same time - several different fairytales mixed together, present and flashbacks, mixing eastern and western influences, two protagonists' intertwining stories - far too much for a novella.

I liked that we follow two complex, middle-aged women, both of whom have complicated pasts and have hurt people, I liked how it handles the themes of family and choices and morality. But in the end, I can't avoid the fact that it did not fully work for me.

Recommended to those who like retellings that mix several different influences/traditions, those looking for queer stories (lots of wlw in this one!), and fans of ambiguous morality.

Please—I loved this so much. I keep my eyes open for POC characters, and the fact that there was ALSO LGBT rep. *squeals*

A novella, with the tales of  Red Riding Hood, and Hou Yi + extra goodies: Beauty and the Beast and Goldilocks, wrapped up in a bundle. The East is the main setting, with the two main protagonists being women. Rosa (Red Riding Hood) is Latina, and Hou Yi as herself. 

It was well balanced, which is surprising for how many retellings there were in the book. It was pulled off flawlessly, diversity in characters, and their development, plot and pace were good. The ambiance of this whole novella was so beautiful, there were cultures of both the East and the West woven in. A very intricate tale.

Another very good novella from S.L. Huang - this time, a re-telling of Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi the Archer (who I was unfamiliar with prior reading this).

Fairy tale re-tellings are not my favourite genre, but I've enjoyed Huang's other work so thought I'd give this a try. I enjoyed it - it has many of the same elements that make Huang's work so good (especially the prose and characterization). I enjoyed the merging of the two fairy tales, which added a dash of originality to the fairy tale(s). 

As a novella, we don't get as much world-building/development as we could, but that's ok - we get what we need for the story, and it's well done.

If you're a fan of the Red Riding Hood myth, and also re-tellings, then certainly give this a look. If you're already familiar with Huang's writing, then I'd also recommend you pick this up.

A short, smart mashup of several fairytales (Red Riding Hood, BatB, Goldilocks, Hou Yi) featuring two queer old women as complicated heroes. 

Short but effective. Nicely plotted, intriguing world + cast + managed to serve a complete book in 160 pages.

Burning roses combines multiple fairytales into a fantasy novella. It follows two women one inspired by Red Riding Hood the other Robin Hood. There are many other fairytale characters such as a Goldilocks inspired girl. This book is queer.

A short story interweaving fairy tale retellings with the regret of a life well and unwell lived.

We follow two aging women who have let their troubles in their youth and their early loves haunt them and ruin their relationships with those of their children.

This tale is about letting go, understanding the complexity of unhealthy loves and moving on to hang onto precious relationships in the present.

In Burning Roses, S. L. Huang treats a fairy tale as merely the prologue to the rest of a life. We meet Little Red Riding Hood, Rosa, as an older woman already looking back on her life. The famous encounter with the wolf at her grandmother’s house is long behind her—far from the guiltless little girl we know, Rosa is now a woman who has loved and lost, built and unbuilt a family, and now reckons with the full narrative of her life. As her story nears its conclusion, she wonders if she still has time to change it and find redemption.

Rosa’s life has been built upon prejudice against the Grundwirgen, humans who magically transform themselves into animals. This prejudice’s complexity reflects the messy web of bigotry that readers encounter in their daily lives. It was first kindled in her by her mother’s beliefs and later perpetuated as Rosa grew into a hunter of Grundwirgen, using her grandmother’s rifle in an effort to avenge her death at the hands of a Grundwirgen wolf. He killed her senselessly, despite Rosa’s kindness. “How we are treated is what we become,” said the wolf. It is no shock, then, that Rosa became a hunter.

Yet Rosa resents this part of her that has been fueled by bitterness and disgust towards the Grundwirgen for so long. She knows and repeats to herself, “Grundwirgen might have animal forms, but they are just the same as humans, just the same, no difference…”

Although Rosa has always been motivated by justice, her sense of justice, at times, was incorrect or misguided. Rosa knows “her bigotry had destroyed everything good in her life, and still she couldn’t twist free of it.” In many ways, she feels trapped by her past, believing she must be a bad person undeserving of love because of all the pain she’s caused to innocent people. Indeed, “she could not rail against a destiny she had inflicted upon herself.”

When she eventually runs away from her past life, family and all, she finds Hou Yi, a hero and hunter in her own right. “Until Hou Yi, she’d destroyed everyone she’d sworn loyalty to.” But when she chooses to work alongside Hou Yi for true good, their growing friendship offers Rosa a chance to turn her life around.

Together they hunt sunbirds, gigantic flaming creatures burning villages and towns to the ground. These creatures are unlike Grundwirgen, without an element of humanness to them: they’re “half bird, and all fire.” Huang’s use of flame as a “devouring monster neither Rosa nor Hou Yi could kill” encompasses the conflict between these heroines and their pasts—both obstacles are ephemeral, physically unbeatable, and yet they color and taint every part of their surroundings. While fighting enemies entirely beyond their control, Rosa and Hou Yi hope to win by relinquishing control over their own ability to do evil and instead give themselves over to this righteous cause.

Both motivated by personal quests for redemption, Rosa and Hou Yi save strangers in order to make up for the loved ones they’ve personally betrayed. “Rosa felt the clarity of it—diving to place herself between innocents and danger, the relieving certainty that she’d die doing something clean and right.” Rosa believes she has deeply hurt Mei, her wife, and their child, Xiao Hong, by leaving them behind. Hou Yi similarly believes she has failed her wife, Chang E, and the apprentice, Feng Meng, who was like a son to them both. Feng Meng has even gone so far as to align himself with the sunbirds, in direct opposition to Hou Yi and all that she’s stood for.

Yet as Rosa and Hou Yi tell one another their stories, Huang raises questions as to how their actions have truly been perceived. Rosa inflicts feelings of guilt upon herself, but does her family bear the same ill will towards her? Hou Yi believes Feng Meng turned against her, but does he believe she was the one to turn against him? Their perceptions of their pasts confuse their interpretations of who they think they are. “I would have killed you myself, if we had met back when I was the hero and you were the villain,” Hou Yi says to Rosa. “But you think too much of yourself. Now we are just two old women… Old women who have hurt their children.”

Huang’s characterization of both Rosa and Hou Yi is impeccable. Rarely in fiction or fairy tales do we see two protagonists who are queer, older women of color. Both women are a complex synthesis of fairytale archetypes—hero, hunter, and villain are each represented at different points in both their lives, and they reveal their multiplicities to one another in long conversations over the course of their journey. Burning Roses highlights the joys in peeking into older characters’ lives—far from dismissing or simplifying them, the story pulls generously and compassionately from their lifetimes.

As they travel closer to the island where the sunbirds dwell and where Feng Meng waits, Rosa rails against a past that tells her “this is who you are.” Disbelieving, yet still determined to change, she pushes herself to the edge of everything cruel rooted in her, faces it head-on and asks instead, “who do you want to be?”

This turn toward the future opens a door in Rosa and Hou Yi’s redemption arcs. While our modern fairy tales end in “happily ever after,” Burning Roses focuses more on the bridge between now and then—what is it about love, about companionship, that aids us in becoming better people, setting us on a path to peace? With the magic of transformation always available and the power of old love often hidden in plain sight, Huang delivers one of the best additions to the fairy tale genre in recent years. Burning Roses presents a compelling tale that  favors change, the chance to forgive, and—universally—the desire to be forgiven.

When Tor.com started promoting Burning Roses earlier this year I immediately wanted to read it. Look at that cover! Read the plot summary! Everything about it sounds excellent.

Overall Burning Roses is an enjoyable novella but I felt let down in a few parts. Let's start with what I loved. Huang does an amazing job bringing new life to old stories and blending them together in ways I haven't seen before. Rosa was my favourite character in the novella and makes the story imo.

However I find Burning Roses suffers from needing a longer format to tease out parts of the story. I mainly prefer novellas that tell a contained story in a short period of time. The Robin Hood Stories novella duology by Carrie Vaughn is a good example of this format as each novella recounts the events of a single day. Hou Yi's story feels a bit off because we only learn about it from what she tells Rosa. Rosa is the pov character so we learn her story through flashbacks. But in Hou Yi's story only coming to light with the bits and pieces she tells Rosa, it feels a bit like the characters are acting for reasons that aren't very strong or well put together. It dilutes the reasoning and emotions behind the characters choices and makes it kinda anti-climatic.

Burning Roses was still an enjoyable novella that people should still check out if they're interested in a new take on fairy tales. However I don't think it's one I'd reread.

A really interesting take on Western and  Chinese fairy tales, well suited to novella length. The writing style didn't particularly resonate with me, but I thought the concept and world were interesting.

The short stories in this world hadn't worked for me, so I went into this a little worried, but I ended up really enjoying it? It crept up on me, this novella. And by the end, I was so invested in these characters' stories. This redemption arc is probably one of the best I've ever read!

A sweet but solemn novella, Burning Roses is the tale of two battle women, Rosa and Hou Yi, discussing their troubled histories on a journey to stop a young apprentice and the fire breathing birds he called down on their land. 

In this world talking animals are known to Rosa as 'gwundwirgen', accepted as part of the human race by some but not all. Her encounters with the gwundwirgen are spoken of in fairytale retellings including Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks and Beauty & The Beast.

With trans and lesbian rep, Burning Roses is a magical tale of love and sorrow, heroes and villains, loyalty and betrayal.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the digital galley of this one.

Two women, both running from their pasts. When deadly sunbirds begin ravishing the countryside, Rosa and Hou Yi join forces to discover what’s at the root of this issue, and along the way, they’ll grow a friendship based on trust and shared sorrow.

I loved this book. It was relatively short (I finished it in under twenty-four hours), and the characterization was great. I loved both women, loved their flaws and failures as much as their kindnesses and triumphs. They are both stubborn and have lost so much, but there may be a chance at redemption, and their quest and friendship will reveal these opportunities, their friendship opening up their hearts for redemption and regaining some of what they’ve lost.

I really enjoyed the pacing as well. Rosa’s backstory juxtaposed with the current events and quest of both women. I feel like the story developed well, and I like how we’d get chunks of Rosa’s story but only snippets of Hou Yi’s.

I loved both the traditional folklore elements as well as the fairy tale retelling aspects of the story. From start to finish, I couldn’t have been more delighted with this book. It’s just what I needed this week, and I’d love to spend more time with these characters.

The best part about me being behind in my backlist is that, if this sounds good to you, you don’t have to wait for a release date, because it’s already out. So keep an eye out for it at your favorite, local bookstore or request it at your library.

This was a truly atmospheric read and I really appreciated the older characters. I’m so used to YA or younger protagonists who don’t have their shit together that reading about old magical lesbians who don’t have their shit together was refreshing.
The only real information about the plot that I’m willing to give here is that there are some small retellings of fairy-tails in the plot, but it’s not boring and way gayer.
The book is quiet short and I honestly wish it was the first of an epic adventure or and anthology of interconnected short stories.

Burning Roses is a short book, just under 150 pages, that manages to pack a really enthralling story with lots of world building - Rosa, also known as Red Riding Hood, has a dark past she's running away from, and joined legendary archer Hou Yi in a quest to bring down Hou Yi's former apprentice, a sorcerer turned evil, and the two women must confront their pasts on the way. I was a bit doubtful about two characters telling their stories in flashbacks (I detest flashbacks), but it actually worked really well here. These two battle-worn and weary women are fascinating in their own right, their world full of magic, talking animals, curses, love and loss - plus a lot of it is based on Chinese myths. It was surprisingly hard-hitting for such a short book and I had my heart broken and mended more than once. Both women are Sapphic (I think both are lesbians, and one is trans). It's a story about being more than the horrible things you have done in the past and learning to forgive. I really enjoyed this!

I loved S. L. Huang’s Null Set, which is science fiction (ish), with a heroine whose superpower is her genius at mathematics. Burning Roses takes us into the realm of fantasy with two aging women dragon hunters in a world in which humans can assume animal form, and distinguishing between them and true beasts poses critical moral questions. Each woman has her own tragic background, her own guilt, and her own path toward redemption. Rose, a European who came to this Asian-inspired land with her lover and daughter, has a long and tortured history through twisted fairy tales. The story pits the healing power of friendship against the crippling belief that one is beyond forgiveness. I loved the depth of the book, and also that the dragons are feathered, a bit like phoenixes. It’s not a long book, but one that should be read slowly, pondered over, and savored.

This was excellent! The story was told so beautifully I wish there had been more: Very excited to read more from SL Huang in the future.

This mashup of Eastern and Western mythology adds a new perspective to the idea of heroes and how their deeds affect their personal lives and the lives of those they love.

Two queer old women venture off onto one last journey—interwoven with fairy tales.

It was enjoyable! And so queer! And much family angst.

Old women who have hurt their children.

It's hard writing about two characters at the ending of their lives. After the heroing is over. After much backstory has been expended and buried and retold until it's more fiction than fact. That's why it's so easy to write YA—young characters who are just discovering who they are, with little life lived, with their lives and potential far ahead of them.

I think that was why I enjoyed this story so much even while I was frustrated at many times, mainly because I kept feeling like I was jumping in halfway through in a series.

And I was.

Because Rosa and Hou Yi have spent their lives dedicated to hunting and killing monsters—even before teaming up they spent years being heroes...or at least heroes in their own minds. Hou Yi dedicated her life to fighting sunbirds and searching for immortality, to the point where it destroyed her wife and transformed her adopted son into a villain. Rose murdered were-people, dedicating her life to the eradication of the other until it came back to haunt her and her family.

Now both women are on the run from their pasts, and have come so far that the only way forward is backward—backyard into Hou Yi's mysterious past. But Rosa will have to confront her own history as well, and reckon with the awful things she did.

I really loved how the various cultures were woven through this story. There were Asian fairy tales and European fairy tales intermixed together, and a clashing of Asian and Latinx cultures and viewpoints. And there were trans characters! And queer characters! Everyone was gay! And I loved it.

I also loved how the book dealt with the concept of friendship and family—both the toxic and the healthy—and how one sacrificed in a healthy way and how a person recovered from a toxic relationship. Rosa had been exploited by her ex-girlfriend Goldie throughout her childhood and life, and the tendrils of that manipulative relationship drew out the worst of them and sent Rosa on a path where she constantly doubted herself and her connections with everyone else.

Anywho, I really liked Rosa and Hou Yi—the hero and the villain, and who is who depends on who you ask—and their complicated relationship. They are two old woman just hanging on for one more grand quest.

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

A queer fantasy retelling of classic fairytales that merged Eastern and Western stories to truly mesmerizing effect. Two weathered, road-weary female warriors who have been brought together by time and circumstance, both of whom have also abandoned their pasts but cannot necessarily shirk their duties or their destinies. It was a lovely novella and I wish I could’ve lingered in the world even longer.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Two women warriors fight for forgiveness and love in an epic blend of Western and Chinese fairy tales.

Rosa has changed a lot since she witnessed a wolf killing her grandmother in the middle of the forest. She’s now the companion of Hou YI, a legendary archer who has lost her wife to the gods. The two women would like to retire but monsters are threatening villagers and they are the only ones capable of protecting them. Even if it means confronting the mistakes they both made years ago.

I didn’t know a lot about the story before diving into it so, I had no clue that it was retelling several fairy tales including Little Red Riding Hood, Beauty and the Beast, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the legend of Hou YI. It probably took me a bit too long to connect the dots considering all the hints dropped at the beginning of the story but, when my two brain cells connected, I had a huge “Eurêka!” moment. 😅

I didn’t know who Hou Yi was but, when I realized all the characters were inspired by fairy tales, I thought it would be nice to know more about this character. I’m glad I googled it because it added another layer to the story, I was able to see which parts of Hou Yi came from the legend and which were added by S.L. Huang. I don’t think you need to know all the fairy tales and legends to appreciate the story but I think you will get more out of Burning Roses by doing so!

I enjoyed the story from the start but I didn’t expect to empathize that much with Rosa and Hou Yi. They are both quite flawed and they are trying to ignore the mistakes they made but, they can’t help but to be plagued by guilt because of what they did. For me, it made both characters very relatable, I’m sure everyone can understand this “I did nothing wrong” attitude when you know you have made a mistake but you are trying to reassure yourself. It was sad to see how much their various mistakes shaped their lives and haunted them still decades after the facts.

I also liked the fact that the two protagonists are middle-aged lesbian women and that they had a platonic relationship (it’s not because two characters have the same sexual orientation that they have to end up together after all!). I don’t know why but I love reading stories following older characters, it’s probably because they have experienced a lot more things and have a very different outlook on life.

The last part of Burning Roses was heart-breaking and beautiful at the same time. I didn’t expect this novella to shake me up as much as it did but, it made me cry tears of sadness and happiness and I’m usually not a cry-baby (except when I watch movies, then I cry all the time).

If you want to read an amazing story following two older queer women and blending tales and legends from Europe and Asia, look no further! I highly recommend this one!


I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own. Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a review copy.