This novella was dark, sad, beautiful, and packed with meaning. It is a story about parents and children, about the pain of forgiveness, about grey morality, about the falsehoods we tell ourselves about ourselves until they are indistinguishable from truth. It follows the journey of two older women, Rosa and Hou-Yi, who live in a world where humans can turn into animals and animals to humans, where bears can speak in firebirds populate the skies. They are traveling together to find the individual who is controlling the firebirds that are ravaging several villages.

This little story is also an immensely clever retelling of a host of different fairy tales, all woven together into one story. I’m sure that I didn’t pick up on all of them, but I caught allusions to Beauty and the Beast, Little Red Riding Hoods, Goldilocks, and Puss and Boots among others. Each story is picked up an reimagined in a way that encourages the reader to see it in a very different way then they were told as children, prying away the veil that hides harder truths from our eyes.

I chose not to rate it higher in part because it was just a little too dark for my personal tastes, though it had a happy ending. I also feel like the world-building was ill-defined. This was a very character focused novel, and I know it can be difficult to establish an environment within so few pages, but I found myself confused by details such as Goldie’s talk of banquets and dances seemingly dropped in without much explanation. Honestly, the world didn’t really come into stark relief for me until the end when Rosa and Hou-Yi arrived on the island. The visual descriptions in this part of the novel seemed far more abundant than in the rest of the book.

Overall, a meaningful read. 9/10 for character, but more like a 6/10 for world-building.

When Rosa (aka Red Riding Hood) and Hou Yi the Archer join forces to stop the deadly sunbirds from ravaging the countryside, their quest will take the two women, now blessed and burdened with the hindsight of middle age, into a reckoning of sacrifices made and mistakes mourned, of choices and family and the quest for immortality.- Goodreads

Rosa is all types of messed up within this novel and not for nothing after some time it is completely her fault. It is as if this woman just lives to be miserable.  Do not get me wrong. She experiences a very horrific trauma that harden her heart but as she gets older and that little voice in her head telling her that what she is doing isn't right, she ignores repeatedly to stay in the bubble of hate, despair and anger she created for herself.

I do not feel sorry for her. Rosa had every opportunity, prior to where the reader finds her, to do something better. She was pointless in her actions and didn't acknowledge the damage that she did until it came knocking at her door.

Without actually saying the words, I believe the author was trying to get me to sympathize with these Women even though they were fairly trash to those that they love and the people around them.

But these characters were written extremely well and this short novel (160 pages) was a good read. Within the first two parts there is an intensity that draws you in. The author does a fantastic job retelling not one but two fairy tales.  I loved how seamlessly she was able to do it.  

Overall, I may not have felt sympathy for Rosa but I enjoyed this book. Rosa had a part and it was played well. However, the ending could have been better. 

3 Pickles

This book was amazing! Strong plot! Powerful characters! A plot that held my attention the entire time!!!! I couldn’t put it down. I needed to find out what happened next!