I was so intrigued by the idea of fairy tales for the end of the world that I just had to request this.

And I wish I had liked it a lot more. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right mind set for it. I definitely will be looking for more of Brewes’s work, because her writing style kept me invested even when I was losing interest in Jesse’s journey. Her skill at painting the desolate world of the Underground, and the vast emptiness of the world above was very strong.

And for me, the fairy tales Jesse was using to process their life were the strongest parts of the story, and I wish that they had all meant more in the very end. I would read a collection entirely of Brewes’s original fairy tales.

Also, I kept picking this up and putting it back down because Jesse felt so frustratingly passive to me. After the decision to leave the Underground, and even as they traveled searching for Olivia, Jesse didn’t feel decisive. They most I connected was the chapter where Doggo passed, and then I lost interest again.

The end was the most disappointing thing to me, because everything with Olivia was so anticlimactic, and the ending itself was so unsatisfying that I was left feeling adrift. And maybe a story about one person’s journey after the end of the world isn’t supposed to have a narratively satisfying ending. And I’m not sure what kind of ending would have worked better for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press this ARC.

DNF at 25%

If you are a fantasy or sci-fi reader, you have probably had to come to terms with the concept of male authors handling female characters poorly. Often, this phenomenon is characterized with cringey humor, gratuitous descriptions of violence/sex/body functions, and character descriptions that will have you rolling your eyes so far back into your head that they may never see the light of day again.

The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales, while written by a woman, checks off all three of these unfortunate boxes. Rather than subject myself to something that was going to make me either viscerally ill or angry, I made the smart decision to DNF.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

A really great, unique, and intriguing take on climate change, destruction, and of course the quest of a lifetime to save a sibling. I need more from this author!

I really tried to get into this book but it was just not for me. I have picked it up and put it down several times and I could not get into it. I had a hard time with the writing style and making sense of the story.

First and foremost, I want to appreciate the absolutely gorgeous cover for TDBOF! How can it be so pretty!?

As the title lets on, this book does feature fairytales, which in my opinion was the best thing about it. They kept the story going, Having been published in 2020, the whole post-apocalyptic vibe felt pretty real to me, and I have to say that I enjoyed the bits in which the main character was reading tales to her dog more than the actual world ones. Precisely because I liked these bits more, I kept anxiously waiting for them, and as a result I didn't enjoy the doomsday part as much. Overall, I'd say that this book gives dystopias a good name again!

The Doomsday Book Of Fairy Tales is a strange read. I don't mind strange and nonsensical books, hell, Alice In Wonderland is one of my favorite books of all time, but still... I like them when they have a purpose, This book hasn't.

I don't know how to form an opinion on the main character and characters. I was convinced the MC was a she, but while reading other reviews I found out the character is actually genderless and some referred to Jesse as a he. And this confused me even more, because, how did I not realise this while reading? Jesse is forever going to be a she in mind because that's how I saw the character in the book, but I'm going to use they/them pronouns in this review. I have to thank other reviewers for mentioning this because it went over my head.
But this isn't the only thing that left me confused... how old is this main character anyway? From how they spoke and acted I assumed they were a teenager, but then it is mentioned Jesse is supposed to be at least in their thirties and I was so baffled. The timeline doesn't add up. Was all of this on purpose?

To get into the plot, Jesse lives underground, because climate change made the world hostile apparently. So, all humanity moved underground, I guess? There is so little world-building, I couldn't tell you much more than this. I had so many questions and nothing was explained. Anyway, Jesse leaves the underground to find their sister who left years before, but... why now? Why years after being alone and miserable they only leave now? What pushed them into leaving? Is it because they're sick? And also, they have a talking dog. And Jesse shows zero curiosity towards why and how this dog appeared in the underground and... how in the hell can he talk? I convinced myself the main character was hallucinating and unreliable since this would make more sense.
Jesse makes it out despite being sick because they get cured somehow? I don't really understand how they cured him. Humanity lives underground with very few resources, but they have advanced medicine apparently? (And also, they eat potatoes, where do they find potatoes?? Or any food?? Or water?? anyways...). I was so curious to experience Earth destroyed by climate change but not much was destroyed except for a few houses. The consequences sound like what we're experiencing right now in the real world, definitely not enough to prompt all humanity to move underground. What's so hostile? I don't get it.
The moment Jesse meets their sister is so bleak and underwhelming and there was zero emotion, from both of them. Then, Jesse and their sister realise something big, something they thought it was true but wasn't, something that would have left me shaken for a long time, and they just gloss over it. No resolution, no emotions. It's whatever.
The fairytales might have been nice. I know some people loved them, but I just didn't see the point. Why have them if they're not valuable to the story? Make them relevant to the plot, to the character. Something.
I have so many more issues with the book, but I'm going to stop here.
I'm probably going to say something mean, but this book sounds like a first or second draft. It could have been good, the idea was there. I'm surprised it didn't go under more rounds of edits before being published,
Also... the book just ends. With no point. No destination, nothing. It left me unsure of what I read or what even happened at the end.
Two stars only because I saw potential in the story.

3.5 Stars

The idea of the book was intriguing, and I do enjoy a post-apocalyptic/end-of-society book without much gratuitous violence. (Station Eleven, anyone?) However, while I was drawn in by the premise of this book, I didn’t think the book went far enough with its story.

Due to human negligence and severe weather changes, human society moves underground in order to attempt to survive. Jesse, his sister, and their mother abandon their father to move underground before it’s too late. While Jesse seems fine, his sister won’t stop trying to run away to find their father. Decades later, Jesse is alone and still underground with no one for company but for a talking dog he discovers and smuggles into his living quarters (since dogs are now food.) And as he is alone with a talking dog, he begins to make up fairy tales to tell the dog so they don’t lose their minds (although one might argue that he already has.)

I thought the fairy tale angle was interesting. Unfortunately, I thought that they started too late in the book to come across as anything but random. Why did the author use fairy tales as a coping mechanism? Yes, there was a book of fairy tales holding up the bed that he had taken from home that we are told his father used to read from, but so what? The reader never saw any of this happening. Maybe the father should have made up fairy tales at the beginning of the book to help his children cope with the extreme changes that were occurring all around them? Perhaps Jesse should have told stories to his sister when they were younger and went underground? Why weren’t the fairy tales a bigger deal earlier? Why weren’t there more of them?!

I liked the author’s writing, the characters (for the most part) worked, and the general idea was new and different. I think I understood what the author was going for and it was a great start. But, I really wanted more of the book to be developed, even besides the fairy tales. I finished the book thinking that there were a lot of unanswered questions throughout the book, and I wanted more answers – about these specific characters, about society in general, about the future of society. Overall, this was a decent book with solid writing and interesting characters, but it could have used a stronger editor to push the author to show us even more and create a stronger overall story.

Thank you to Dundurn and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

This book of loosely-linked fairytales as told by a genderless protagonist are an interesting thought experiment about how oral history might skew in a post-literate society and how the "thirty base stories" might carry forward even in dire times. The connective tissue of the character's life and journey were the least interesting part of the book, however, and aside from providing context for the stories told, it was difficult to invest in the narrator as a person.

The fairytales were the best part of this book. The rest was dark and sad and moved very slow and I was not a fan of the ending.

Set in a dystopian future where most of humankind has taken to living Underground, away from the devastating apocalyptic results of climate change, this dark fairytale follows adult Jesse Vanderchuck, whose family fled from rural Canada when he was a child to the city to live among the subways and tunnels beneath the surface, leaving his father at home.

Decades later, unhealthy and accident-prone Jesse has tired of a life of hunger and poverty, and decides to attempt to reach the surface, and find his sister who fled for home as a teenager. He meets a talking dog named Doggo, who quickly befriends Jesse (or "Food Bringer", as he calls him), and they set off on their quest together.

I have really mixed thoughts about this book. It's yet another book set in a dystopian future that I think I would have read differently, had it been released a couple of years ago. Dystopian fiction just hits differently at the moment, and I know I'm not the only one who thinks so. It's slightly exhausting, because it's a little too relatable at times.

Regardless, there was a lot about this book to love. I particularly loved Emily Brewes' poetic descriptions of location, scenery, and general setting. It's beautiful, even when horrific.

Doggo... oh Doggo. I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about Doggo. Something about him, his dialogue (which reminded me, unfortunately, of that Twitter account "Thoughts of Dog" which I loathe), just felt a little out of place. And a talking dog in an otherwise unmagical world <i>should</i> feel out of place, but he just threw the atmosphere off a little for me.

I'm just not sure what I think of this book overall. It felt like it was trying to be about five books at once (and with the fairytales told within it, maybe it was). I wish I liked it more than I did. Perhaps if I'd been hooked in enough to read it in a few days rather than across several months, I would do.

If the description appeals to you, give it a go. You may well click with it and love it.

A warning... there's a couple of instances early on of some pretty gross body horror due to the setting being within a community constantly on the brink of starvation.

2.5 stars, rounded down.

I received this book from NetGalley as an eARC in exchange for a review.

I don't know what I thought I was getting into when picking up this book but I clearly forgot reading the synopsis. I did enjoy it but damn was it different. This book honestly feels like the type of book you would read in school and then break it down heavily. It gives me post-apcolyptic Grapes of Wraths vibes, but with less breast feeding.
I enjoyed our characters and their development. I would've like more world building but I don't think it was too little world building either.

This, unfortunately, was not for me. Which is a shame because the post-apocalyptic world and the fairytales made it sound exactly like it would be. The reading was slow and hard to get trough. After the dog died I could not force myself to keep going. I really tried and I wish I would have liked it more but sadly I did not.

The Doomsday Book of fairy tales is the story of Jesse who grows up with his family underground in the post apocalyptic world. After sometime, Jesse's sister Olivia ran away. And after the death of their mother, Jesse sets out with a talking dog Doggo to find her, unsure of whether she's alive or not.
The story is fresh and interesting. I couldn't make out the gender of the protagonist as Jesse was addressed as "they" throughout the story. The story turns chaotic at moments, but it is enjoyable. It is a fast read, emotional and thought provoking.

“The trouble with stories is that they begin and end. Lives certainly follow this pattern: one is born, one dies. Life as a whole does NOT. There are no happy endings, because nothing ever ends.”

The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales turned up as I searched for books for my #readclimatechange2021 goal. Dystopian stories are, of course, something you will find yourself reading when you choose to read climate fiction.

Set some time in the future, Jesse Vanderchuck lives alone in The Underground where many have gone to escape the environment in a world affected by climate change. It turns out that The Underground is located in the former tunnels and stations of Toronto’s subway system and I found myself, as a Torontonian, referring to my own mental maps of the subway system, the city of Toronto, and the province of Ontario as I read.

Jesse meets Doggo, a talking dog (yes, really) who becomes a constant companion and who made me look at my own dog differently. Doggo calls Jesse Food Bringer and, well, that seemed likely about how Heatlie considers me. Doggo is amusing, somewhat single-minded, and not terribly bright.

Jesse, with Doggo in tow, decides to go in search of sister Olivia. With flashbacks to childhood in northern Ontario, their father’s disappearance, and the rest of the family’s flight to The Underground, Jesse is eager to find Olivia now that their mother is gone and Jesse finds is alone.

Leaving The Underground for the world outside provides Brewes an opportunity to describe what the world might be like and reminded me of a title I previously DNFed and am planning to try again, Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us, a non-fiction book that explores what would happen to the world humans have built if one day we all just disappeared. It is a world in some ways changed and in others, not so different from what it was before. As they travel, Jesse tells Doggo fairy tales which, while well-crafted with “fairy tale” language, didn’t connect to the main story or themes as tightly as I expected.

I was engaged in reading The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales as I wanted to find out what happened to Jesse and Doggo, though at times the narrative waxed and waned and so too, my interest. Jesse’s story is, though, ultimately a sad one as you would expect from a book about climate change and one which, as the opening passage quoted above foreshadows, won’t actually tie up loose ends and reach a satisfying conclusion. It’s clear that while the world will still be here, what we’re doing to it means that unless we make some monumental changes, it won’t look like it does now.

I read this as temperatures in western Canada soared into the high 40s and were followed by forest fires, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico were on lit on fire by an oil-well breach, and a hurricane starting with E (far into the alphabet so early in the year) was barrelling up through the Caribbean on its way to the US. So, doomsday? Seems apt.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for this eARC in exchange for an honest, and unfortunately belated, review.

An interesting combination of fairy tale elements gone dystopian. Jesse lives in a post-apocalyptic world caused by climate change. I loved Doggo, the talking dog. Along the journey, there are pieces of strange fairy tales interspersed.

I DNF partially through due to losing interest

This book was horrible. I couldn't even finish it. The story was a slog of boring and just ugh story. I don't really like saying this about books but this one just really sucked.

I really liked this book. Dystopian fiction is one of my favorite genres and while I'm not usually impressed with new authors from publishers I don't know, something told me to give this one a chance and I'm glad that I did. Dystopian fiction always tells us about who we are now and I think Emily did a great job of highlighting our current situation with climate change. Jesse is a compelling character and the way humanity has "survived" is very interesting but my favorite part were the fairy tales and how they were woven into the story.

I DNFed this book. It just didn't keep my attention. I know some would love this one but it just wasn't for me I guess.

I was definitely intrigued by the combination of a dangerous quest, a TALKING DOG, and the prospect of fairy tales combined with a dystopian story. However, the premise didn’t quite deliver as promised.

Jesse lives in a post-apocalyptic world caused by climate change. The world has been decimated by extreme weather conditions and new diseases, and this hit home … hard, after the events of the last few years. Within the first few pages, it had me wondering if we’d be living in abandoned subway tunnels in the not-so-distant future.

But that was about as deep as my thoughts went while reading this book. The characters are difficult to connect with, since there isn’t much personality to them. I loved Doggo, who is basically your average dog, given the ability to speak. He just kind of focuses on food and belly rubs. Jesse just kind of goes about his day, doing what is expected of him, and not having any desire for anything else. Until one day, he decides he wants to go find his sister. I’m not sure why he waited an incredibly long time after she booked it (35 years), especially since it was decades since he actually had any ties to anyone or anything in the underground.

Along the journey, there are snippets of these strange fairy tales interspersed with the main story. But I didn’t really understand why — they didn’t seem to have any bearing on the story. Maybe it was signifying that Jesse was slowly losing touch with reality? Along with the presence of a talking dog? I did like the fairy tales themselves, especially since they weren’t the typical and familiar ones that I’ve heard of in the past.

The story was a fast and fairly enjoyable read, but it just didn’t feel as satisfying as I had hoped. There weren’t really great moments of action, there weren’t a lot of plot twists, and there wasn’t a lot of resolution or closure. I found myself unable to put down the book as I got close to the end, hoping to find out for sure what happened … only to discover that I wasn’t going to get that kind of ending. And the only thing that was going to stick with me about this book is an even larger sense of concern about climate change, and a greater sense of dislike of wild rats.

A truly unique story that is a combination of science fiction and fairytales. It is a dystopian journey through a world brought to its knees by climate change and how mankind choose to press on. Jesse Vanderchuck and his family fled their rural farm for the Underground of Toronto when society melted down from the world's lack of any cohesive fight against a climate catastrophe. With his mother and sister Olivia, they make a new life with other refugees who have set up a new society in the tunnels and subways. It really is a stark look at just what we would be forced to do to feed people when the climate has destroyed any types of farming or civilization "outside." Years after Olivia has run away and the death of his mother, Jesse realizes that there is nothing holding him Underground anymore and when he meets Doggo, the talking dog he embarks on a perilous journey outside to find Olivia.
I found myself not only pulled into this story by Jesse and his journey, plus the often gallows humor of his relationship with Doggo, but also by the completely plausible, yet dark, dark possible future described here. It may seem odd to blend in the different fairytale stories but as the journey moves along and the stories change it really does all come together in a remarkably touching ending. The fact that it leaves you also questioning everything that happened is also completely surprising as well. So many things about this story will stick with me long beyond finishing it.