This book was a lot of fun. Reminded me of Arabian Nights in that you have a story in a story in a story. It’s a lot of fun, and I make an effort to never spoil anything. Definitely worth the read.

The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales is the story of a boy and his talking dog in a post-apocalyptic world destroyed by the effects of humanity on the climate.

Sounds quaint, right?

The bigger aspect of the well-woven story is that our protagonist, Jesse Vanderchuck, is a very flawed individual and has let his life be swept by routine and happenstance until he does not.

At his breaking point, Jesse sets out to find the sister who ran away from him and his mother years ago as a way to possibly regain some sense of normalcy and stability in his life. With him, of course, is his talking dog, Doggo, who pretty much kick-starts Jesse into realizing that he has just been wasting away in the Underground waiting to age and die.

Along their voyage, Jesse spends some time crafting a series of fairy tales which he tells Doggo. These tales, typical in the standard format of child in distress or magical intervention, really were the highlight of this book for me. Some are very light while some are very not. As the book progresses, the reader begins to see how all the pieces fit together as reality and fable-dom become not too dissimilar.

I very much enjoyed the journey this book took me on. Yes, it’s definitely not a “rainbows and sunshine” story, but the aspects of true joy found throughout really do accentuate their intention.

In this tale, Ms. Brewes punctuates that there is no standard by which to live one’s life, and that obstacles are ever-present. Ultimately, it is how we choose to address and deal with said obstacles that defines who we are.

I so enjoys a good dystopian tale! In the age of covid, with shelter at home, ordering groceries online for delivery, it's almost like living in one of those stories. How awful to live in a subway station shanty. But with the world falling apart due to climate change, there aren't many safe places to live. Humans have been reduced to scavenging to survive. I felt so bad for Jesse and her family. Doggo was the best character I've encountered in a book in ages! Loved the talking dog! Emily Brewes has written a very engaging tale. I think older teens and adults would enjoy reading this book. Kudos Ms. Brewes! I think it would also make a terrific graphic novel.

Thank you to Dundurn Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book. The Earth’s climate has collapsed. Floods, droughts, fires and extinction of life are happening everywhere on the surface of the planet. Fifteen-year-old Jesse Vanderchuck and her six-year-old sister, Olivia, live in Trout Creek, Canada, with their parents. Due to lack of resources, such as food and fuel, they must leave their home. Their father refuses to go, so their mother leaves with the girls and heads to Toronto on foot. There, people live underground, making homes for themselves in the subway tunnels under the city. Work and food are both hard to come by. Jesse gets a job sorting through junk heaps looking for anything of value to sell. Olivia is despondent over leaving their father and blames their mother for leaving him. After six years underground, when she is eleven or twelve, Olivia leaves without a word. After years underground, their mother becomes sick, which, because everyone is so crammed together in the tunnels, makes her a pariah. Jesse, who is now an old woman at thirty-five, stays with her until her mother's death. Before long, a little dog comes into her space asking her for food. She doesn’t think twice about taking in and feeding a dog who talks. She’s just happy for the companionship. Jesse soon becomes sick herself, and although she lives through the illness, there are dire consequences and she is banished to the surface. She and little Doggo slowly make their way back toward Trout Creek, to the only other home Jesse ever knew. Jesse regales Doggo with fairy tales to entertain them both on their journey. I won’t say anymore, so as not to spoil this story for future readers. There are no glass slippers or gingerbread cottages in Jesse’s fairy tales. Nevertheless, I thought every page of this clever and well-crafted tale was an adventure. Ms. Brewes is a thoughtful and creative writer and I’m so happy I read this book. It had its own unique vibe and I feel it’s perhaps one of the best books I’ve read this entire year.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I absolutely loved this tale of life after a disaster. Loved the doggo. He was the star. A very interesting take for those who love dystopian tales.

I wish to thank NetGalley and Dundurn Press for an advanced copy of this fantastic and enchanted book. Set in a grim post-apocalyptic world after environmental collapse, conditions make survival almost impossible. Winters are unbearably cold with lethal blizzards. Summers have become impossibly hot, turning the earth into deserts and intermixed with torrential rain and tornados. There is no longer any livestock, and edible vegetation is dying. Food is scarce, and people are starving. Former diseases that have been eliminated have returned, and new unknown plagues take their toll on human life.

The Vanderchucks are living in a rural area in Canada. After their neighbours have perished or fled to the Underground in the city, their mother follows with her two children, Jesse, and his younger sister, Olivia. Their father remains behind. Living in the abandoned subway tunnels under Toronto, they begin picking through trash heaps for anything edible or useful. Olivia eventually runs away in search of the father, and their mother dies. As the years pass, Jesse suffers from isolation, loneliness, and semi-starvation. Some of the scenes are ghastly as people try to survive in this devastated world.

Jesse is growing old. He is accident-prone and frequently ill, living in an impoverished state in the tunnel. One day he finds a talking dog. Doggo is a mangy, thin, ugly, misshapen mutt who becomes Jesse's friend and companion. Doggo is always hungry and names Jesse "The Food Bringer." Jesse considers Doggo to be stupid but loves him dearly. Their conversations are so hilarious I often found myself laughing out loud despite the hopeless circumstances.

After becoming sick with an infectious disease, Jesse is banished from the Underground. He ventures into the outside world with Doggo for the first time in 35 years in the tunnel. He finds the state of nature and weather to have become even worse than he remembered.

Jesse has been entertaining himself and the receptive Doggo by telling half-remembered fairy tales. When his memory fails him, he makes up wonderful, hopeful tales of beautiful women, handsome princes, animals, and mythical creatures. He wanders the desolate, ruined landscape with Doggo,
hoping to find his long-lost sister and their father.

Even with its anguish and gloomy background, I adored the story up to about the 60% point. I found the latter part of the book quite melancholy because most of the humour that relieved the post-apocalyptic tale was greatly diminished. I thought that Jesse deserved a happier ending. The change in tone, further illnesses and accidents by the elderly Jesse lead to a more sombre atmosphere.

I greatly admired this debut book by Emily Brewes. This was a work of vivid imagination and fictional world-building. The storyline was well done, and the author managed to make the characters and the future world situation completely believable. I definitely want to read her next book!

Brewes’ novel has an exciting premise, with climate change ultimately leading to an increase in disease, severe storms, and food shortages, causing many to migrate underground in Toronto’s subway system. The story follows Jesse Vanderchuck as she looks back at how she got to the underground, her sister running away, and her mother’s death.

Once her mother dies, Jesse decides she needs to leave the underground to find her sister, and while doing so, she comes across Doggo, a talking dog, who tags along with her. Jesse tells Doggo fairy tales to distract her and Doggo from hunger until the dog eventually falls ill and dies on the surface. Jesse’s sister, Olivia, stumbles upon her, and the two are reunited spend a few seasons together before Olivia leaves to search out the family she built in her years on the surface, leaving Jesse to fend for herself.

The novel has a slow start, and I struggled to get into the story, but the fairy tales between the main storyline were entertaining and helped keep me going until it gained more momentum. Towards the end, the chapters were jumbled and sporadic in both length and context, coordinating with Jesse’s decline in health. From the time in the book when Jesse meets Doggo, I wonder if she has fallen delirious ill and is imagining everything from that point onward. There’s are mentions of dreams she has about being in the elevator shaft with other sick people and her body being prepped for production. This reinforces that Jesse never made it to the surface, never meet Doggo, and never reunited with her sister. Also, she never finishes the tale about the lonely king, though she starts it multiple times; this reiterates to me that she’s alone somewhere, rather than with a talking dog or her sister.

Brewes’ novel is interesting though a little chaotic. The fairy tales are a nice touch to break up the main storyline, and being from Canada, I loved that there were mentions of locations I’ve been to and have first-hand knowledge of (who doesn’t love that?). In the end, the book is definitely worth a worth.

Interspersed with fairytales, Jesse and Doggo trudge across The Underground and find the entirety of it almost as miserable as Jesse's life has been. Their journey is perilous and strenuous, and Jesse forges each step by telling tales to keep them going. Inside Jesse's fairytales are his own memories and lessons learned, as well as perhaps some hopeful outcomes for the journey he's on. The Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales is a blend of fairytale itself, dystopia, and a look at loneliness in the end of civilization as we know it.

Would recommend for fans of character centered dystopians and fairytales. The tales in it are quite good.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early e-copy.

Marvellous, Emotional and Stupendous”
The book, Doomsday Book of Fairy Tales by Emily Brewes can be defined in these three words. A book which takes you on a fairy tale ride in a post- apocalyptic world scenario.
I, totally loved reading the book. For me it was the best book I read this year. The book not only connects you emotionally but also reminds you of your childhood with its fairy tales.

SO, I played myself because dystopian stores just are not for me. 2020 and my anxiety do not feel like immersing into a story that resembles the current crisis or daily news. I was drawn tot hte gorgeous cover and of course fairy tales because I am a child (but who does not love fairy tale retellings?). I dont think I will pick up the physical copy when it comes out but I think that I would recommend this to my YA loving friends.

I received arc from Netgalley in exchange for a fair review

I don't quite know what to make of this book. First of all, I consider it amazing that Emily Brewes managed to actually write this book during NaNoWriMo, even if it took her two years to do so.
The cover is beautiful. It reminds me of some older books I have and I do love ornamented covers - they make the book look much more serious. Given the title, this was not exactly what I expected. I was - solely based on the title - expecting actual doomsday fairytales.
There are fairytales in the book and honestly, those were my favourite parts. I needed a bit to warm up with the book - about until Doggo showed up - but it turned out to be an okay read. The fairy tales really freshened up the story and kept it interesting.
There is, however, a major turning point in the book which almost made me not finishing this book. The last chapter, however was almost enjoyable again - I think it gave the book a strong, nice finish.
Since the book wasn't really pulling me in and I am not screaming: Masterpiece!, I am giving this book a solid 2.5 stars. It was a medicore read for me at best, but while I really enjoyed Doggo and the fairy tales, the rest of the book didn't hold up for me.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is well written and has good character development I just couldn’t personally get into the story and found it a little bit of a struggle to keep reading. In the end it does wrap up everything and answers the questions you have, just left a little lacking for me personally. Basically a family separates and a mom and children go and live underground. We follow a child as they grow older and their talking dog whom everyone seems to be set out to want to kill. Just couldn’t get into it. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you netgalley, and the publisher for providing me with this book.

When I stumbled upon this book on netgalley, what allured me first was the cover which is truly beautiful.. Then the title intrigued me, and then the description: a post-apocalyptic world where people are living in the Underground, until the main character meets a talking dog with which he will go back to the surface to find someone he has lost years ago.
What I liked most about the book was its originality. There are plenty of post-apocalyptic worlds, but in Doomsday Book the story is intertwined with beautifully told fairy tales which creates an atmosphere I've never experienced.before, thus it makes the reading experience really interesting.
The writing style was very different when the story shifted from the actual story to the fairy tales, which shows that the author has a true talent with words.
The author succeeded at drawing me into the story, and making me emotional during some parts. I really loved the relationship between the main character and Doggo, the dog, as it was funny but also sad.

In a nutshell, a really original (but short) story which will make you go through all the emotions.

I really liked the idea of this book, a dystopian interspersed with fairy tales made up by the protagonist. For the most part I really enjoyed this read, it was beautifully written.
The thing that spoiled it for me was the end. The character of the protagonist changed completely and I didn't find her sister's decisions plausible.
Thank you to Dundurn Press and Netgalley uk for providing me with an arc copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.