Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

First off, I want to say that I've enjoyed reading Majorie Liu's comics from Marvel, as well as her most recent best-selling series, Monstress. As she writes in the Introduction, Majorie Liu may have been the first woman of color writing for Marvel Comics. As a Chinese-American myself, I want to support #ownvoices authors as much as possible during this time. When I saw that I was approved to read this ARC ahead of its release date, I was so excited! Thank you again to the publisher for giving me this opportunity!

The Tangleroot Palace by Marjorie Liu is an eclectic, imaginative collection of prose short stories by a visionary writer. The short story collection includes retellings of fairy tales, gothic horror, alternate-realities with magic, science fiction, and fantasy. Really, this book includes every genre that I enjoy reading. Marjorie Liu's writing is fantastic and it transports you away to a different world.

Here's an excerpt from the first story "Sympathy For the Bones,":a chilling, Gothic horror tale about dolls:

"Persimmons had fallen overnight and the deer had not got to them. Quick business, but careful; those thin orange skins split open at the hint of a tense finger, and I ruined more than I cared to admit. Popped them in my mouth to hide the evidence. Spit out the seeds into my palm, and tucked them into the satchel where I kept the needle and thread. The rest, what was perfect and frostbit, I carried in the can for old Ruth."

And here's an excerpt from my favorite story in the collection, "Call Her Savage," when Chinese sea captain Shao meets Xing, a leader of a band of riders.in a magical alternate-reality set during the Opium Wars between Britain and China:

"There were gods in the sea, but Xīng had never prayed to them, nor to any holy spirit since she had buried the tin star. Yet she found herself on the cusp of prayer as she plummeted fifty feet to the dark Pacific, a leather harness buckled around her torso and shoulders, dangling like some gristly worm at the end of a long hook."

It's worth getting the entire book for the final novella, The Tangleroot Palace, alone. It's about a princess engaged to a fierce Warlord who somehow ends up in the middle of the mysterious woods called the Tangleroot. It has romance, action, fantasy, and a great villain. It reminded me of the From Blood and Ash series by Jennifer Armentrout and Ruthless Gods by Emily A. Duncan.

Overall, The Tangleroot Palace is an amazing collection of short stories by a trail-blazing fantasy author. It includes stories from all genres. A recurring motif in this book is that of powerful heroines fighting their circumstances, whether they're lost in the fairy-woods or in the middle of the cantankerous sea. If you're intrigued by any of the descriptions of the stories, or if you're a fan of the fantasy genre, I highly recommend that you check out this book when comes out in June!

For those that still are confused: NOT A COMIC BOOK.

Anthology of short stories and novelletes , ranging from fantasy to horror and post-apocalypsis.

Apparently a good portion of readers know Marjorie M. Liu from the graphic novel Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening, but I have been a fan of her ever since I read The Iron Hunt from her incredible urban fantasy series Hunter Kiss.

Here she presents us with some of her short stories, of which I knew a couple; At the end of these Liu gives some comments from when they were written, some of which she considers to be part of the universe of her ideas (like Dirk & Steel), that is to say full of magic.

1)“Sympathy for the Bones” (4.3 stars)-for me a re-read- is a tale full of dark magic , hoodoo dolls, witches, and desperation in the mountains.

2)“Briar and Rose” (5 stars) is a retelling of Sleepy Beauty. A very interesting, and again dark story, of saphic love, dark witches, and a woman warrior looking to free her love. Skip all the stereotypes.

3)“Call Her Savage” (3.5 stars) steampunk and alternate history, where China is at war with England, and have colonies in America (Scot-Irish and Chinese people). A Marshall is call back to help. War , betrayal, and pain.

Took me a while to get me into this story, a bit confused by the setting. So much elements here. First frustration to hope for a full novel here.

4) “The Last Dignity of Man” (3 stars) a... genious mad scientist? a wannabe villain that dream about a hero? something like that. However, strangely this man with his loneliness pull at my feels.

5)“Where the Heart Lives”(3.5 stars) it's more in the fairytale side, with mysteries in the woods, strange dreams, a lost love, and a young woman finding acceptance and a place for herself.

6)“After the Blood” (3.5 stars) post-apocalypytic story, where the Amish are seek for farming skills, there are monsters in the woods, and a woman hide secrets but the powers calls. Oh, and a (view spoiler). Cats are your best friends ;)

Again , leaves us wishing for a novel here.


7)“Tangleroot Palace”(3.6 stars) A princess who must marry a warlord, escapes to the forest looking for a possible solution, But she found old magic (view spoiler). With a bit of humor , a bit predictable but quite charming. I like the idea of strong woman saving herself.

And yes, a theme with the Woods, old magic, and souls trapped. Don't forget the broken people.


+My thanks to Netgalley and publishers for the digital ARC.+

I only read Monstress series from Marjorie Liu and I adored that series. The Tangleroot Palace was on NetGalley, I immediately requested it. It is difficult for me to rate short stories because I rate each story. And overall rating was usually different from what I expected it. As for the book, I love the author's imagination and writing style. The notes at the end of each story were really great to understand what the author thought when she wrote the story. My favorite stories were Sympathy For The Bones, The Briar and The Rose and Where The Heart Lives.

I thought this was a wonderful collection of short stories! I really enjoy collections of a single author’s short stories, so I was excited to read and review this one. I had not previously read any of this author’s work, but have heard wonderful things about their Monstress series. I’m going to review each story individually since I enjoyed some much more than others (the 4 star review is based on the average from each rating and rounded up)

Sympathy for the Bones - 3/5 stars - This story had an interesting concept, but the characters didn’t grab me. I was surprised the author said this was her favorite short story, because unfortunately the writing style was just not appealing to me. Thus, I would have liked seeing a stronger story as the introduction.

The Briar and the Rose - 4/5 stars - I liked this one a lot, it played on the original Sleeping Beauty fairytale in an interesting way. The concept was really well done, although it did end a bit too quick for me,

Call Her Savage - 2/5 stars - I felt like this was just way too complicated for a short story. There are definitely some interesting concepts there, but I honestly didn’t find myself enjoying it while reading it.

The Last Dignity of Man - 5/5 stars - This doesn’t really feel like it fits in with the other short stories thematically (this is very science-y and doesn’t really fit the nature or fairytale/folktale/fantasy vibe of the others), but I found it so poignant and the perfect kind of weird. It definitely had some gross elements, but I loved the superhero/villain concept to this. It was overall just really unexpected and unique.

Where the Heart Lives - 5/5 stars - This was so magical, sweet, and just overall fairytale perfection, I thought this was just really lovely and reminiscent of a Studio Ghibli film.

After the Blood - 4/5 stars - This was rich and fascinating. I felt like I didn’t get enough information to fully understand what was happening, but I almost didn’t mind because it had such a mysterious atmosphere. I’m not familiar with the author’s Dirk & Steele series, so maybe I’m missing the details to truly understand this? However, Amish Vampires is a concept never to ignore. Great post-apocalyptic vibe!

The Tangleroot Palace - 4/5 This was very cute! I really liked Sally’s character and while there was a lot going on with this story, it came together really nicely in the end even though it was a bit predictable. This has some really great classic fantasy vibes!

As you can see, I ended up liking the latter half much more! A few of the stories had enchanted forest elements, which might have felt a bit repetitive, but I felt as though they all had a very unique quality! I liked that this ranged from very sweet fairytale romance to really dark things like vampiric creatures and creepy science experiments. It had a little bit of something for everyone!

The overall vibe of this book is captivating. I did feel like most stories were taken from a larger one. Which made me feel like I was missing important background. The first story "Sympathy for the Bones" is easily my top favorite, a dark fantasy inspired by hoodo featuring stronog characterised personalities. It had the right balance between eerie mystery, magic and gray morals.

It is however a pity that the stories following after this one fell flat in comparison for me. A retelling of Sleeping Beauty, an alternative colonised Earth in war, a girl venturing into a dark forest, a dystopian based on Amish zombies, and a high fantasy novella about a princess learning her part in the world. The novella, also named "The Tangleroot Palace", would be very interesting as a full novel. It just didn't feel fleshed out enough as a novella, which made me feel hungry for more. The other stories kind of fell flat in their action and character depth but they were still of a high quality. All in all, very enjoyable collection of stories, that prove this author has a wonderful imagination.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I discovered this on Netgalley and loved the cover, and even though I'm not familiar with the author's previous work, I wanted to give it a try!

The Tangleroot Palace is a collection of short stories ending with a novella of the same name. I will summarize the stories included in this book.

Sympathy for the Bones is about a girl raised by a witch who learns the witch's ways and they create hoodoo dolls. The witch is malevolent and controlling, renowned for taking care of people's "problems" and the girl chafes against the strict rules of the witch.

The Briar and the Rose is a Sleeping Beauty retelling. A witch takes over the body of a beautiful woman and hires a female guard (the mc). But controlling another's body takes a toll and the witch's spirit must rest one day a week. During that day, the spirit of the real woman wakes and the guard slowly begins to fall in love with her and resolves to find a way for them to be together, by defeating/expelling the witch. (wlw rep)

Call Her Savage takes place on an Earth with an alternate history: China settled America before the Europeans and claimed it as their colonies. They discover crystal skulls with magic powers that turn into energy sources and also empower people. The main character is a superpowered woman of legend, retired but forced to do one last-ditch mission in a war they are losing.

Last Dignity of Man is about Alexander Lutheran, CEO of a biotech company who has a kink for Superman/Lex Luthor roleplays. He bonds with this older guy and employs him as a janitor. There's a government contract that goes horribly wrong. (mlm rep)

Where the Heart Lives is about a girl who is sent to work at this old house for an older woman. But the house, the woman, and the residents are not what they seem. Something lurks in the woods.

After the Blood is about a post-pandemic/dystopian world that is ruled by the people who were accustomed to life without technology beforehand (like the Amish) Some people have adapted strange abilities, including types of vampirism. Some people fall to become zombie-like creatures. There are still plenty of cats, though!

Tangleroot Palace is a more traditional high-fantasy, fairytale-like novella. A princess is forced into a betrothal to a neighboring warlord of legend and runs away prior to her marriage, into the Tangleroot Forest to discover why it calls to her. There is a long-imprisoned queen inside that beckons.

It's always hard to rate short story collections because some stories I like a lot more than others, so then the collection as a whole comes out feeling average to me. I enjoyed The Briar and the Rose the most, I think. Where the Heart Lives took an unexpected turn that made it stand out to me. Call Her Savage was interesting, but it left me wanting a lot more than a short story because the concept didn't feel properly explored/utilized given its short length versus complexity. Tangleroot Palace was also enjoyable, but not very remarkable to me. I was indifferent about After the Blood, and didn't like Sympathy for the Bones or Last Dignity of Man.

So I'd rate them, in order, 2 stars, 4 stars, 3 stars, 2 stars, 4 stars, 3 stars, and 3 stars which comes out to an average of precisely 3 stars.

The stories in this book got better as the book went on.
At first, I was completely lost. I didn't feel that the stories made sense, or if they did it wasn't until the very end that I started to get them. I'm not sure if that was just personal to me, but I was very confused for the first 3 stories.
The 4th was when things started making sense, although the use of giant faeces eating worms to present ideas about the business world was a creative choice I don't really understand, I guess it would suit other readers better.
5 & 6 I really liked. The stories made sense, explored some interesting themes, and made for good reads.
All of them had good messages, but it took a while for the stories to really make sense to me.
That said, I did really enjoy the last few, and would be interested to read some other work from this author to see what they can do with longer stories.
All in, it wasn't really for me, but I definitely think it is worth the read.

Marjorie Liu comes through with this collection of her short stories! All of the stories have appeared elsewhere, but now the author has taken the opportunity to gather them under one cover. A couple I had encountered before, but enjoyed renewing my acquaintance. My favorite was the last piece which gave collection its name - "Tangleroot Palace" - a tale of magic, fated love, and a spooky forest. So it you like out-spoken heroines, eerie tales, and stories told at a slant, be sure to grab a copy of Tangleroot Palace!

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title!

I love a good anthology and had never read any of the authors works before.
Each story was written and different from each other, no two were the same.
The characters were decent, with some standing out as more memorable than the others

I hadn't read anything my Marjorie Liu prior to the Monstress series, but with how much I love that, combined with the stunning cover by Sana Takeda, how could I resist her short story collection?
A sweet sapphic Sleeping Beauty retelling, a runaway princess finds a new quirky family, an apprentice using dolls to seek revenge on her teacher, a villain's shot at redemption. Liu's stories gave me goosebumps, made me swoon, and at times cracked me up. This definitely a collection to have.

This is a new author for me. I like reading short stories of an author I haven’t read before. It can be a good way of getting to know an author’s style. I thought the stories in The Tangleroot Palace were all excellent. I’ll definitely read more of the author’s work. The stories are an interesting mix of fantasy, horror and some original mythology. In my experience, most story collection has at least one that doesn’t quite work but every story in this collection is excellent. I liked the fact the stories are all quite different. I enjoyed all of the stories but my favourites were Sympathy For The Bones, The Briar And The Rose and the title story.

ARC received via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Before this, my experience with Marjorie Liu's work was primarily through her comic series Monstress, which is excellent, lush, and a feminist asian steampunk/fantasy. I was delighted to expand my experience of Liu's work with these short stories. Her writing is impressive - it's clever and engaging, and even when she retreads old tales (like her sleeping beauty variant) the material still feels unique and dark,

3/5 stars

Thanks for providing this precious arc in regards to the publisher and author!

It was a fine novel. Not too dazzling but fine piece of literature. Not the best work of the author's

Content warnings: murder, death, violence, and injury; blood magic; rape and sexual assault; gore and body horror.

Unfortunately I didn't get on with this one, and I'm not sure why. Liu's writing is lyrical and atmospheric, and she has some wonderfully clever ideas in this collection, but I found myself detached from almost all the characters, which made it hard for me to get invested in each story, I struggled with the slow and winding nature of some of the stories, as I felt that they seemed a little too focused on description and not enough on plot, meaning they were hard work to follow. I also didn't enjoy the level of gore, which can get intense; I have not read Monstress, the author's previous work, so perhaps this is on me, but it's just not my cup of tea. Fans of body horror and atmospheric, dream-like tales should enjoy this collection.

Of course, is this only my personal opinion on the book and just because I give this rating to the book doesn’t mean, that everyone will have that opinion.

There are seven short stories in this book and here are my individual ratings:

4 Stars
4,5 Stars
did not finish it because it was not my kind of story
4,5 Stars
5 Stars
same as the third story
5 stars
As you can see I almost liked all of them. Two short stories just did not fit my reading vibes at the moment I read the book.

The writing style and world-building are beautiful. I fell in love with all the strong women in these stories and I think it is definitely a book I will read again.

To be honest, I do not want to tell more about these stories because I really liked the fact that I had absolutely no clue what the story will be about, so I will not say anything about the plot. If you read it, then please keep in mind that there are some violent scenes.

Conclusion
I can recommend this book to all short story lovers, who are on a hunt for strong female characters.

I give 4 from 5 Stars

THE TANGLEROOT PALACE contains six short stories and one novella, all of which are fantasy with hints of horror and gorgeously written. At the end of each story, there is also brief commentary by Liu, providing some background and thematic connections between the stories.

I adore the writing, which flowed beautifully, and I love how effortlessly detailed each sentence is. Fantasy short stories are extremely difficult to pull off, given the need to provide enough world building and plot within the limited word count, and Liu delivered not one but six satisfying stories.

The first story, “Sympathy for the Bones,” opens with a funeral and is about hoodoos, setting the tone of the whole book to be both magical and macabre. In “The Briar and the Rose,” we have a sapphic retelling of <i>Sleeping Beauty</i> as suggested by the title, a love story between swordswoman Briar (WOC) and Rose, whose body is possessed by a sorceress. I really enjoyed this one but the climax was glossed over and I felt it could’ve been so much more amazing than it already is.

“Call Her Savage” is set in the Tang Dynasty around the Opium War and Empress Xiao Shen Cheng (Manchu: ᡥᡳᠶᠣᠣᡧᡠᠩᡤᠠ ᠣᠯᡥᠣᠪᠠ ᡧᠠᠩᡤᠠᠨ ᡥᡡᠸᠠᠩᡥᡝᠣ) was also present in one scene. The main imagery of this story revolves around stars, in military star, stars in the sky, the name of the main character Xīng (which is 星, stars, in Chinese yet never explicitly mentioned in the text). This one was a little confusing for me—perhaps I tried too hard to tell history from fiction—with some information being laid out too thickly, but I loved the historical aspect nonetheless. With Xīng (Chinese-Scottish, sapphic) being a superhero, this leads us to the next supervillain story, “The Last Dignity of Man.” Alexander Lutheran (achillean) is a powerful but lonely man who loves the idea of being Lex Luthor. This is definitely the most disturbing story for me due to the gore.

“Where the Heart Lives” stars a non-speaking love interest and follows Lucy’s journey into the forest in an attempt to save a woman taken twenty years prior. Cursed forest and magic are important themes that threads through the rest of the book. “After the Blood” is a story about a pandemic with three characters who are not fully human, one of which is vampirish. In the novella “Tangleroot Palace,” Princess Sally, whose name is Salinda, faces the haunted Tangleroot Forest in search of an escape from the marriage proposal from the Warlord. I liked the atmosphere of the story and how Sally prefers to live a relatively common life, leading her to some adventures that she didn’t anticipate.

With Liu’s beautiful writing as smooth as breathing, THE TANGLEROOT PALACE is an engrossing story collection debut (she has several published graphic novels), and I absolutely cannot wait for more of her works.

[Content warnings (in the order of the seven stories):
1. death, murder, dismembering, bones, past child abuse, pedophilia, blood
2. rape, possessing, hints of slavery, racism, mention of war, blood, death, pregnancy, miscarriage, dismembering
3. war, blood, drowning, death, poison, bullets, mention of rape
4. gore, blood, bone, hospitalization, mention of death, mention of drunk driving
5. kidnapping, mention of death
6. blood, cutting, gun, pandemic
7. blood, death, arranged marriage]

Warrior women, runaway princesses, faery queens, post pandemic apocalypse, amish vampires, killer dolls, depressed evil villain billionaires- Do I have your attention yet?

I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to read Marjorie Liu's debut collection of short stories. I was swept up completely in her world and I loved it there. The collection consists of seven short stories all set in vastly different fantasy worlds.

Each story was brutal and raw whilst still being magical. I loved each of the main characters and the stories were so unique from one another! I adored the short insights she gave at the end of each of her stories.. Where she wrote them, what was going on in her life, what sparked her idea.

If I am being honest I was in love with Marjorie and her writing even from her thoughtful and witty introduction. My favourite of the stories was "Sympathy for the bones." It hooked me right in.

I found with every story I would get a sense of dread when I remembered it was a "short story" and I would need to say goodbye to the place too quickly. That must be the sign of a great tale, right?

(CW for this book: discussion of rape/sexual assault, death, graphic injury description).

(Review also posted on blog and goodreads. Links provided).

A series of stories that mainly feature women at the centre of each. They are mainly fantastical or interrogated some form of magical setting, and the women in these stories usually used their agency to extricate themselves from precarious or unwanted situations.
Many of these characters are based on fairytale or popular fictional protagonists, with a twist. The stories often have a dark undertone, which I appreciated, and the women were never written as one dimensional.
These were truly short stories as the pacing was quick and did not lag, making them easy to read and kept me engaged.

This is my first time reading a book by Marjorie Liu, and it being an anthology makes me really glad as I now know which type of her stories resonate more with me than not.

I have received this book in exchange for an honest review, thank you at Tachyon Publications and NetGalley for the opportunity.

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I believe that because she tries to incorporate as many themes and ideas in her book as possible, I want to go through my thoughts for each story one by one instead of just a general thought process (These would be so easy to spoil) as I've been doing for some other anthologies I've read lately. Before that however, I have to commend her choice of adding her own small message at the end of each of the seven stories where she discusses the inspirations behind the stories, her aim and sometimes her own thoughts and ideas before writing.

I really enjoyed reading that, and honestly, I would welcome it if more anthology writers followed this approach as in usual novels, the author does give a brief of their own thought process at the end. Moreover, I liked the length of almost all of them with the exception of one. Because they are only seven, I think that it gave Ms. Liu the chance to take her time telling these stories and it's another thing I liked about the anthology.

So without further ado:

Sympathy for the Bones

To be fair, this is my first exposure to a story detailing the usage of hoodoo so I took it as somewhat of a learning experience. That aside however, this story gripped me from the start and refused to let go till it was done. The way this magic works, and what is required for a practitioner was fascinating. I really liked that the author included multiple instances of its application, what happens afterwards and what that made our main character, Clora, feel in the end.

The anthology deals with several hard ideas, if I can call them that, and in this one it's being held by invisible strings beyond your will and with seemingly no way out. I liked the dangerous feel this brought to it and I really like to see how the protagonist reacts to situations like these or how they struggle more like. I believe that out of the seven, this was my favourite one overall.

- The Briar and the Rose

While I do think that I enjoyed the previous story a bit more than this one, I do think that out of the seven, this story had the most interesting mix of elements in it. In a sentence, I'll call it a strange mix between Rumpeestiltskin and Sleeping Beauty. To someone like me, who isn't a big fan of retellings so far, I think this was a very interesting experience to read about.

The main idea of trying of trying to save someone in this type of way is something I don't see very often, its often one-sided and usually it's this big and loud affair. Here it was more subtle, more cunning and with an impending time limit that made it feel more dangerous.

"As most women I know will tell you, they don't always sleep a lot - but they fight plenty."

- Call Her Savage

For the first half of this story, I wasn't very invested and I think it is something I can attribute to my lack of knowledge about the world she's envisioning here, since once that made sense; it was a lot more interesting. I think reading this story, to me, was a bit of an amusing idea since I was being somewhat bombarded in my usual book channels with "superhero fantasies." and this one was like that in a way, just a little bit more bloody. I liked that she didn't shy away from it, because if you're writing about war, I don't need it to be anything less than dangerous.

I also liked that she included a legend of sorts in the story and made it have a big role, gave it a bit of history, but made its effect felt in a lot bigger ways than simply passing through. Which brings me to our protagonist here and how that affected her own state of mind, it wouldn't be the first time I read about this type of hero and it also wouldn't be the first time they were made to do things that they didn't want to do, but I enjoyed seeing her overcome the obstacles.

- The Last Dignity of Man

This also follows the whole superhero angle, but kind of flips it over its head.

I for one, like seeing the attempt and especially the aftermath of any human character attempting to play god. It's a bit of a cliche setting given how easily known the outcome is, but I still enjoy seeing it. Moreover, the idea here isn't actually a bad one, it could potentially be very good if done right, but yeah, not our place.

This story is also the first one where I considered the main character to be simply pathetic, the whole hero worship thing exists, but to this extent makes it hard to accept as easily when it's from a character of this type and lets say, status. However, I will also say that I really liked being in his mind and learning more about this need of his. I have a hard time connecting with people, or at least being overly attached to someone, but I have seen it and being in someone's mind like that gives me an interesting perspective even when the "voice of reason" in this case, or rather their reason to exist felt a bit on the nose.

- Where the Heart Lies

I didn't enjoy this story all that much, which is to be expected given that it's a collection of short stories (I will admit that the bigger focus on romance is probably the main reason as to why), but I will say that the themes she discusses in each of them is more than enough to make up for it. In this one, we talk about self worth and belonging.

"She understood now, what could drive a women to abandon all."

The above quote resonated deeply with me, because I know first hand what it feels when you're pushed just so and the only thing that matters after that is getting away. This ties in with how our protagonist Lucy, ends up feeling in a world where women are basically property to some of the men around her. She gets sent away by her father to a place, that at first glance, will seemingly appear to be a death sentence and she discovers many new things, amongst them are very dark secrets and dangers as well.

I personally really enjoyed this contrast, it's horrible and dangerous, but there are times when the resolution makes it all better.

- After the blood

Reading this in a pandemic is not a very good idea, but hey, I finished it. I will also say that this story is the only one of the entire collection where I felt completely and utterly detached from every single happening in it. I couldn't care less about the characters, I couldn't care less about their struggles and I couldn't care less about their romance either. Why though? simply because, it combined two entities I really dislike in any story.

I did like the resourcefulness however, I enjoy survival stories a lot and I really hoped that this would be a bit more interesting for me to read in the end. Even though, I didn't enjoy it, I do think that reading the survival aspect of it combined with Ms. Liu's writing made the experience better than it might have been any where else.

- The Tangleroot Palace

Final story of the collection, and is most likely the only one where I think it was a bit longer than it needed to be.

I do think that the themes she was going for were fun to read about, and I really think that I would have liked it a lot more if it was a more solo effort than not. I say this because the whole "banding" together aspect, made the resolution easy to see from that single second. I think I've been exposed to many stories where I'm not very surprised anymore, but I do think that a what if scenario is something I'll enjoy a lot more than anything else in situations like these.

That of course, does not mean that the story was boring, no, it was much better than the two before it. The mystery surrounding the Tangleroot Palace was fun to try and discover, I also liked that Sally thought of different ways to change her own fate and I enjoyed seeing her venture on an adventure. Having that adventure be dangerous was the cherry on top if you will, growth stories are much more felt to me when they aren't easy. I will say that I liked the twist at the end there in regards to the final confrontation, but yeah, solo > group any time.

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A very interesting experience overall and I would not mind reading more books by Marjorie Liu now that I know which type of books of hers would suit me best :)

The Tangleroot Palace was a mixed bag for me. I adored the interesting LGBT retelling of Sleeping Beauty, which was imaginative and worked so well. A couple of the other stories were also fine, but some I struggled to engage with, finding the characters a little two dimensional. In a short story you don't have many pages in which to build worlds or characters, so what you do needs to be spot on from the start, and that wasn't always the case here. That said, although I couldn't fully get into some of the pieces, I could appreciate the clever ideas behind them in the way they played with popular tropes from fantasy and fairytales. So if you are a fan of fairytale retellings and fairytale-like short fantasy, this is a book you might want to check out.