I loved this! The art was gorgeous and the stories were moving. I was not familiar with these tales and I love learning new stories.

Three tales: One of a princess who's been turned into a snail and must conquer her own selfishness to escape. One of two stepsisters who are looking for a happily ever after but aren't sure how to find it. One of an unmarried woman who wants to live alone but finds herself in an ill-fated deal with a giant.

I don't know that I can explain how beautiful this book is. The characters are imperfect, yet they are strong and admirable. They aren't brash, but they shine like stars. I was deeply touched. The comparison to the original tales makes these stories all the more brilliant, and I'm glad they were included. The artwork suits these tales well, adding a richness and depth of color that warmed my heart. I won't hesitate to list this among the top graphic novels I've read this year.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a great graphic novel and a really quick read. It covers 3 tales from Indonesia, focusing on the women and their stories, each of the tales centers around the companionship and love between different female relationships.

I found the art style so comforting, it truly evoked feminine energy with the beautiful but faded colors, rounded lines instead of stark lines I see in very male forward comics.

I like how this graphic novel shows how to humanize women who are often subjected to archetypes or stereotypes. This work expands these images of fairy tale heroines instead as complex people who care about more things than finding their prince.

4/5

What a cute hidden gem this was.
The overall artwork is super pretty, as was the color palette chosen.
At the end of the volume we could read the original stories or our three short tales as well.
All of them are unique and full of heart in it. All of them had that nostalgic feeling to them, like they were something from the past that we only had the chance to read now, like a lost book of tales or something.
The topics used in all of them were serious but treated very well at the same time, the author was able to keep the stories light with that touch of the good old fantasy elements.

I can totally see them as little episodes in a kids animated series, just like the ones I was used to watch as a child.

Unfamiliar Folklores and fairytales are the best. Retellings of those are even better. This, an illustrated retelling of three such amazing stories, is so captivating. Amongst the mainstream fairytales with prince charmings and knights in shining armour, these stories have been tweaked to come across bias free without spoiling the essence. As an added bonus, the author has included the gist of the original folklores. Great read!

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy!

I really enjoyed these retellings of classic Indonesian folklore. As I knew nothing about it I was even more happy to read them. Highly recommend!

First of all, the color scheme of this book is *chef’s kiss*. But anyways, I love the way the writing and illustrations play together in this book. The art is so important to the book that there are even pages that have no words on them and I love that. Also, I love when books have multiple stories in them. More bang for your buck, but I also think it keeps the young reader’s attention way better.

Journey into a land of magic and powerful girls in this feminist retelling of Indonesian folktales, lushly reimagined by a debut graphic novelist.

This was so good! The art and writing were really well done!

These are lovely retellings of Indonesian folktales, several of which have elements that will be familiar to lovers of Western folklore. The book also includes text summaries of the original folktales for reference.

I really enjoyed Angkasa's twist on the morals of the tales, which rely far more on female solidarity than the original stories. The illustrations are beautiful, and the plant life depicted in the third story in particular was stunning. (Hooray for having a corpseflower in one panel!! Woo!) This is a great book for young readers. Absolutely beautiful. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this book as an ARC.

I really liked this! The art style was so pretty and the stories were heartwarming. I loved learning more about the characters, their cultures, and just everything else about these stories. This was a very lovely & quick read.

This one was so cute! I'm always a sucker for fairy and folktales, so this was a perfect read for me -- especially since these were tales I had never heard of before. I also liked that the original tale was given at the end for the reader to compare Angkasa's version with.

Absolutely loved these stories! The art style is colorful, whimsical, and just plain gorgeous.

I love reading stories and tales and myths from other cultures, so this book was a no brainier to try. When I read the author's note at the end and the "original" stories, it made me appreciate the versions presented even more. The author took traditional Indonesian tales and remixed them to empower the women in the stories. Fantastic!

The illustrations in this graphic novel were gorgeous and suited the storytelling perfectly. I loved that each tale was reworked to give the girls in them more agency. It was also nice to see that the original tales were also included at the end of the graphic.

Amazing!

I really enjoyed this. It's a quick read, and the art style is very cute.

This comic has 3 retellings of Indonesian folktales, with the original stories at the very back of the book so you can truly understand how the author changed up the stories to give the main characters more agency.

First of all, the illustrations in this book are drop dead gorgeous. Such a gorgeous graphic novel. And the story was great as well. I think readers will be struck by the beauty that is within this book and they will love it just as much as I did.

I really really liked this graphic novel! The stories included were fascinating, and ones I had never read before. The art style was really lovely too. As I had never heard any Indonesian folktales before, I very much appreciated the author including the original stories in the back of the book. It gave me the knowledge to then enjoy how the author retold these stories through a more women focused lens. I highly enjoyed reading this book, and I would definitely purchase this for my library. I think the kids, especially middle schoolers, would enjoy it a lot.

Beautifully told and illustrated folktale adaptations make this a delightful read. The author's retelling of each of the three Indonesian folktales into stories more focused on female strength than their original versions provides perfect short parables for young readers. Including prose versions of the original stories in the backmatter was a great touch that will make for interesting discussions among readers.

I absolutely devoured these stories. I love folklore from around the world. I loved that the author took traditional Indonesian folklore, pumped up the volume of families power and influence, and placed it atop a dreamy pastel watercolored wonderland.

It was like a sweet melody of hope playing beneath a hearachingly beautiful song and I was absolutely here for it. As a sister, I think the second story was absolutely my favorite, and I liked the author's take on sisterhood and surviving abusive parenting far more than the original story. I'll definitely be sharing that one with my little sisters.

Thank you so much to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for access to the advanced copy in exchange for this honest review.

Before reading this novel I knew approximately zero Indonesian folktales, so this was a lovely introduction.

The art style was stunning and I really liked how the author portrayed different kinds of relationships between women (sisters, mother - daughter). Apparently the author tweaked each story a little to give the women more autonomy, which I'm absolutely here for. There were short summaries of the actual folktales in the end of the book, so it was easy to recognise the changes Clar Angkasa has made.

In short, if you enjoy folklore and graphic novels, this is the book for you.

I love folktales, stories and myths, but I have to confess I was not very familiar with Indonesian stories when I picked up this book, which played in my favour, as I did not know what to expect or how the stories would end, but I do think that even if you're familiar with these three tales, you will enjoy them, not only because of its fantastic art, which suits the stories very well, but also because the author tweaked them a bit, which I liked.

The only criticism I have fot this book is related to these changes the author made; I like the new versions, but since I was not familiar with the original tales, I did not know they had been tweaked until I had finished the book. That's my criticism, not the changes themselves. I think having that note at the beginning of the book would be more helpful, especially for those already familiar with these stories, as they will be alerted beforehand and will know what to expect. In my case, it didn't affect my reading experience, since it was still something new for me. And I really appreciated the author including a summary of the original tales at the end, so you'd know how they differ and can understand why she made those changes. So, in a way, you get two stories in one, because you have the reimagined version and then you can compare it, or simply enjoy, the original version.

Some changes are smaller than others, but I prefer to see the stories as reimagined versions, because that's what they are and that's what we often see with fairytales and folktales. I am curious why the author decided to make certain changes, if I'm being honest, or how they came to be, but I do think they're great like that. I wish the book had 5 stories total, because I really enjoyed them, but maybe we will be lucky and the author will write a second volume.

In short, if you like stories, if you're curious about different folktales (after all, we are always presented with the same ones), or just interesting myths, give this book a try. It's a fun and interesting read and I think everyone can get something from it.