Thank you to NetGalley and W.W. Norton & Company for the digital advanced copy of F*cked Up Fairy Tales: Sinful Cinderellas, Prince Alarmings, and Other Timeless Classics by Liz Gotauco. This review reflects my honest opinions.

F*cked Up Fairy Tales is a hilarious and sharp retelling of lesser-known fables from around the world, written by Liz Gotauco. With equal parts reverence and irreverence, Liz offers readers a fresh look at these old tales—balancing absurdity with insight, humor, and historical context. From the very first page, I was hooked. Her introduction felt incredibly relatable: like Liz, I too was a kid when my mom rented Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, and our experiences with that story were almost parallel. That version has always stayed with me. On more than one occasion I have found myself retelling his version of the story to family and friends.

Liz’s voice is conversational, witty, and clever. She doesn’t just retell the stories—she adds thoughtful commentary and cultural context that helps the reader understand when, where, and why each tale was created. Her comedic timing is spot-on, but it never feels disrespectful to the original text. She manages to honor the original spirit of the tales while pointing out how strange, dark, or outdated they can be.

The book is divided into five themed sections made up of various tales. Each story is a standalone, so you can read the collection in any order. I appreciated this flexibility, and I thought the structure added a fun layer of organization without being restrictive. The stories are also the perfect length—short enough to keep your attention, but rich enough to leave an impression. Liz also curated an amazing selection of stories. Typically with either an anthology or a collection of short stories, you will have one to two duds. Luckily with this book, every story is entertaining and engaging.
One of the key points Liz makes in her foreword is how surprisingly similar fairy tales are across cultures. Despite being developed in isolated parts of the world, many countries have their own versions of stories like Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. These tales continue to resonate today, even if the original versions are a little wild (or wildly problematic). Liz touches on how important it is not to dismiss them as simply outdated as they still reflect our values, fears, and dreams.

This book is definitely for a mature audience. Some stories are dark, a little gross, and definitely not what you'd read to a child at bedtime. That said, if you enjoy fairy tales with a twist, a bit of sarcasm, and a dash of cultural insight, this is absolutely worth picking up. It's also a quick and engaging read. I only paused briefly about three-quarters of the way through, just to savor the rest.

I highly recommend F*cked Up Fairy Tales. It’s clever, bold, and packed with stories that will make you laugh, cringe, and think.

Book Review
Fcked Up Fairy Tales by Liz Gotauco

I was lucky enough to be selected as an advanced reader for this book through NetGalley, and to say I was excited is a bit of an understatement. I have followed Liz (may I call you Liz?) on TikTok for a while and have always enjoyed her videos retelling tales we thought we knew all about, as well as giving us some great facts and context to them.

Reading this book was like having a chat with a good friend, the witty commentary from Liz interjected in the Fairy Tales selected were both hilarious and insightful. I have certainly learnt a lot more about the Fairy Tales I have grown up with (Cinderella who? What do you mean there are over 1000 versions!) and I have also been introduced to so many I was not aware of but tie in with the 'classics' and for the most part, are a lot more fun. I feel both smarter and funnier for reading this book and cannot wait to discuss it with more people on its release.

I do not envy the task of whittling down the seemingly endless iterations of Fairy Tales from around the world to the ones selected in this book, and so it does make me so happy that there is a lot of recommended tales (along with a hearty list of Trigger Warnings). There is also a lot of love from me for the Woodblock style illustrations for each tale and I do want some of them as a T-Shirt!

Publish date - 7th October 2025
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I liked the idea of this more than the actual stories. While I found some of them funny, none of the stories were that original. After a few, it started to get obvious how each one would go based off of the title.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of F*cked Up Fairy Tales.

When most people think of fairy tales, they think of the Disney-fied version; beautiful princess meets handsome prince, cute, quirky friends and animal sidekicks, a magical villain(ness), a harrowing journey, and happily ever after.

But if anyone has read Grimm and where fairy tales originated from, you'll find they're really not suitable for children. Or even adults.

I'm not on social media so I didn't know who the author was so I went into this with an open mind.

First, I loved that the author researched fairy tales from all over the world.

Second, I don't think paraphrasing them for a modern audience means you're a writer but this is an opportunity to gain a broader understanding of how fairy tales come from all cultures and in some way how we view the world and relationships.

I enjoyed the author's snarky comments in the beginning but due to the formatting on my Kindle, it was distracting and disrupted the narrative.

Third, the diverse fairy tales all contain similar elements and it's fun (and discouraging) to see how many patriarchal elements permeate the tales no matter the time and culture you live in.

Overall, this was an enjoyable and fun read. I appreciated the diversity of the fairy tales and the illustrations.

I received this ARC from Netgalley.

This was a pretty funny anthology of messed up fairy tales found around the world. However, I took off a star because the author had way too many interspersed comments, some of the dialog was a bit too cringey in an attempt to be shocking, and the formatting made it hard to read.

Arc Review: Fucked Up Fairytales by Liz Gotauco

If you’ve ever taken a fairy tale class—or just love the twisted origins of classic stories—you’ll find Fucked Up Fairytales both hilarious and oddly nostalgic. Liz Gotauco’s writing style is sharp, clever, and laugh-out-loud funny in places. I found myself snorting at some of her commentary while also appreciating the unexpected details in these darker, lesser-known versions.

Some tales were familiar from my college days, while others were completely new to me, which kept the whole book feeling fresh. Gotauco balances snark with solid storytelling, making this a quick and fun read for anyone who likes their folklore with a side of sass and a touch of absurdity.
Thank you for this arc. All opinions are my own.

I really wanted to love this story more than I actually did. I was familiar with some of the fairy tales mentioned throughout this book, and was expecting to be surprised by some newfound knowledge surrounding the stories. However, it was mostly pretty much the same. Nothing quite new or expanded upon as I had hoped. I did laugh a bit here and there from the author's witty remarks, but, otherwise, was left wanting more from this book. I'm sure others who are unfamiliar with the fairy tales and historical information mentioned in this book will enjoy the story. For me, unfortunately, this was not the case.

I loved this. This was a fresh take on classic fairytales. If you have the time please pick this up and give it a look. You will not be disappointed maybe offended and then laughing. Just read it.

This just wasn't my style in the least. It felt like reading an (poorly) annotated book on a kindle.

A funny mash-up of old folk and fairy tales, many of which I hadn’t read before. This book kept me highly entertained but I only had one minute bugbear. I don’t like exclamation marks being used to highlight a ‘funny’ point. It’s like canned laughter.

Book will be well received and I sense this will be popular for Christmas.

This book is wonderfully entertaining and surprisingly informative!
I enjoyed that many of these fairytales were ones that I had not heard of before and the author provided the historical and cultural ties along with relevant information.
Since my kids demanded to know what I was cackling at, I regurgitated some of the puns to them but it is definitely not a bedtime read with the kids.
It was a very good time though.

Not sure how a person can take public domain stories and add some quirky comments and call it a book. I know this is a Tic Tok sensation but so are women who twirl around in dresses and show more of themselves than should be allowed... and cats... I miss the days before self publishing on Amazon.

This book is as advertised - F*cked up fairytales. It was so interesting to read stories from different countries and to see different versions of "typical" fairy tales. The author's sense of humor really makes this book shine - balancing humor with informative with some really dark plots. Her asides and additions really made this book into something fun and interesting to read. I felt like I learned a lot, but from an obsessed friend who couldn't wait to share the bizarre random fact they just learned.
I recommend for anyone with a snarky sense of humor and those who want to learn more about fairy-tales in any manner.

We all know that there are some really screwy fairy tales out there, and I’m happy to say that the author left out the usual ones that most people know, such as the version of sleeping beauty where the prince rapes her while she is asleep, and she gives birth to two children, all while sleeping. No, that weird one isn’t in there. Instead we get stories of clams that become women, and pee in their husbands soup, to give it flavor. Or ones where snakes keep killing their wives, until one learns how to fight back.

The best part of this collection is the comments the author makes, in each story. She doesn’t point out just the usual stuff, but the stuff we may not know, such as what earlier translations have said about each story in the book. Sometimes she will give the alternative endings, or will say that the story didn’t make sense with one ending.

If you want a good collection of unusual fairy and folk tales, then this book is for you. But, if you want your fairy tales sanitized beyond belief, then I pity you, as you are missing out.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book is being published on October 7th 2025.

What a hilarious book full of short stories with more of their original intention. Prior to being Disney-tied, fairy tales weren’t always so sweet. If you want a laugh (and some ideas to scare your children) this is a great book for you!