Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

Didn’t realise this was a TikTokers book when I requested it. It was a fine read, nothing new nothing to write home about.

Liz Gotauco (@cosbrarian) translates her popular TikTok fairy tale retellings to the page in this volume. Each tale is presented warts and all, leaning into the bawdy, gruesome, and NSFW elements that have made these stories stand the test of time. At the same time, this book is informative, well-sourced, and deeply researched, with lovely illustrations by Liz's sister, Jade. F*cked Up Fairy Tales is sure to bring new insight to stories you thought you knew by heart, all while making you laugh out loud!

This book is great for those of us who teethed on Disney movie fairy tales - the Sleeping Beauties and Snow Whites and Rapunzel's - and who have since grown up. You won't find the sanitized fairy tales of your youth in the pages of this novel. Instead, Liz Gotauco introduces fairy tales and fables from cultures and countries all over the world between its covers. The stories are divided into categories: 'So...You Married an Animal', 'What's Your Body Count?', and 'The Devil Made Her Do It' just to name a few. Within each story recounted, Liz adds her own anecdotes, facts, and personal feelings between paragraphs. This had me feeling like I was gossiping with a friend when reading the stories. The author also gives references at the end of the story and sometimes additional facts about the story. This was such a fun and entertaining read for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, W.W. Norton & Company, and Liz Gotauco for the eARC of this book for review.

Fairy tales reach across generations as well as cultures. The author does a great job of adding her dry wit and humor to telling (and explaining) fairy tales from around the world.
The author's witty retellings and explanations are pure entertainment.

This book is good for many genres! I recommend this to anyone looking to learn something (you can always learn something from fairy tales) as well as to people that enjoy humor. Anyone interested in fairy tales and history are guaranteed a good time.

Didn't know if this would be worth the read but i kind of enjoyed it as it was about fairy tales and was told all the strange things happening
I would rate this a 3 out of 5

This book is a collection of bawdy, shocking, and hilarious retellings of classic and rare fairy tales — the kind that are far from Disney’s sanitized versions. It dives into twisted, adult versions of folklore featuring crazy themes like accidental bestiality, disastrous marriages, and even dealing with a murderous lindworm child. You'll encounter gossipy animals, homicidal royals, doomed commoners, shape-shifting lovers — all battling adult-sized problems that the original fairy tales quietly skipped over. Add in funny historical tidbits about the Brothers Grimm and Madame d’Aulnoy, plus bold illustrations, and you’ve got a wildly entertaining and edgy fairy tale reboot.

If you're looking for fairy tales that are sexy, disturbing, and outrageously funny — packed with folklore knowledge and delivered with a wink — this book is exactly that: fairy tales turned gloriously messy.
Need it even briefer or with a content warning? Just say the word.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

This book is being published on October 7th 2025.

This was a great book full of a lot of fairy tales I've never even heard of! I'm glad the author didn't just focus on the classic fairy tales we all already know, and gave some lesser known tales as well! Plus her commentary was hilarious!

Thank you Liz Gotauco, W.W. Norton, and NetGalley for the ARC!

I was not familiar with Liz Gatauco's series on fairy tales before but now i'm a fan. Writing a book based off a podcast or tiktok series can be tricky because it either has too much of a podcast vibe or removes it too much but for this one I found the right balance between the actual fairy tale and the side comments and interjections from the author. Pleasantly surprised!

This book was honestly such a fun read! The little comments throughout had me laughing, but also made me realise how little I actually knew about the stories I grew up with. Like… there are over a thousand versions of Cinderella? What?! And don’t even get me started on the new ones I’d never heard of—they’re way more interesting (and kind of unhinged in the best way).

I love that it didn’t just stick to the same dark, disturbing tales we’ve all already heard before. That awful Sleeping Beauty one? Not here. Instead, there’s stuff like women turning into clams and peeing in soup to add flavour, or snakes murdering their wives until one finally snaps. It’s wild.

But what really made it fun was the commentary. It wasn’t just funny, it was actually insightful. It breaks down different versions, alternate endings, and explains what parts didn’t even make sense. I weirdly feel smarter (and funnier?) after reading this.

If you want something weird, hilarious, and totally different from your usual fairy tale retellings—this is it. Definitely keen to chat about it with someone now.

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
#FckedUpFairyTales #NetGalley #ARC #ARCReader #Lucky #Bookstagram #Reader #BookLover #FairyTales #TikTokBooks #Debut #Author #LizGotauco #Books #Cinderella #NotForChildren

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.