I love the inclusiveness of this book. All the retelling of different stories is wonderful, and I hope this becomes a classic along with the originals. It deserves to be. I have always loved fairytales, and I love this one as well. Thank you netgalley.

(I will be posting on goodreads as well)

I greatly enjoyed this collection of fairy tale re-tellings! Some stories were retold with gender-swapped characters, and others with non-binary characters. Some stories included loving, supportive parents, and others did not.

This collection was inclusive and very well put together, with a great range of LGBTQIAP+ representation. Before each and every tale, each character's pronouns are listed, as well as any applicable content notes, which I think is a wonderful idea.

Ana Mardoll masterfully weaves the stories that we know into familiar, glittering reminders that we all deserve a happy ending in this collection of retold fairytales, Cinder the Fireplace Boy.

I don't know how xie they did, but xie perfectly captured the feeling of reading these stories for the first time as a child, particularly with Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, and Cinder. Staring each story with a list of used pronouns, Mardoll threads updated lessons about consent and gender. It's such a relief to read an old narrative style with these themes. Not only that, but xie writes it well by also sprinkling familiar world-building from the general folklore. (ie. Salt and pure water as protection against a faery.)

If anything, I wish xie had written more, going beyond Grimm's usual canon and - hopefully - might one day turn some of these into full-length novels. Hint, hint... Much like Mardoll's previous anthology, No Man of Woman Born, this is an excellent primer on how fairytales can be rewoven and a testament to xir work.

NetGalley provided an ARC. All opinions are my own.