| Title | : | How to Fracture a Fairy Tale |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1616963069 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781616963064 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 |
| Publication | : | First published November 5, 2018 |
| Awards | : | Locus Award Collection (2019) |
—The New York Times
Fantasy legend Jane Yolen (The Emerald Circus, The Devil’s Arithmetic) delights with these effortlessly wide-ranging transformed fairy tales. Yolen fractures the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets, holding them to the light and presenting them entirely transformed, from a spinner of straw as a money-changer and to the big bad wolf retiring to a nursing home. Rediscover the fables you once knew, rewritten and refined for the world we now live in.
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale Reviews
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3.33 stars. Review first posted on
Fantasy Literature:
One year after Tachyon Publications published
The Emerald Circus, a collection of fantastical short stories by Jane Yolen based on various fairy tales and legendary people (both fictional and real), it has followed up with a similar collection, How to Fracture a Fairy Tale. Like The Emerald Circus, this is a compilation of Yolen’s older, previously published stories, spiffed up with new author’s notes in which Yolen briefly discuss each story and how she “fractured” it with significant departures from its original source material. These end notes for each story also include a poem by Yolen that’s linked to the same original source material. The source material varies widely, including fairy tales (Snow White, Cinderella, the Little Mermaid), vampires, Scottish selkies, Chinese dragons, Greek and Native American legends, and much more.
These twenty-eight reimagined fairy tales and legends also vary greatly in tone. When I finished this collection my first thought was, wow, what a bleak bunch of stories. Looking back on the individual stories, though, it turns out only about eleven or twelve of them (yes, I counted) are really downbeat. That number does include several stories right at the end of the collection, which may explain the somber feeling I had when I finished. One of my favorite stories, though, was one of this set: “Mama Gone,” the story of an Appalachian girl whose mother has died and become a vampire. It’s heartbreaking but surprisingly tender, with a bittersweet note.
One of the themes that surfaces a few times in this collection is the history of Jewish persecution, reflecting Yolen’s Jewish heritage. My favorite of these was “Slipping Sideways Through Eternity,” an unlikely combination of time travel, a quirky Elijah, and the Holocaust, experienced by a modern day Jewish girl with a talent for art. “Granny Rumple” also draws on the historic oppression of Jews, making a thought-provoking connection between that and the tale of Rumpelstiltskin.
Several of these stories deal with the terrible things people do to each other. Sometimes there’s a happy or at least satisfying ending (as in “Green Plague,” a humorous variation on the legend of the Pied Piper of Hameln), but often not. If you thought Robin McKinley’s
Deerskin (a retelling of Charles Perrault’s "Donkeyskin"), was tough to read, with its incest-based plot, Yolen’s similar “Allerleirauh” is even more tragic. At least it was very short! As was “The Gwynhfar,” an equally harrowing tale of another type of abuse.
On the other end of the scale, there are five or six quite humorous tales to lighten things up. My favorites of these were “Cinder Elephant,” a charming tale starring a cheerfully overweight Cinderella, and “Sleeping Ugly,” a humorous twist on Sleeping Beauty:Princess Miserella was a beautiful princess if you counted her eyes and nose and mouth and all the way down to her toes. But inside, where it was hard to see, she was the meanest, wickedest, and most worthless princess around. She liked stepping on dogs. She kicked kittens. She threw pies in the cook’s face.
The ending of “Sleeping Ugly” left me grinning, as did a sudden twist in “Snow in Summer” (a Snow White story that’s similar to but not to be confused with
Snow in Summer, Yolen’s novel of the same name, which is based on this earlier story).
Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed The Emerald Circus more. How to Fracture a Fairy Tale contains a dozen more stories than the sixteen in that prior collection, but the stories in The Emerald Circus were longer ones that engaged me more as a reader. (Plus: not generally as bleak as this set.) Still, there are some excellent stories in this collection, and if you’re a fan of Jane Yolen’s brand of story-telling, this is worth checking out.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher and this is my voluntary review. Thank you!
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So I’m a little frustrated. I read an eARC of this that had no linked table of contents and so I didn’t know there were authors notes to go with every story at the back!! I would have liked these at the beginning or end of each story within the book context. Especially because some of the notes Jane Yolen made at the end of the book are key to understanding her decision to include the story or why she changed what she did.
The Tales
There are a lot of fairy tales in this book. Some are multi-sectioned and upwards of 75 pages. Others are not even 1000 words long. The variety is well spread-out and you could easily choose to read these in any order you wanted. None of them rely on you having read the story before.
I really enjoyed the ones based on traditional fairy tales. There are many that are not based in stories you may know. Some are from foreign folklore many may not be familiar with (but what a great time to learn about it!) and others have biblical context to them. As someone who is familiar with the commonly known Bible stories this was fine for me but someone less versed in religious text may find this frustrating.
What's a Fairy Tale?
Yolen's collection has really made me think about what is a fairy tale? Does Disney need to have made an animated movie for it to count? (I hope not!) Does it need to be 'well known' and who defines what is common enough? Does it need to have a strong moral? A princess? An evil villain? You get where I'm going with this. It's hard to define a fairy tale. And so my thought on what is a fairy tale is different from Yolen. Once I accepted that to be the case things were better for me. The first Bible story threw me for a loop; even though I really enjoyed the one where the man is taken to Hell and then Heaven to see 'what they are like'.
The Best?
The obvious question with anthologies is, which story is best? I don't know if I can answer this. There are so many great merits to most of the stories in this anthology. There are a couple duds (including one early on, so what out!) but overall a clear 80% or more of these stories are excellent. I did really enjoy the unique take on Rumpelstiltskin (a personal fave), the dragons whom no one remembers and the Snow White reversal.
Overall
There are a lot of hidden gems in How to Fracture a Fairy Tale and I'm confident any reader could find at least one or two stories they liked. That is perhaps the true genius of Yolen's writing and interpretations is that she sees them from all different perspectives. There is no one 'fracture' point of view that all the stories are told from. Instead it's as though a different person wrote the stories in some cases.
The introduction by Marissa Meyer is repetitive, dull and easily skipped. It feels included to capitalize on her name recognition. But don't skip over Yolen's short introduction to the stories. She has a couple important things to say about what she deems a fracture and how fairy tales have evolved over the years.
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Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review. -
3/5 stars ⭐⭐⭐
ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
How To Fracture A Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen is a collection of classic fairy tales retold with added twists.
Pros:
❇I'm a sucker for retelling's, so of course I requested this because it sounded right up my alley. I loved the writing, and some of the twists I definitely did not see coming.
Cons:
❇Like any short story collection this one had it's ups and downs. Some of the stories in this were brilliant, but I unfortunately didn't love them all.
Final Thoughts/Comments:
❇I discovered as I was reading this that I have in fact read some of this authors previous work, and I would definitely be interested in reading more from her in the future! -
Absolutely stunning stories, one of the best collections I've read in years! Jane Yolen knows how to capture your imagination from the first line, and keep it, whether the story is two pages or twenty. I'd read a few of these before, like Sleeping Ugly, and was delighted to have it collected here (I really must get the illustrated edition for my kids!) and there's a shortened version of her wonderful novel Snow in Summer to start it all off. Interesting how well it worked as either a story or a novel! I also really enjoyed the brief notes at the end that told the original of each story and how she "fractured" it. Wonderful all around!
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Wickedly delightful and full of fun, Jane Yolen takes the world of fairy tales and stands them on their heads. No one is safe, whether they are trolls, dragons, or flighty beauties. Cinderella, Snow White, and other iconic folktales are dissected and in some cases, have a new modern spin. Abused princesses are empowered by their brains rather than a saved by a man. Jewish, Asian, and Greek myths and stories are dusted off and given a modern treatment that makes them both ironic and more acceptable to new interpretations. Jane Yolen, you kept me occupied for an entire flight and I had to be reminded to leave the plane when we landed. I was too engrossed to notice.
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3,5 stars
Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Trigger warnings Concentration Camps, Rape, Body Shaming, Physical Abuse, Emotional Abuse, Incest
I will admit that I have never read anything by Jane Yolen before. But when this cover with that title, I mean how can you pass up How to Fracture a Fairytale as a title, passed me by I knew I had to give it a shot. This book is a collection of short stories Jane Yolen has read over the many years of her career. She is in her seventies. I had no idea.
A lot of these stories have been published in other anthologies before because of various prompts and anthology ideas. This book puts all of the explanation per story in the back. I think it would have done my reading a lot of good had each story had their explanation right after. There were some interesting things to read in there and each explanation came with a poem. Some of those had been published before too. Others were written just for this collection. It just felt weird to have all of the explanations in one go, like a big info dump.
There is a variety of stories in here, all retellings of fairytales or mythologies. Cinderella was however quite a reoccurring one with at least 3 stories based on it. It was fun to see though how each story was twisted a bit. My personal favorite of those three was Cinder Elephant as the main character here was fat. Unfortunately there was also some bodyshaming going on in this story which she does slightly address in her explanation but not enough.
I think what I liked seeing most was how a bunch of the stories had a Jewish character or Jewish influences. Jane Yolen herself is Jewish and I thought that was great to see. One does not often see Jewish characters in fantasy. With that came however some heavy topics like the concentration camps.
I had a large fondness for the story Mama Gone. I suppose that cut into my own mom heart. The emotional feelings along with the rising of a vampire. Of having to say goodbye. But there were also funny bits like the wolves in retirement home and a goat nurse.
Overall I think this is a great collection of short stories and poems to read if you enjoy fairytales. Yolen certainly has her own style and twists she makes. Not every story hit home for me, but what didn’t hit for me will hit for someone else. It is certainly worth the effort. But be aware of some heavy hitting subjects and triggers. -
Ahoy there me mateys! I received this short story collection eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .
While I have read many of Jane Yolen's works, most have been her novels. It has only been recently that I have been reading her short stories. This collection has 28 varied tales. In addition, the end of the book has author reflections on how the stories came to be along with some of her poetry.
This collection didn't resonate with me as much as the emerald circus collection did. I only loved about half of them. The others not so much even though I could appreciate the skill of the writing. I will try to give ye an idea of the bare bones and thoughts on me favourites:
"Snow in Summer" - a Snow White retelling with a fantastic answer to what happens to the evil queen.
"The Moon Ribbon" - this one has a bit of Cinderella (which I know) and a bit of The Princess and the Goblin (which I don't). It was weird but I rather liked it.
"One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King" - this was the seventh story in the collection and the first one I really loved. It tells the story of dragons from a Eastern perspective but with a Western solution.
"Brother Hart" - this tale was apparently based on the Russian/ Grimm story of Little Brother, Little Sister. I am not familiar with that tale at all but I loved this story. It deals with transformations and loving sibling relationships.
"Sun/Flight" - a tale based on the Icarus myth. I didn't love it but I found it oddly beguiling and interesting.
"Slipping Sideways Through Eternity" - this is a story about a girl who goes back in time to the Holocaust with the help of Elijah. Powerful and compelling"
"The Foxwife" - this story features a kitsune. Ever since I read shadow of the fox, I have loved takes on the kitsune Japanese folk tales. Yolen also recommend foxwife by Kij Johnson. I will have to check that one out.
"The Faery Flag" - this is based around the Faery Flag legend of Scotland about the McLeods on the Isle of Skye. I got tired of faery stories a while back. This was a breath of fresh air.
"One Old Man, with Seals" - this one is based on the Greek shapeshifter, Proteus but set in 20th century America. It has a lighthouse and the sea. Awesome!
"Sleeping Ugly" - an absolutely lovely fracturing of Sleeping Beauty. The ending!
"Green Plague" - a fun mix of frogs and the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Silly and fun.
"The Unicorn and the Pool" - it has an unicorn! Short and bittersweet.
"Sule Skerry" - this is a tale of selchies of the Scottish Islands inspired by the song "The Great Selchie of Sule Skerry." Lovely.
"Cinder Elephant" - another Cinderella retelling where our protagonist is overweight and a bird watcher. This was a lovely, wonderful tale. The poem and description about writing this tale was absolutely fabulous as well. I think this was me favourite.
"Mama Gone" - a fairy tale about vampires that is both sad and sweet. Seriously.
I be very grateful to have a chance to read these stories. While I didn't love every story, I do have a few new favourites of hers. Arrrr!
So lastly . . .
Thank you Tachyon Publications!
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I have mixed feelings about this anthology, making it difficult to give it an overall rating that feels accurate. There were a few stories that I really enjoyed, but a few too many that never sufficiently grabbed my interest. I love fractured fairy tales, and think I was looking for more drastic changes from the original source material in some cases. What's the point of writing a retelling without turning the whole story upside-down and making us think about it in a totally new light?
One thing that I loved about this collection was the sheer variety of stories and cultures represented. This anthology includes dragons, princesses, a vampire, and even time travel; you will find stories that feel like they could have been plucked out of a Brothers Grimm book as well as much more modern tales. The Jewish themes seemed to be the most prominent throughout the anthology, but Yolen has reworked tales from Europe, Asia, and more.
Here is a small sampling of the sources of inspiration for some of Yolen's stories:
The Bridge's Complaint - Billy Goats Gruff, Norwegian
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King - Chinese dragon stories
Brother Hart - Brothers Grimm story (Little Brother Little Sister)
Sun/Flight - Icarus, Greek Mythology
The Foxwife - figure from Japanese folklore
The Faery Flag - Scottish folklore
One Old Man, With Seals - Greek mythology
The Undine - inspired by Little Mermaid and various French stories
Sister Death - Jewish myth
The Woman Who Loved a Bear - Native American myth
The stories vary quite a bit in tone; many of them use somewhat antiquated language, while the occasional tale reads like something a friend is telling you over coffee. These differences helped to break up the anthology and keep it from feeling overly uniform or repetitive. The variety assures that there will be something in this collection for just about everyone. Whether you're looking for something totally re-imagined, something with a classical feel, something whimsical, or something dark, you'll find it somewhere in these pages.
My thanks to NetGalley and Tachyon Publications for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and are not influenced by the publisher.
You can read all of my reviews at my blog,
Jenna Bookish!
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I enjoyed some of these stories a whole lot, but there were some I wasn't as enthused about. The version I read had notes from the author, but they were in the back of the book and didn't mean as much when not read at the same time as the story. My favorites include: The Moon Ribbon, Happy Dens, Great-Grandfather's Dragon's Tales, Sister Death, and The Gwynhfar. I wasn't as enthralled with the following: The Bridge's Complaint, One Old Man With Seals, The Unicorn and the Pool, and The Golden Balls. Honestly, The Golden Balls was my least favorite of them all. There were a few stories I was really impressed with, but the ones I didn't like killed off two stars for me.
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*I was provided with an ARC of this book through Netgalley, in exchange for my honest opinion. All quotes used may be subject to change upon publication.
This is going to be a very short review as I was deeply disappointed by something in this book, that led me to DNF it, which is a first for a book I’ve been sent for review. I started out really enjoying this, I’d been rating each of the short stories individually and they were either 4, 4.5 or 5/5 stars. The writing was really haunting and most of the stories had a very creepy atmosphere surrounding them, that I actually liked quite a lot. This book definitely channels the darker undertones that some of the classic fairy tales have and up until a certain point I was utterly compelled and heavily anticipated the next story. However, my love for this book quickly came to an end around 35% in.
In the story Sun/Flight, a well stationed girl takes the protagonist as a lover and he falls for her quite hard. But one day she stops coming to see him and then he discovers her whispering in the ear of someone else. Now this is where it went horribly wrong for me. This new interest of the young woman is described as having “skin almost as dark as the wings of the bittern, and wild black hair. His nostrils flared like a beast’s.” I don’t think that this line is okay at all, I think that it’s racially insensitive to refer to a male with a darker complexion as being in any way similar to a beast. There are a lot of racial stereotypes that feed into the idea that men of a certain complexion are aggressive, inhuman and ultimately ‘beastly’. This character has no name and is simply referred to as “A new slave”. His sole purpose is to be used to taunt the protagonist. And the ‘slave’ doesn’t appear to be that ‘with it’ either “Perdix placed her hand on his shoulder and turned him to face me. When I flushed with anger and with pain, they both laughed, he taking his cue from her, a scant beat behind.” I don’t want to get into how slaves and POC in general, were/are used in this way, but it was very disappointing to read.
To make matters worse, the male protagonist then has a dream in which he recalls a voice from his past that awakens him and he creeps around the corridors of the house. And then he ‘apparently’ sees something in the girl’s room “then I heard it truly, the monster from my dream, agonizing over its meal. It screamed and moaned and panted and wept, but the tears that fell from its bullish head were as red as human blood. I saw it, I tell you, in her room crouched over her, devouring my lady, my lost Perdix. My knife was ready, and I fell upon its back, black Minotaur of my devising.” Now I could be wrong, but after the way the slave was described as resembling a beast and he was sharing some sort of intimacy with the girl before, is it far fetched to link this “monster”, this “black Minotaur” and its “bullish head” with the slave, and that the “devouring” could of just been the slave and the girl being intimate. I could of completely misread this all, but that’s how I interpreted it. Either way it made me uncomfortable enough to the point where I couldn’t concentrate or attempt to enjoy the next pages I read. Unsurprisingly, I would not recommend this. -
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, ranging from lush to outwardly bizarre takes on classic well-known tales. I liked it a lot more than I originally thought that I would. But as with books consisting of short stories, I find it difficult to review the book as a whole, so instead, I'm going to highlight a few of my favourite stories from this collection.
The Bridge's Complaint.
I really enjoyed this one, and it was unique because of its central point of view, that which is from an inanimate object, a bridge. I enjoyed reading about the bridge's tales originally told from a troll.
Godmother Death.
I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I absolutely love any sorts of re-tellings and/or personifications related to death, the angel of death and others. And so this story was especially interesting to read, and I quite enjoy tales told from somebody simply recalling a story somebody else told them. In this case, godmother death.
Happy Dens.
This was by far my favourite story. An original spin on a nursing home, certainly, this story entails the untold stories of well-known wolves in classic tales like the Three Little Pigs, where of course the wolf is portrayed as the bad guy of the story. This story sets out to paint such wolves in a different light, cleverly suggesting there are two sides to the same coin, and so far a world has only looked upon one side and taken it as absolute fact.
Brother Hart.
I just found the very present theme of family in this story very heartwarming, though it has heartbreak as well, but the enchantment in this one is interesting, especially since it's never really explained. But in this case, it makes it more enchanting to have finished reading.
Slipping Sideways Through Eternity.
This one was a bit confusing at first, and by the end, you're a bit less confused but still haven't really been explained anything to. However, there's a payoff so it's acceptable. This was really sad, taking place in the Holocaust. You really just need to read it to really understand the emotions that come with it.
Great Grandfather Dragon's Tale.
Told in the point of view of an old grandfather dragon to his young dragon grandchildren, this story entails the history of how dragons and humans came upon an agreement that impacted both creatures of this very day. This has a present theme of story-telling, as most of the stories in here do, however, this one is more impactful considering it's centred around dragons.
The Golden Balls.
What the hell. I don't know what else I can possibly say about this one.
The Woman who Loved a Bear.
I was getting serious 'Brother Bear' vibes with this one, once the bear of the story actually shows up, and the child which the grandfather is telling this story to is very impatient for the bear to come in. This is fantasy but one that clearly mirrors colonialism, it was transfixing from start to finish, and if you didn't see the plot twist from the beginning, the payoff at the end should be just magnificent for you. -
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First of all, I'm a complete sucker for fairy tale retellings. All the more when they aren't your typical, prince-rescues-princess-and-they-live-happily-ever-after type stories. I love a good twist and a dark underside to fairy tales (which, if you read a lot of the ORIGINALS...was often the case!). When I saw this book was a collection of short retellings I immediately requested it and was absolutely delighted to receive it just a few days before it came out! It's now available and totally worth checking out. :) Also, apparently Jane Yolen is something of a MG/YA fantasy scion...and I had never heard of her. Ever. Never read any of her books, didn't have any of them on my TBR.
The Stories
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale contains tales from many different countries. Some of them I recognized, some of them I did not. They were all interesting and most of them entertaining! Some of them were funny, like one of the two Cinderella shorts. A couple raised the hairs on the back of my neck (most specifically the very last one in the book, "Wrestling With Angels." My favorite of all the tales though, was "Great-Grandfather Dragon's Tale," which is a cute and funny remake of Saint George and the Dragon.
A few of the tales are most definitely only suited to a YA or older audience, as they contain heavy implications of sexual assault or rape if they don't state it outright. I was a bit startled by these, to be honest, as they don't really seem to fit in with the overall tone of the book...but then, the collection is very random. The author has included, in the last section of the book, an explanation for why she told each tale the way she did, as well as given a poem for each. It is extremely fascinating, but I think due to the randomness as well as the content of this particular section, a lot of younger readers will lose interest and probably only read the stories - which are the important part, anyway!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing the free review copy in exchange for an honest review!
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Droll. Wry. Fresh (amazingly so, given all the fairy tale retellings coming out this last few years).
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How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen is one of those once in a lifetime books you’ll probably love but never fully reread. My anticipation of this book was immense, largely due to the subject matter of this book and the introduction written by the wonderful Marissa Meyer. I admit I did squee a bit upon seeing her name. Yolen does a fantastic job of reworking the stories from this world’s past, weaving deeply moving and poignant reimaginings of the tales many of us know and love.
And they were quite fascinating in a great number of ways. From Granny Rumple to Cinder Elephant, Yolen’s writing has an addicting quality and manages to touch on some very important topics with some very important morals to be gleaned from them. The thing about How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is that you will likely enjoy a great many of her stories very much. Others, however, you will grow bored of and wish to skim. I think the most difficult piece of reading this book was the fact that I would fall in love with a story, grow increasingly interested, and then it would be over and I was on to the next one, still reeling from what I’d read moments previously. As such, some stories seemed quite subpar when they followed masterpieces like Granny Rumple.
Overall, I am rather fond of this collection of stories. Yolen even goes so far as to leave a few paragraphs at the end of her book to give the reader further information regarding where the tales came from, their inspiration, and what brought her to write it. I really enjoyed the experience of learning these bits and pieces, especially since I (shockingly) did not recognize all of the stories which had inspired her work. How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is certainly quite worth reading and I think a great number of people will have a blast of a time with it. I know I did.
I was provided a free copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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I love the concept of fractured fairy tales, so it saddens me that they are rarely successfully done in practice. Jane Yolen’s How to Fracture A Fairy Tale was a refreshing departure from the typical problems that tend to plague fractured fairy tale collections.
Though most of the tales in the book are based on well-known, traditional fairy tales with which most readers will be familiar, there are also a few that have their roots in lesser-known lore. I found it pleasing to read the mix of both, and appreciated that Yolen drew material from a wide variety of cultures.
Most of the collection’s strongest stories are in the first half of the book. This isn’t a huge tragedy, as the tales in the second half of the book are certainly not “bad” per se, but I do wonder why it was arranged as it was. Why not disperse your best material throughout the volume?
I personally enjoyed the Cinderella variants, the fractured Jewish folktales, and Pied Piper fracture in particular. The Little Mermaid variant, conversely, was a weak point. But my absolute favorites were Yolen’s amalgamation-style fracture featuring several of the fairy tale world’s most infamous wolves, and her ultra-creative spin on Three Billy Goats Gruff. -
2.5-3 stars
I have fond memories of reading Jane Yolan's books many years ago and so was drawn to this new collection of 'fractured fairytales,' offered to me by NetGalley in return for an honest review. I am also fond of retellings of traditional tales and saw several titles right away that made me smile: Happy Days in the Old Wolves Home, Big Bad Wolf stories from another point of view, and Green Plague, a retelling of the Pied Piper with amphibians.
There are about two dozen short stories and the quality varies. Some were quite enjoyable. My favorites were The Foxwife and Ox One, Ox Two, Ox Three and the Dragon King.
Like many fairytales a young innocent girl is taken advantage of by a slimy prince or selkie. I wish these stories had been fractured and broken further, and then rebuilt into tales where the girls are empowered to escape this particular trope. -
This book was provided to me from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I swear on my bookshelf that this has not affected my opinion of the book.
For better or worse, fairy tales are ingrained into our society. The ideas of a Prince Charming or a Fairy Godmother, along with hundreds of other character archetypes and tropes, are derived from these classic tales. However, not all of these tales have happy endings or even necessarily apply to today's world.
The point of How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is to turn these original stories on their heads, to either reveal a new perspective, adapt them to modernity, or to emphasize the darker versions that Disney left out of their animated movies.
On the whole, I enjoyed the stories. Unfortunately, the goal of "fracturing" these tales was a little lost due to the obscurity of some of these tales. I enjoyed pretty much every story, but I would only say that I was able to recognize the original tale out of half of them. One one hand, that means I was introduced to a variety of new stories and there is a diversity of cultures and characters represented in the retellings. The downside was the slight confusion while reading the stories.
Thankfully, there is a helpful, informative appendix in the end that explains each tale, its origins, and how it was changed. While I appreciated the effort, this guide came a little late as I was lost while reading some of the stories.
In addition to the confusion, some tales were not as exciting or provocative as others. Some just seemed aimless, without a satisfying ending. I could recognize that the stories were changed from the original, but at points it just seemed like change for change's own sake. In the end, many of the stories were merely fractured, with tiny parts changed, instead of completely breaking with tradition.
To end on the bright side, here is a break-down of my favorite stories from the collection:
Best Stories
1. Sun/Flight
A retelling of Icarus with a poetic description of his tragedy and the problems he would have faced if he survived his fall. The story of Icarus is one of my favorites in Greek mythology, and this miniature retelling does the original justice and genuinely surprised me with the ending.
2. Snow in Summer
As the first story, retelling of Snow White started the collection off in a strong manner that was just not sustained. This twisting of the original tale reveals another side of Snow White and her struggles as she was not as pure as we were taught to think.
Out of the "Disney" stories, this one was the most fractured compared to the retellings of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty in the collection.
3. Godmother Death
Even though I was not familiar with the original tale for this retelling, I enjoyed the idea of Death as someone's godmother. There was a reversal of roles with Death not actually bringing death (for the most part, at least).
Outside of my top three, the stories were alright. When I come back to them in a month or so, I don't think I would be able to remember what they were about. These stories were the diamonds in the rough and kept me reading the collection despite the less-than-stellar counterparts.
If you are a fairy tale aficionado or just interested in learning the history behind modern perceptions of classic tales, then Jane Yolen's investigative approach to retellings is for you. A more casual fan of fairy tales, especially of the Disney variety, may not find the collection on the whole to their liking due to the obscurity of some stories. There are some gems in this collection if you have the patience to find them.
This review and other bookish shenanigans can be found on my original blog,
Crazy for YA. -
If you only attribute The Devil's Arithmetic to Jane Yolen, you've been missing out - truly. Yolen is one of the greats when it comes to historical fiction time slips (as in The Devil's Arithmetic), but she is rightfully revered as the present day Hans Christian Anderson. How to Fracture a Fairy Tale, an adult fiction read, is a compilation of (mostly) short stories (some new & some re-worked) based on Yolen's brilliant approach to "fractured" tales. Her inspiration spans the globe and time. You'll find this collection uplifting, surprising, and, oftentimes, dark. Be sure to read the Author's Notes at the text's conclusion. There, you will find annotated pieces from Yolen about each story and an accompanying poem - you'll feel you've had a lovely conversation with this prolific, yet very honest & realistic, scribe. Yolen and her works are gems - don't overlook this one!
- Reviewed by Amee O. -
Really got me thinking about my Traditional Lit unit where students will read many versions of Cinderella and then create their own fractured version. These stories and poems had me longing for a secondary classroom so I could share some of the deeper meditations with teenagers. A great teaching tool for secondary ELA teachers with rich content.
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How To Fracture a Fairy Tale is a clever and fun read. It's perfect for fans of ya fantasy. Interesting story with great characters.
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I'd read many of these before - and I will never cease to be burned by "Granny Rumple" - but the notes at the end really enhanced the re-reads.
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Disclaimer: I received this ARC courtesy of Tachyon Publications and NetGalley. I am grateful for the opportunity to review an ARC for my readers, but this will not influence my final rating. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and based solely on the book. The copy I am reviewing is an Uncorrected Digital Galley.
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is a collection of twenty-eight revamped, refined, and rewritten fairytales. Before reading these tales, I had not heard of Jane Yolen, though the book included several claims to her great fantasy-writing skill (a quick Google search shows she has written or edited more than 365 books). I went in with high expectations, and though some of her twisted tales were misses, others were a pleasure to read. In this review, I’ll cover some of the highs and lows in the collection, with passing notes on Yolen’s own commentary concerning the “behind-the-scenes” for the tales.
HIGHS (Five to Four Crowns)
Happy Dens or a Day in the Old Wolves’ Home: In this story, a lamb nurse starts her first day at “Happy Dens,” which she quickly learns in a nursing home for wolves. The frightened lamp wants to quit, but instead lends an ear to the wolves, who assure her that the terrible tales she has heard about wolves are all wrong. Yolen gives a new twist to several wolf-centered stories in this fairy tale, characterizing the old wolves that were previously just villains in tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood.” At the end of the story, you’ll find sympathy for the old wolves and question tales you’ve grown up loving.
Granny Rumple: Yolen retells the tale of Rumpelstiltskin where the dreaded child-snatcher is a Jewish man. In this version, the question of guilt is complicated by racial prejudices. At the start of this story I was disoriented (consider this was the first short in the collection that integrated concepts of racism and real world prejudices, against the previously humourous stories of retired wolves) but by its end I was applauding Yolen on the thought-provoking ties she made between a childhood story and the lives of Jews in the ghetto. This is not the only fairy tale in the connection that weaves in tales of Jewish life, antisemitism, and faint-to-full on mentions of the Holocaust but this is the only one I found a success.
One Ox, Two Ox, Three Ox, and the Dragon King: Three sons travel across the land to gather magical items and persuade a dragon king to come to their aid when their mother falls ill. This may be my favourite story in the collection. It has the formulaic set-up I expect in fairy tales (One Ox goes to get a magic item, Two Ox repeats those steps) and then the plot twist ending with magic sprinkled all around. It took Yolen almost a year to complete this story, and she wove Chinese and Western fairy tale influence together to create it.
Brother Hart, The Faery Flag, Green Plague, and The Woman Who Loved a Bear: These four stories are separate, but for the sake of your time (I don’t want to make this review 2000 words long!) I will condense them to a quick mention. Green Plague is a hilarious retelling of The Pied Piper (I love the loud-mouthed mayor) and The Woman Who Loved a Bear was a sweet tale. As the book summary states, not every fairy tale has a happy ending, and Brother Hart broke my heart at the end. The Faery Flag is based on the actual Faery Flag in Scotland, and comes to life in Yolan’s telling.
LOWS (One to Two Crowns)
Slipping Sideways Through Eternity: In this tale, Shanna continues to a see a man that no one else can. On the day she finally follows him, he takes her through time and space to a death camp, where she lives amongst the prisoners and looks for a way to escape. I was very confused with this tale. I didn’t quite understand who Elijah (the man) was, or why he took Shanna to this death camp. At the end of the tale, we learn that one of the little girls Shanna befriended (and subsequently saved from the death camp, with Elijah’s help) was her great-grandmother. Was this the purpose, to go back and save her great-grandmother? But why is her great-grandmother so important, out of all the victims? Also while in the death camp, Shanna is instructed to paint Elijah’s face to start a movement. Overall, I was very confused with this tale. (EDIT: I just Googled Elijah, and from what I understand, he is a Jewish prophet. But that doesn’t clarify the events of this book.)
The Unicorn and the Pool: [SPOILERS] Several animals are gathered around a pool of water, drinking, when they notice poison in the water. They stop drinking but a unicorn approaches, not noticing. A monkey warns the unicorn away and instead, the unicorn cleanses the water with his horn. A few days later the unicorn dies. I didn’t understand this story. Obviously the plot is quite clear, but the meaning was lost on me.
The Golden Balls: A retelling of The Princess and The Frog, where the princess sleeps with the frog and bears his child. This story just made me uncomfortable. I don’t know if I read it wrong, but the story depicts a sexual tension between the frog and the princess. I went over the story three times trying to understand lines like “she lay upon [her bed], trembling, moist as a well” (when waiting for the frog to come) but also “[the frog] took from her what she did not wish to give.” Sadly, Yolen’s comments at the end of the book do nothing to clarify this tale.
Allerleirauh: A queen dies in childbirth and the father, devastated, refuses to look upon his daughter. Many years later, the king requests a ball to find a new wife, wanting to wed only a woman who looks exactly like his former love. This story started out strong, and I would have loved it, except right at the climax Yolen steps in and … basically spoils the ending? The king has announced the ball, tension is high, and then Yolen takes a paragraph or two to say, “This is how everything unrolls now: the king does this, the daughter does this, the end.” Which is so abrupt and clumsy that any ambiance created with the beginning of the tale is ruined.
Sister Death: A woman is turned into an immortal blood-drinker by G-d and feeds on the blood of sickly and/or dying children for five thousand years. Then one day she saves a child from a death camp. This was another story was confused me. I think part of the problem is genre — I wasn’t prepared for a story that dealt all of a sudden with real death and the Holocaust and G-d. The ending was also abrupt, and I didn’t know what I was supposed to learn, or understand.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS (Three Crowns)
Godmother Death, The Foxwife, Mama Gone: Godmother Death is a twisted tale that personifies death and shows her power over mortals. I enjoyed the story up until the end, which I’ll say was creative but much too abrupt. The Foxwife was another story that I loved for its creativity but could have done with more time spent on its ending. An angry man is sent to live alone on an island for however much time is needed to reign in his rage. To his surprise, he finds a woman living there. The two form a bond and end up married … but the man never really clears up his rage? I’ll admit the way it ended left me a bit worried. Lastly, Mama Gone was another story that shocked me because of the genre shift (though at this point I was used to it). The mother-daughter relationship is really sweet and interesting to see played out.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
One thing I can see clearly is that Yolen is a master at adopting different writing styles. She can glide into Western fairy tales as easily as she adopts Chinese myths. Her characters are equally flexible, changing to the time and space of the tale she weaves. No, this collection is not entirely similar, but at its core all the stories put forwards themes and morals — and entertain.
In general, I preferred her high-fantasy retellings to those based in the real-world. I did not understand enough of her cultural references, or connect with the characters (such as Shanna in Slipping Sideways Through Eternity). Because this is a collection, I received all sorts of genres in one. For this reason, I think I would have more success picking individual Yolen books than searching within her collections.
Join me on my book journey!
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Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an eARC of this book to review, an exciting premise, short stories that are all a twisted, or fractured, reimagining of a classic tale, however, I just couldn't connect to the writing and the stories I enjoyed weren't many. Unfortunately for me, I felt like this was repetitive and followed the same pattern after a while, and it just became tiresome.
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*I received an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review*
I liked this a lot! As usual, I rated each story in the collection, and averaging those ratings you get 3.5 stars. I'm rounding that up to 4 stars for the official rating, because some of the ones I rated only one or two stars were super short and so didn't really drag down the collection, plus I like that the book includes some short commentary by Jane Yolen at the end about why she wrote each story and what she chose to change. Honestly, I wish these explanations were longer! I didn't really care about the poetry that was also included with the short commentary, so I wish they'd used that space for more talking about the stories.
(I rate as I read, so you can check my reading updates for my faves vs the ones I think should be cut)
As a Jewish fantasy nerd, I love that she fractures some of the fairytales with a Jewish slant (it's always nice to find Jewish representation where you didn't even expect to — although I should have remembered that about Jane Yolen!) Also, from the short commentary in the back, Yolen just seems like a super cool person.
In general, I just think this is a good collection. These retellings sit in that perfect cross-section of twisting without resorting to shock value, and there's a variety of stories, from serious with shades of violence or real societal problems to silly with wordplay or whimsy. I approve, and I should definitely read more Jane Yolen. -
I have always had a fascination for fairy tales especially since I thought I was clever to identify the morbid undertones of most of them. I have since learnt that it is pretty much an open secret that before Disney decided to use them, they are meant to be extremely dark. Retellings have also been something that I have kept my eye out for but not yet found any that really appeal to me. The series Once Upon a Time came close before it got boring. This particular collection also came close. The stories I liked I really liked, the ones I did not I was equally against. This basically means that I gave it a three star rating. I found out how much I did not know about the jewish community though, which was a bonus.
I would recommend this book to those interested in reading an eclectic collection of 'fractured' fairy tales. The author gives detailed information about the tales as well as extra poems to go with each. Overall an interesting read. -
This was a tricky one to rate and I almost did not add it to my Goodreads list as overall I did not enjoy the anthology as well as I expected too.
However, this was due to a conflict of preference and not to the quality of the writing (which felt 4 to 5 stars) so I could not omit it on that.
The other element was that there was one particular story Sun/Flight that I did like at all. Out of all them this is the sole one I would give a 1 star grade to. The writing felt choppier and more staggered and I was less able to engage as quickly with the characters as you need to do in a short story but worse of all this was the only story to have a darker skinned POC and they were a side character who was treated as a monstrous type in a very negative fashion.
The other main issue I had was disappointment that the fracturing of the fairytales was not taken to the subversive heights it could have been, that the tropes were not pushed and skewered quite as vigorously as I anticipated. Instead the stories remained, with a couple of exceptions, for the most part quite gendered and heteronormative. Where women are set against women (the goal - A prince! Freedom! or variation thereof) and winning these by being the most affably virtuous, sweetest, modest, innocent, house keeping of workers. In just too many of the stories, too many of these traditional traits were shown as exemplary qualities for traditional success. Other unchallenged tropes still alive in this schema were; conflict between the virtuous good younger daughter and the wicked stepmother who is driven by jealousy and vanity; and the benign negligence of the inattentive father.
On the plus side, in a couple of her stories, Yolen breaks the beautiful equals good and ugly equals bad trope thing. These were a nice fresh take on the classics.
The good quality of the writing, coupled to the traditional vibe of this anthology and including a couple of religious fable pieces, means that it is down to the readers own tastes regarding how much they will enjoy this book. -
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Yolen definitely has a way of enchanting her audience just like the original tales she's fracturing. When I was younger I used to select fairytales from the library and spend entire days just reading different versions of a story, or huge collections of Grimm, Andersen and Perrault. Yolen's writing gave me those same feelings back but with even darker twists.
I usually select a few favourites when reviewing an anthology, however, despite how strong this anthology is as a whole I didn't really feel any standouts. None of the stories really caught me. There were definitely some strong ideas and fascinating fractures in this book but none of them really resonated with me. Perhaps the issue is I couldn't quite see myself in any of these stories, though I have no doubt plenty of young adults will find themselves among these pages.
There were also several stories I didn't really...understand? I've never had much trouble understanding a well-written book. Yolen's prolific natures leads me to believe this is in fact well written. They read like real fairy tales of old which is no doubt the intentions. Occasionally though, I found myself struggling to understand exactly what had gone on. Was that a rape? I'm not certain it was so very lightly and vaguely implied I can't tell if anything happened at all.
This book brought me joy, it reminded me how much I love old fairy tales and I'll definitely be picking up a fairy tale collection in the near future because of it. I don't love this book though and that breaks my heart. It's clear that Yolen is a master of her craft, but it just wasn't for me. I did find the explanations of why/how she fractured each story at the end to be enlightening though, even if the poems were a bit much. -
I’ve been a fan of Jane Yolen’s short fiction for many years, so it was a delight to sit down with this new collection of re-told fairy tales.
It can be a bit difficult to review short fiction collections as there will be, inevitably, some stories that connect more with you as a reader than others. I find that a true here as well, but that comes down to personal taste; every story was well-crafted and what I’ve come to expect from Jane Yolen’s writing. The stories vary quite a bit in tone, but they all have that common thread of putting a new spin on timeless stories. One of the things that fascinated me the most with this collection is seeing how the style of writing varies from story to story. Jane Yolen has an impressive array of devices in her writer’s toolbox; she truly is a master of her craft.
Here are just a few of the stories that I really loved in this collection:
Granny Rumple – This is a play on that famous tale, Rumpelstiltskin. It’s a bit of a frame story in that it’s narrator is telling the story passed down in their family about a Jewish moneylender in Ukraine several generations ago. It’s one of the tales steeped with history, things that shouldn’t be forgotten.
Brother Hart – Such a strange tale, but deeply moving, and I’m still thinking on it weeks after having read it!
One Old Man, with Seals – I loved this story so much, I think it has to be my favorite in the entire collection. The protagonist is a senior woman who is living out her retirement in an old lighthouse when a mysterious stranger shows up on the rocks one day. I love the POV character and what this story says about aging.
Honestly, I could go on and on about the wonderful stories included in this volume, but I’d encourage you to check it out and experience them for yourself instead. 4/5 stars.
Thanks to the folks at Tachyon Publications and Netgalley for sending me a copy for review purposes. This did not affect my review in any way. -
This had a nice variety of stories, and the author's notes about how she fractured and why she decided to include each one are very enjoyable. Even though each story is a fairy tale, the tones are very different. We see the Three Billy Goats Gruff from the Bridge's point of view, a non-attractive Cinder-Elephant, and trips to a concentration camp. I liked the creativity of the approaches, and enjoyed reading the book.
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I absolutely love fairy tale retellings, reinterpretations, prequels, sequels, inversions and whatever else writers can come up with. However, it seems like I don't like them fractured.
There were probably lots of reasons why I didn't enjoy this book. The analogies and metaphors always seemed a little too obvious and on the nose. Although it was meant for an adult audience plenty of the stories seemed childish (As an example, the story of the wolves in a retirement house that was supposedly commentary on how elderly citizens are treated read like a particularly uninspired picture book) There was no clever twist on a fairy tale, no interesting new point of view. In fact, plenty of stories in this book had nothing to do with fairy tales. They were simply some familiar story, for example, many stories were drawn from different religions and beliefs. A few weren't even stories but simply has some familiar concept. A story about a vampire, for example, doesn't have anything to do with a fairy tale, no matter how you fracture it.
If I spend more time, I can probably come up with more reasons for my general dislike of the book, but in the end, one thing speaks loudest of all. I finished an entire collection of stories and I can't say I had a single favourite between all of them. In fact, I can't even say that I have a strong impression of any of them, and that to me speaks more poorly of my experience than anything else.
