Black Heart, Ivory Bones by Ellen Datlow

Black Heart, Ivory Bones Reviews

• 
  Mike

  I liked the idea behind this book: letting authors give their own spin to classic fairy tale stories and themes. And, not being an aficionado of fairy tales, I appreciated that each story was paired with a short explanation of the author and the story they were reinterpreting. As it goes with most anthologies this one has some hits and some misses, but such is life.
  
  Overall I enjoyed this collection of stories, for the most part they offered fun twists and new interpretation on some classic fairy tales. For instance the first story, Rapunzel, turns the classic tale on its head in a very satisfying and reasonable way. The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain offered a really fascinating world that I would have loved to have seen further explored if only because it made drew a reasonable and terrifying conclusions from the fairy tale framework. My Life as a Bird, while not drawing from a specific fairy tale, nicely fused some fairy tale themes with modern living.
  
  There were, of course, some duds. These were either poorly written, didn't do a great job with the fairy tale material, or were just too short and give the reader a feel for their world or characters. These were few in number and the majority of stories were quite good or, at least, had interesting takes on their source material. It also helped that most of the stories were pretty short, so even if I didn't like a story I quickly finished it and moved on tot he next one. If you enjoy fairy tales and next interpretations of them this collection would be right up your alley.
• 
  Candace

  *What I Learned From This Book or Here's My Retirement Major: Fairy Tales, Folklore, Mythology. Not that I plan to actually take classes anywhere, but if I *did,* it would be some sort of composite major with Medieval History and *this* gorgeous juicy stuff.
  
  I've always been more of a novel-reader, less of a short-story reader, but the stories in this collection, by the best of the best *Otherworld writers* including Charles de Lint, Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman, Jane Yolen, and OMG, Susanna Clarke, were beyond yummy, and I'm just happy to know I have the other five similarly-titled Datlow/Windling titles right here on the shelf over the bed.
  
  *Actually, I already knew this but it's great to have it confirmed once more.
• 
  Kristen (belles_bookshelves)

  "The thing is, we spend too much time looking outside ourselves for what we should really be trying to find inside. But we can’t seem to trust what we find inside ourselves – maybe because that’s where we find it."
  
  
  
  Rapunzel (based on Rapunzel): I like this version that explains how the fairytale could have been made up on purpose to cover the real story.
  The Crone (based on misc. fairytales): Short poem
  Big Hair (based on Rapunzel): Modern version.
  The King With Three Daughters (based on The Three Princesses in the Blue Mountain): Reminds me a little of Jack and the Beanstalk
  Boys and Girls Together (based on Andrew Lang fairy books): Short poem
  And Still She Sleeps (based on Sleeping Beauty): An interesting thought about how one can be a true love without ever meeting.
  Snow in Summer (based on Snow White): Alternative version where Snow White is not so easily fooled.
  Briar Rose and the Witch (based on Sleeping Beauty): Short poem
  Witch (based on misc. fairytales): Short poem
  Chanterelle (based on Hansel and Gretel): Names given have power, but a different name here only changes the story a little.
  Bear It Away (based on Goldilocks and he Three Bears): A theory on why the bears can speak and what happened after.
  Goldilocks Tells All (based on Goldilocks and the Three Bears): Eh.
  My Life as a Bird (based on Rumpelstiltskin): Modern and weird. I never read any of the Newford novels.
  The Red Boots (based on The Red Shoes): I like the modern, line-dancing, cowboy boots version of this tale.
  Rosie's Dance (based on Cinderella): Modern retelling.
  You, Little Match-girl (based on The Little Match Girl): Very woman in white-ish.
  Dreaming Among Men (based on coyote myths): This reads like a Native American myth.
  The Cats of San Martino (based on an unnamed Italian fairytale): Love this.
  The Golem (based on Jewish mythology): Like The Dovekeepers but with magic.
  Our Mortal Span (based on misc. tales or I, Robot, I can’t tell): I have no idea what’s going on here.
  Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower (based on Midwife of the Fairies): I really dislike this written as a series of letters for some reason.
• 
  Kris

  over the most part the stories were uniformly well written, a couple were uninteresting, despite their technical merits, and a couple really stood out. The book was engaging and easy to read, though no force on Earth can impel me to read Joyce Carol Oates, I enjoyed beauty queen Rapunzel, the golem, Sleeping Beauty and of course, Susanna Clarke's lovely tale of fairy mischief.
• 
  Ty-Orion

  Сборник с разкази от различни автори по мотиви на известни приказки. Отдавна ми се четеше нещо такова и някои от участниците привлякоха вниманието ми - Нийл Гейман, Джойс Каръл Оутс и Сузана Кларк.
  
  За съжаление почти нищо не ми допадна, някои направо преразказваха историите и считаха, че като добавят някое и друго изнасилване всичко става много дарк и вълнуващо. Фантазия нула. Нийл Гейман се е включил с някакъв феминистичен бял стих, вероятно съчинен на салфетка в пъба, 1-2 странички, стига ни толкоз, колкото да участва на олимпийски принцип.
• 
  Eskana

  Fairy tale retellings usually go one of two ways. Either the authors tell the story in the original spirit, adding some details and a new moral here or there, or they decide to retell it in as brutal, realistic,and grim(m) a fashion as possible.
  This book is comprised of almost entirely the latter. So if you were looking for imaginative, creative, uplifting retellings, keep looking. This is a collection of short stories by multiple authors, so you might like one or two, but on the whole, this book isn't for you.
  
  Although I found several of these stories inventive, they seemed on the most part very cynical, basically a slap in the face for anyone who loves fairy tales and happy endings. Do all fairy tales have happy endings? No. But even when they don't, at least there's a point. There were several in here that I felt were only being cynical to be cynical. "Oh, you like happy endings, do you? Well, take THAT."
  Ouch.
  And I didn't think the editors- who added on little explanitory blurbs at the end of each story- did much to help. They didn't always seem to coincide with the story (e.g., "The King with Three Daughters") and sometimes I felt they stepped outside their box (They stated that "[Hans Christian] Andersen's fairy tales often end cruelly and unhappily." That could totally be debated. Just because the main character dies doesn't mean it's cruel and/or unhappy.)
  I'm usually one to finish compilations, since every story is a new author who deserves a new chance. However, after going halfway through this book (reading 12 stories) I had lost my will to continue. Who wants to hear over and over again that there are no happy endings? To read over and over again about violent physical and sexual abuse because the authors feel it will be more "realistic"? No thanks.
• 
  Londa

  So glad I stuck it out with this anthology of reborn fairy tales. I LOVE fairy tales. Goodreads lists Andrew Lang as one of my favorite authors because I read ALL of the fairy tale collections he put together. I think that is when I first got my true LOVE for reading by reading all of the LANG books..RED, BLUE, PINK, GREEN.. and on and on. I think I love them because they make you ask... "Wouldn't it be great if...?"
  
  Well the first half of this book didn't make me ask that question once. I was about to throw in the towel, but then I got to Chanterelle and I found what I had been looking for in the rest of the stories...The Magic. For me, it's as if all of the great stories were in the last half of the book.
  
  My top 6 were
  
  My Life as a Bird (de Lint)
  The Golem (Park)
  Mr. Simonelli (Clarke)
  Chanterelle (Stableford)
  You, Match Girl (Oates) although this one did not feel 'magical'... it was a great story
  The Cats of San Martino (Steiber)
  
  So in the end, I would recommend, just start with the last stories first.
• 
  Christine

  Fairy Tales were originally explorations of language, culture, traditions and superstitions. Fairy tales are supposed to be dark, intriguing, thought provoking and mysterious. They were also originally intended for adult audiences. With this series, editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have revived that sentiment, piecing together a bunch of gems that will make you view the Brothers Grimm in a different way altogether. I highly rec this for fantasy fans and lovers of the original un-Disneyfied tales.
• 
  Laura

  I thought this collection of stories would be a hit for me considering it is full of adaptations by such talented writers, but aside from a couple of stories, it left me flat. While the stories are well-written, the adaptations just didn't appeal to me.
• 
  Sandy

  I thought I'd read all of the "adult fairy tale" series, but it turns out I'd missed this one! Glad I read it; "the cats of san martino" stuck with me in particular, though none of them were even close to bad.
• 
  Gloria

  This is the last in the series. The introduction tells how the two editors grew up separately, but both had the love of fairy tales and that love brought them (and the writers) together. Each chapter tells about the author, and then after the story, there is a short explanation.
  
  A prince returning from war falls in love with a lovely orphaned girl. He spends so much time, and then she's pregnant. To bring her and his children back to the palace, he must concoct a story about her being the prisoner in a tower and their adventures.
  
  A poem about "crones", old women that in the stories help the youngest sons, but this one wishes others would help with the cold or a girl would lend her ear and listen; or even ask about her history.
  
  Rapunzel in a beauty pageant. Mama pokes in just the right spot, bruises but no one sees. Mama tries to keep the boys away, but one sneaks through, so Mama cuts off her hair. Murder trial lets girl off easy; rest of her life laid out.
  
  Three princesses stolen by trolls; brave man chosen by King to rescue them. Two soldiers help? with the rescue. Man notices that the stories do not include the queen. Also that each princess and troll went through the same motions and so wonders what the princesses are made of. After betrayal, he is given a task by the king crow and then taken elsewhere.
  
  Poem about boys, not princes, and the adventures they have. Girls, always princesses, wear disguises as well. Then grown-up, what will they be, or see?
  
  Sleeping Beauty, in England. No one can wake her, so she is finally displayed in a museum.
  
  Snow White, redneck style. Mt Hosea church with the rattlers is not where she wants to go, so Stepmama brings a boy from there. He tries to rape Snow, but she escapes. In the dwarves house, she lives comfortably. Until Stepmama finds her and bang goes the frying pan. New Stepmama is quite approved by Snow.
  
  Pair of poems: one about Briar One and one about the Witch from Hansel and Gretel
  
  Chanterelle, mushroom or sad song of a nightingale? Searching for their mother, a fairy takes them in..... and enchants Handsel with her mushrooms (so hungry he is) killing the two who had been running in her forest. Nightingale sings.
  
  What happens when bears become civilized? People have jealousies and contrive to give them lessons, at high expense to the cub.
  
  Goldilocks on a book tour. Blames all her past on Papa Bear, who has problems of his own. All she wants is her fifteen minutes of fame (motion picture quality, of course)
  
  Comic book writer gets a wish and while deciding, a possibly invisible cranky irritable dwarf companion. Through her choices, she releases him from the spell.
  
  Dancing boots, make the wearer dance and keep dancing. No matter what.
  
  Girl, taking care of brothers. Brothers get to be too mean and cruel, so she leaves to grab opportunity, burning her bridges.
  
  Maine, where she grew up. Becomes an international traveler and photographer. When her mother dies, she must return and as she prepares to leave, a snowstorm may derail her plans. She ignores the weather warnings and finds she may have dreamed her life, freezing to death in the cold.
  
  Had an animal spent time with the humans, or merely dreamt it all?
  
  Jenny loves Carl. Carl claims to love Sasha, the beautiful picked up in their travels through Italy. Jenny leaves them both and finds herself in San Martino, taking care of the cats. Jenny and Carl trade places, but Sasha is the final choice for Carl; Jenny must let him go.
  Great story for cat lovers.
  
  Orthodox Jewish woman, creates golem to protect her and friends after pogrom.
  
  Futuristic theme park. Automaton goes after other machines, and eventually is conquered by them after their programming is changed.
  
  Diary of a parish priest, partly descended from fairy's. His actions spoil the plans of a relative fairy, and anger the local gentry: getting engaged to all five daughters indeed.
• 
  Bitsy

  This lovely book, Black Heart, Ivory Bones, is a collection of fantasy and horror tales edited by my two favorite ladies of their respective genres Ellen Datlow (horror) and Terri Windling (fantasy). This is one book in a series of six volumes of, as they call it, reconsidered fairy tales. These fairy tales are rewritten to change the focus of the originals or perhaps just to sharpen the point of them to showcase the sinister, the sensual, and the sometimes sadistic roots of our childhood fairy tales.
  
  Some of my favorites were "Rapunzel", "Big Hair", "The King with Three Daughters", "And Still She Sleeps", "Goldilocks Tells All", "The Red Boots", "You, Little Match Girl", "The Cats of San Martino" and "The Golem". And, yes, one of those ("You, Little Match Girl") was by the infamous Joyce Carol Oates, whose work I normally find too harsh to stomach, this particular piece though was one of the most profoundly powerful in the collection. The other piece that was the best in my opinion was "And Still She Sleeps" which brings up the very valid point that if true love's kiss is supposed to wake someone, and the only people available to kiss them were people that had not known them to love them in life, how are they ever to be kissed awake? True love is not determined on beauty alone.
  
  My husband does not enjoy re-written fairy tales so I thought I would bring up his complaint since I don't have any of my own to voice. He says that authors that write these sorts of stories just seem to take the characters in them and drop everything else to make them act out something completely different. I don't completely agree with him because, though some stories do that, such as Big Hair, at the same time they do keep to the spirit of what the original story was trying to say, even if in a more modern, dark or surreal way.
  
  If you enjoy reconsidered fairy tales, short stories of a more modern bent that take your old fairy tales and give them new and interesting life, then I would say definitely give this book a whirl. You won't be disappointed.
  
  Favorite Quote:
  "It's my latest," Goldy concluded, "my best, and the one which the New York Times recently described as 'thrilling, sad, heartbreaking' and 'packs a huge wallop.' Entitled The Goldilocks Syndrome, it's currently available in the lobby at a today-only discount of $21.95. And if you act now, I'll sign and date this sucker at no extra charge."
  --Goldilocks Tells All
• 
  Tracy Jones

  This is a collection of short stories by various different authors. All of the stories in this collection are based on fairy tales from different cultures, with the individual author's twist. The stories vary from Godilocks and the 3 Bears to Rapunzel, and a couple of stories I wasn't as familiar with.
  I honestly wasn't impressed with most of the stories here, there were only a handful that I really liked. Most of them didn't really do anything for me, for whatever reason. I felt like a lot of the authors were just re-writing a fairy tale because they could, not because they particularly had anything new to saw about the tales. Or, they wrote it as practice or just for fun, and because they are decently known, it can be published in a book as such. I think also being already familiar with a story, the new story is somewhat predictable even if its a different version, because the writers stuck with the basic story lines. The ones that I enjoyed the most were ones that I wasn't as familiar with. I think my favorite in this collection was “Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower”. It combined different Celtic tales together, with a twist on the main character. There apparently is a series of these short stories published by the same two ladies. I might pick up the first one done to see if maybe better stories were in it, but overall I don't think I'd really go out of my way to read something like this again.
• 
  Izlinda

  I finally managed to finish this book after reading it for several weeks. :S I got distracted by other books and studies. It's the final volume of fairy-tale retellings/stories edited by Datlow and Windling and it's a good end. There were some stories that weren't among my better-liked ones, but the ones I liked a lot were "Rapunzel" by Tanith Lee, the poems "Briar Witch" and "Witch" by Debra Cash, "My Life As A Bird" by Charles de Lint, "The Red Boots" by Leah Cutter, "You, Little Match-girl" by Joyce Carol Oates (one of the more heart-breaking stories) and "The Cats of San Martino" by Bryn Kanar. These were well-written and quite engrossing.
  
  As per usual, they included a selection of books (fiction and reference/non-fiction) at the end of the book for further reading. I reckon I will put a lot of them on my "to-read" list.
• 
  Patty

  Excellent collection of short stories. I love fairy tales - I grew up reading all the Andrew Lang fairy tale books. I sometimes forget how much I enjoy fairy tales - these made me want to go back and read my old favorites.
  
  These were all rewrites. There were stories based on Rapunzel, Cinderella and other familiar tales - all good. I especially liked "The cats of San Mantino" which was based on a folk tale I had never heard before.
  
  I would recommend this to short story lovers; people interested in fairy tales (of course) and those readers interested in fantasy. Matter of fact, if you don't read fantasy, but would like to try some - any of Datlow's and Windling's collections would offer a fine place to start.
• 
  Roxanne

  I liked maybe half of the stories in this collection. I very much liked the final story, "Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower", by Susanna Clarke. "The Cats of San Martino" by Ellen Steiber was terrific, right up my alley. I liked Tanith Lee's "Rapunzel" story (a good story about where fairy tales might come from), and Emma Hardesty's "Rosie's Dance"--that one had a good, gritty, believableness to it. Greg Costykan's "And Still She Sleeps" was great because it combined fairy tales with archaeology, which makes for like my dream story. Joyce Carol Oates's "Your Little Match Girl" was really horrifying and will stick with me for a while.
• 
  AJ LeBlanc

  I picked this up the other night to re-read and am as happy with it as I was the first time.
  
  This is the last volume of Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling's Fairy Tale series and I wish there were more.
  
  I find most collections to be hit or miss, but I enjoy everything in these collections. The stories that aren't my favorites are still good.
  
  I'm going to have to dig through my book piles to find the first five collections for more re-reading.
• 
  Kayla Tornello

  This is an anthology of fairy tales for adults. They are mostly short stories, with a bit of poetry thrown in for good measure. The tales are mostly on the darker side. I enjoyed reading these tales. They seemed to all work well together, with no one tale either outshining or lagging behind the others. There is also an extensive recommended reading list at the end of the book that gives readers great ideas for future reading.
• 
  Willow

  An interesting collection of fairy tales re-written for an older audience. Some of the stories were by well-known authors and some I had never heard of. All of the stories were wonderful in their own way and none of them were poorly written. I love these collections and will probably read them all.
• 
  Jen

  I haven't read fairy tales since I was a kid but I loved them then. This collection has gotten me hooked again. Favorite stories in this one: Chanterelle; Rosie's Dance; The Cats of San Martino; Mr. Simonelli. I also rediscovered Charles de Lint here. The editors have 4 or 5 other collections like it that I plan to check out of the library next.
  
  
• 
  Maddy

  The majority of the short stories in this collection were underwhelming and really did nothing for me. Of the 21 in the book, I enjoyed 5 of them. I will give it props for delving into various fairytales, myths, legends, etc. I wasn't expecting to see a short story about a golem in there, which was a nice surprise.
• 
  Kate

  This is an anthology of fairy tales for adults. None of the stories particularly stood out to me, but I enjoyed nearly all of them. Although only short stories, many of them explore the darker side of fairy tales, or the underlying assumptions within fairy tales. I will certainly be reading more books in the series of anthologies.
• 
  Kassandra Huntley

  I picked this up in a used bookstore because it looked interesting. The fairy tales within turned out to be quite dark and very much in keeping with the original Grimm flavor of old tales. They darkness of these twisted fairy tales were quite fresh and imaginative. I highly recommend this collection of short adult-oriented stories.
• 
  Amy

  This book contains stories by such greats as Charles de Lint, Joyce Carol Oates, and Delia Sherman. A fitting end to the six-volume series by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling of retellings of fairy tales.
• 
  Debbie

  Another fabulous and amazing compilation of short stories and poems revised and updated from classic folk and fairy tales around the world. If you enjoy the dark side of life or a maybe a more humorous view of a classic fairy tale, then this is the book for you.
• 
  Tiffany

  I love reading anthologies, and I love reading fairy tales, so this was a wonderful addition to my library. I found a majority of the stories interesting and well written, particularly, "You, Little Match Girl" and "The Cats of San Martino".
• 
  Patrick

  I'm giving this 4 stars :- not every story in the collection that good, but a few really enjoyable ones. I liked: 'Rapunzel', 'The Cats of San Martino', 'Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower, and 'The Golem'.
• 
  Jaimie

  This might be my favourite of this series of compilations yet. The others were always good, but the issue was always a plethora of stories that I didn’t enjoy at all or skipped entirely. Not the case for this selection, as I read this book quite quickly and couldn’t wait to read story after story.