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I Hate Fairyland, Vol 2: Fluff My Life
8.5
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Book
All hail Gertrude, the new Queen of Fairyland. After thirty years of wreaking havoc across this...
Feminine Gospels
Book
In Feminine Gospels, Carol Ann Duffy draws on the historical, the archetypal, the biblical and the...
A beautiful masterpiece
Jane Eyre is a masterpiece because of its Gothic fairytale feel in the atmosphere of Thornfield and its strong, complex characters including the quiet, independent Jane and Rochester who was dark and moody yet longing for companionship. Even though I give it A+ it tends to be wordy and drag at the end espically the scenes with St. John Rivers. Despite all that Jane Eyre is a beautiful complex story worth reading.
The Drowning of Arthur Braxton
Book
The bestselling modern fairytale, with a new introduction from Luke Cutforth 'I loved it ...so...
David McK (3610 KP) rated Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019) in Movies
Jun 10, 2020
Sequel to 2014s Maleficent, that is now freed from the constraints of having to tell the Sleeping Beauty fairytale from the point of view of the wicked Queen.
With the plot here set in motion by a marriage proposal to Aurora, she and Maleficent travel to meet her suitors parents, including Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith, who proves to be a 'real' Wicked Queen (that's no spoiler!), and who engineers a war against the fae folk.
In short: slightly better than the first, but still not brilliant.
With the plot here set in motion by a marriage proposal to Aurora, she and Maleficent travel to meet her suitors parents, including Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith, who proves to be a 'real' Wicked Queen (that's no spoiler!), and who engineers a war against the fae folk.
In short: slightly better than the first, but still not brilliant.
Goddess in the Stacks (553 KP) rated Krampus in Books
Dec 17, 2018
A dark fairytale with occasional illustrations
Let's head into Christmas with something out of the ordinary, shall we? This was one heck of a dark fairytale, set in West Virginia, in a town where everyone knows everyone and the head of police is in cahoots with the local crime lord.
The story opens on Christmas Eve with Jesse Walker, failed husband and father, depressed, alone, and contemplating suicide, until he sees Santa Claus attacked and fleeing into the sky, leaving behind his magic sack. What he doesn't know is that Santa's attackers are mostly after the magic sack, and what he thinks is his salvation turns out to be what traps him into everything that follows.
And what follows is a thrillride! Jesse is roped into being one of Krampus' servants, along with his belsnickels, people Krampus has lent a portion of his magic to. The magic twists them into fur-covered monsters, but also grants them healing and near-immortality.
Between trying to rekindle the lost traditions of Yule and hunting down Santa Claus to end him for good, Jesse also struggles to save his wife and daughter from the possibly-murderous cop they're living with.
By the end of the book I wasn't sure who to cheer for, other than Jesse and one of the belsnickels, Isabel. But Krampus? He might be right, but is he good? I'm not sure. Similarly, except for his millennia-past misdeeds, Santa is good NOW. But I'm not sure he's right. In an ideal world, the two of them could come to some compromise and apologize to each other, but this is a dark fairytale, so of course that's not the case!
I enjoyed this book, even if there wasn't a lot of happiness in it. It definitely embodies the Appalachia Gothic idea.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
The story opens on Christmas Eve with Jesse Walker, failed husband and father, depressed, alone, and contemplating suicide, until he sees Santa Claus attacked and fleeing into the sky, leaving behind his magic sack. What he doesn't know is that Santa's attackers are mostly after the magic sack, and what he thinks is his salvation turns out to be what traps him into everything that follows.
And what follows is a thrillride! Jesse is roped into being one of Krampus' servants, along with his belsnickels, people Krampus has lent a portion of his magic to. The magic twists them into fur-covered monsters, but also grants them healing and near-immortality.
Between trying to rekindle the lost traditions of Yule and hunting down Santa Claus to end him for good, Jesse also struggles to save his wife and daughter from the possibly-murderous cop they're living with.
By the end of the book I wasn't sure who to cheer for, other than Jesse and one of the belsnickels, Isabel. But Krampus? He might be right, but is he good? I'm not sure. Similarly, except for his millennia-past misdeeds, Santa is good NOW. But I'm not sure he's right. In an ideal world, the two of them could come to some compromise and apologize to each other, but this is a dark fairytale, so of course that's not the case!
I enjoyed this book, even if there wasn't a lot of happiness in it. It definitely embodies the Appalachia Gothic idea.
You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.com
An atmosphere that draws you in (2 more)
Beautiful prose
Interconnected short stories
Fairy tales for grown ups
This collection of short stories is set on the island of Neverness. All of the stories are interconnected and characters reoccur as adults after they were in a story as children. We see how an experience in one story then becomes a cautionary tale or a fairytale in another. I loved the atmosphere in this book: menacing, dreamlike, happy, sad - like a fairytale really.
The language used was really very poetic. If you're attracted to this as a Fantasy reader, the language is weighted more on the 'Literary Fiction' side. I like both, and this didn't even occur to me until I read another review on Goodreads! There are plenty of Fantasy writers out there whose prose can be lyrical!
I also liked how the beginning and the end of the book were connected. Very clever, original writing, this is a short story collection that didn't feel to me as though they were short stories. Well worth a read!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this gorgeous book!
The language used was really very poetic. If you're attracted to this as a Fantasy reader, the language is weighted more on the 'Literary Fiction' side. I like both, and this didn't even occur to me until I read another review on Goodreads! There are plenty of Fantasy writers out there whose prose can be lyrical!
I also liked how the beginning and the end of the book were connected. Very clever, original writing, this is a short story collection that didn't feel to me as though they were short stories. Well worth a read!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this gorgeous book!
Ever After High™
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Welcome to the spellbinding world of Ever After High, where the next generation of fairytale legends...
David McK (3610 KP) rated Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) in Movies
Dec 31, 2019
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall … "
A reworking of the Snow White fairytale, with Kristen Stewart taking the lead role and Chris Hemsworth taking time out from his Thor duties to portray the part of the Huntsman ordered to capture her and bring her back to the evil Queen (here portrayed by Charlize Theron) before instead becoming her protector.
And, yes, there are seven dwarves in this, although Snow White does not live with them at any stage nor are they given names such as Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, etc ...
A reworking of the Snow White fairytale, with Kristen Stewart taking the lead role and Chris Hemsworth taking time out from his Thor duties to portray the part of the Huntsman ordered to capture her and bring her back to the evil Queen (here portrayed by Charlize Theron) before instead becoming her protector.
And, yes, there are seven dwarves in this, although Snow White does not live with them at any stage nor are they given names such as Sneezy, Dopey, Grumpy, etc ...
