There are nine short stories in this collection. I'm not sure what fairy tales all of them are supposed to be but I love them anyway. I think the fairy tales in here are: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Thumbelina, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Rose Red, Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, and the Snow Queen. They are all retold to be either modern or timeless, and some of them are hard to recognize. The author has a dreamlike writing style, and by dreamlike I mean just that, like a dream, slightly fragmented, slightly surreal, slightly incoherent and just a little hard to understand, but great nonetheless. I love this book and also what I've read of her other work. I love retellings of fairy tales and I loved these ones. Read it and love it. Tell me if you think I got anything wrong.
Friday, February 19, 2010
The Rose and The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
By Francesca Lia Block
There are nine short stories in this collection. I'm not sure what fairy tales all of them are supposed to be but I love them anyway. I think the fairy tales in here are: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Thumbelina, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Rose Red, Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, and the Snow Queen. They are all retold to be either modern or timeless, and some of them are hard to recognize. The author has a dreamlike writing style, and by dreamlike I mean just that, like a dream, slightly fragmented, slightly surreal, slightly incoherent and just a little hard to understand, but great nonetheless. I love this book and also what I've read of her other work. I love retellings of fairy tales and I loved these ones. Read it and love it. Tell me if you think I got anything wrong.
There are nine short stories in this collection. I'm not sure what fairy tales all of them are supposed to be but I love them anyway. I think the fairy tales in here are: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Cinderella, Thumbelina, Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Rose Red, Bluebeard, Beauty and the Beast, and the Snow Queen. They are all retold to be either modern or timeless, and some of them are hard to recognize. The author has a dreamlike writing style, and by dreamlike I mean just that, like a dream, slightly fragmented, slightly surreal, slightly incoherent and just a little hard to understand, but great nonetheless. I love this book and also what I've read of her other work. I love retellings of fairy tales and I loved these ones. Read it and love it. Tell me if you think I got anything wrong.
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By timeless I mean that it's hard to tell when it is set.
ReplyDeleteIt could be now, the future, or a hundred years ago.
ReplyDeletesounds interesting. I love fairytales when they are twisted up, and then knotted until the story sounds familiar, and yet slightly different... like in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles.
ReplyDelete(: :D
ReplyDeleteSome of these faerie tales are so twisted you have to read them, like, twice to figure out what they're supposed to be. I love that sort of story. You really have to read it to understand it. What's that last comment supposed to mean?
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone who has read this author could mistake her books for anyone elses. She has a very distinctive style which is VERY GOOD!
ReplyDeletethe girl on the book cover looks like princess Buttercup from The Princess Bride. hehe!
ReplyDelete