THE SPINNER AND THE SLIPPER, Camryn Lockhart

Brace yourself, dearies: it’s a fusion retelling! Rumpelstiltskin meets Cinderella! Yes, I’m about to review a fairytale re-imagining involving a favorite fairy tale of mine. In reviews like these, sometimes I find myself on the brink of maniacal laughter. Why? Because my readers are no doubt sick of seeing yet another book review focused on Rumpelstiltskin. And I’m too villainous to stop. Cue evil laughter.

Maybe I wouldn’t make a credible villain, but at least I’d be a memorable one, unlike those in Camryn Lockhart’s The Spinner and the Slipper. If you think I’m referring to Rumpelstiltskin, the titular Spinner, you’d be quite mistaken. Now, I enjoy a non-villainous Rumpel portrayal as much as—well, more than most people—but I also like my Rumpel intriguing, complex, and sympathetic as well as flawed. This Rumpel is …  a little too tame for my taste. Given his role in this Rumpelstiltskin/Cinderella crossover, it’s understandable why he comes our more “hero” than “trickster.” As for Cinderella, well, better start from the top. There’s a lot more to cover with her.

We open with a parent death scene. Ah, a classic fairy tale trope that will never die. How ironic. Said death is centered on the mother of this story’s Cinderella. Eliana, our soon-to-be-orphaned heroine, is only a child at this point, but she understands that her kind mother is breathing her last, and she desperately hopes for a miracle to save her. Instead, as a parting gift, her mother bequeaths a necklace and ring that seem to be made of gold. She explains that while these will be precious tokens of her love, Eliana must be willing to give them up when asked. Why? Uhhhh … no time to explain. Must die now!

RED: THE TRUE STORY OF RED RIDING HOOD, Liesl Shurtliff

I’m starting to realize that I’ve read and reviewed a fair number of fantasy books inspired by the Little Red Riding Hood story, and more are on the way. So either this cape-wearing girl is just really popular, or my repertoire is too narrow, and what little readership I have will soon be sick to death of her. In my defense, two of those stories were about the same Red Riding Hood from Once Upon A Time, just as this Red is the same character featured in Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin. For both girls, the second book is their true debut as protagonists, so technically I’ve only reviewed two Red Riding Hood stories, right? (Not for long—be on the lookout for Sisters Red.)

In my further defense, I had to give Red a try after enjoying Rump so much, even if part of that enjoyment came from my attachment to the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale—and a certain TV show’s rendition of its titular character. But Shurtliff’s smart and fun writing styles played no small part, so Red deserves as much consideration. 

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL: A WORLD WITHOUT PRINCES, Soman Chainani

Ah, yes, the first in what will probably be a continual string of sequels in several fantasy series I may half-regret starting somewhere down the road. Sequels are generally a tricky business, especially since they’re almost always part of a trilogy, tetralogy or so on. First books have the benefit of introducing a world and its characters while not being obligated to explain everything. The second installment has to both expand on the setup in a meaningful way and not be a thinly veined rehash of its predecessor. Then again, many second installments are revered as the best part of a series because they can dare to push the heroes to their limits and close on a dark ending. A World Without Princes delivers a blend of all of the above, sometimes to its own detriment.

The story continues closely from where the first book left off: Agatha and Sophie are back in their village, now made famous by their fairy tale. For the few months, Sophie basks in the fame while Agatha just wants everything to be normal again. When their fame dies down, Sophie grows restless for attention while being overshadowed by changes in her family life—her father is getting married to her dead mother’s best friend, who Sophie suspects her father had an affair with even while Sophie’s mother was alive. Agatha tries to comfort Sophie and be content with their Happily Ever After. Too bad she can’t make herself forget Tedros, the prince she started falling for back at the School for Good and Evil. As the rising tension suggests (along with the book’s title), events propel the girls from their village back to the school—only this time their exit is triggered by one of them.

THE SLEEPER AND THE SPINDLE, Neil Gaiman

I almost feel as though this should be considered a Short Review since The Sleeper and the Spindle pretty much qualifies as a short story in length. With its illustrations, it comes out to just under 70 pages. And honestly, it’s a concise, beautifully rendered story that doesn’t need much said, and shouldn’t have too much said to avoid spoilers, so forgive the brevity of this review.

As one should come to expect from Gaiman’s approach to rehashed fairy tales, the stories of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty weave together in both a new and familiar way, and with such seamless ease you’d think other writers would have tried to bring them together sooner. The opening action follows three of the seven dwarves visiting the cusp of Sleeping Beauty’s kingdom to procure fine cloth for Snow White’s upcoming wedding. Right away we glimpse at the devotion the dwarves have for her (if only these three—keeping the number of dwarves low is an understandable alteration for the sake of effective characterization) as well as understand where we are in Snow White’s story. 

Short Review: LITTLE MAN, Michael Cunningham

First, a preamble: I swear I didn’t mean for my first “short” review for fantasy short stories to be for a work with a synonym in the title. The concept and the decision to do it at all was very short notice. I put little thought into it, but I figure that some tiny effort should be made on my part to include short fiction in the fantasy genre in my small but growing repertoire.

Sorry, sorry. Forgive the slight digression.

THE SHORT VERSION:

Michael Cunningham is one of those contemporary literary writers I really should be reading (I have at least one of his novels on my shelf), but instead I’m engorging myself on fairytale-inspired fantasy books and TV shows. So Cunningham did the only thing he could to get my attention: write his own fairytale-inspired story.

Of course I speak in jest, but an eerie tingle went down my spine when I saw that “Little Man” was published in the New Yorker last summer. Oh, and he published a collection of reduxed fairy tales in A Wild Swan and Other Tales AND a novel titled The Snow Queen. All right, Michael, you’re on my list.

THE RUMPELSTILTSKIN PROBLEM, Vivian Vande Velde

Yes, I know I said my review of Out of the Past would follow Shadow of the Queen. Unfortunately the holidays, illness and some writer’s block intervened. So, instead, you’re getting another book that inflicts much less strain on my brain’s logic centers (thanks, Vasquez and Bechko). Funnily enough, the title of this short-story collection could be an alternate to that of Once Upon A Time—The Rumpelstiltskin Problem. 

This imp doth protest!

Anyone watching OUAT understands the Rumplestiltskin problem all too well (one that I continue to consider the best part of the show—is my bias showing yet?). But Vande Velde is addressing something else. In her preface, she highlights some details from the fairytale “Rumpelstiltskin” that are, let's say, fairly questionable.