Review Detail

As a lifelong lover of fairy tales, I can’t resist the idea of modern updates by some of the best known writers in the fantasy field. I enjoyed reading the original story and then the new version, to see how the author took on a widely known story and changed things around to make it very much their own. The writing is relatable, and while the stories are short, they allow readers to feel as though they get to know the characters, along with the factors that motivate them throughout the tale.

Obviously not every reader is going to love every single story, but my biggest issue with these is that I wished they were longer. I got invested in the stories, short as they were, and found myself wanting some of these to be full books! It’s listed as suitable for age 12-18, but at least one of the stories is a bit gruesome and could easily be a little scary for a young reader.

Each of the writers takes on one fairy tale, maintaining the original bones of the story while weaving in diverse characters and modern settings, making it more relatable to today’s readers. There’s great representation, with Latine, Anglo-Indian, Chinese, Indigenous, Black, Muslim, LGBTQ, and drag queen characters appearing in stories. Prejudice and discrimination are addressed, and characters come from all along the socioeconomic spectrum, and these fairy tales are much more representative of today’s society than those of the brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson, or even Disney, despite their recent efforts towards diversification. These could easily become a modern-day classic.