Bitten by Books
I grew up on fairy tales. Even as I get ready to enter the fourth decade of life, I still embrace their magic, and cherish the life lessons available in these old stories of magic and perseverance against the ugly and dark aspects of life. I appreciate reading an author’s reinterpretation of the old fairy tales, which was why I looked forward to reading this volume. It started very strong with an impressively innovative introduction by Bill Willingham, in which he is faced the consequences of a life of writing fantasy, and making some powerful and otherworldly enemies in the process. I loved how he tied this gem of a story into the overall theme of the anthology. I thought this boded well for the collection overall. Unfortunately, I did not feel that the anthology lived up to the promise of the introduction.
Expectations can hugely affect the success of a reading endeavor. In my case, having this tremendous love for fairy tales and adaptations and an eagerness to dive into this collection, set me up to be underwhelmed with too many of the stories. Ultimately, I found this as whole to be decent rather than excellent in quality. There were two five star stories in this volume: “The Price” by Patricia Briggs and “The Rose Garden” by Michelle West. Not only did they translate the true spirit of the original fairy tales, they brought a deeper emotional impact to the stories, with adaptations that had a powerful relevance to me as a reader. That is the mark of a successful retelling. With these two stories as a benchmark, the other stories fall into line behind them with varying levels of success.
Stories that I liked a lot, but did not love, were by authors Susanna Clark, Holly Black, Theodora Goss, Kelly Link, Gregory Frost, and Paul di Fillippo. They were successful in that these stories took the fairy tale theme and made it sing for me. The other stories weighed in as good or okay. Unfortunately, there were a few that I did not like at all, by Peter Straub, Robert Coover, and Gregory Maguire. The issue was either that I did not get the relevance, they were so abstract as to lack appeal, or the subject matter or writing style just left me cold. I can imagine that the editor felt these stories fit in this thematic anthology, but they did not resonate with this fairy tale aficionado reader.
Anthology reading can be quite an adventure. You can luck out and hit the jackpot, with a collection that hits the ground running, and you chalk up story after story on the win side. Sometimes, your luck does not run as well, and you even-out or go home empty-handed. I would say Happily Ever After is an anthology where I broke even.
Book Stats:
- Paperback: 477 pages
- Publisher: Night Shade Books; 1st edition (June 1, 2011)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1597802204
- ISBN-13: 978-1597802208
Buy a print copy of Happily Ever After from Amazon by clicking here
Buy a print copy of Happily Ever After from Amazon by clicking here.
Review Overview
Overall Rating
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Summary : Anthology reading can be quite an adventure. You can luck out and hit the jackpot, with a collection that hits the ground running, and you chalk up story after story on the win side. Sometimes, your luck does not run as well, and you even-out or go home empty-handed. I would say Happily Ever After is an anthology where I broke even.
