Book Reviews by CdF — Meet our Reviewers
September 2008
Black Thorn, White RoseEllen Datlow and Terri Windling (editors), 1994
Reviewed by JoSelle Vanderhooft In the 1990s legendary editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling assembled a six book anthology series of "fairy tales for adults." Beginning with 1992's Snow White, Blood Red and concluding in 2000 with Black Heart, Ivory Bones, these magnificent anthologies not only revolutionized the fantasy genre but laid the groundwork for much of the daring folklore-inspired fantasy (much of it written by young women) being written today. Read more...
Snow White and Rose RedPatricia C. Wrede, 1989
Reviewed by Laurie Thayer Terri Windling's Fairy Tale series first appeared in 1987. Originally published by Ace, the series was later taken up by Tor. The series consists of eight fantasy novels aimed at adults, each based on a traditional fairy tale. Snow White and Rose Red is the fourth volume in the series. Read more...
The Girl in a SwingRichard Adams, 1980
Reviewed by Tanya Avakian Alan Desland is a young Englishman in Copenhagen. Presumably around thirty, he is still a virgin; he describes himself as "a non-starter in the Aphrodite sweepstakes." All this is about to change when he meets a gentle and beautiful German girl named Käthe (Karin in some editions), who appears to be entirely alone in the world. Read more...
An Encyclopedia of FairiesKatharine M. Briggs, 1976
Reviewed by Tanya Avakian While there are other sources for British fairy lore, many older than Briggs' (and quoted extensively in her work, as she would be all but plagiarized later), there is no other oeuvre quite like Briggs' and no other book like this one. Read more...
Fairy Tales And The Art Of SubversionJack Zipes, 1985
Reviewed by B. Haro Fairy tales — whimsical stories for youth, timelessly heralded for their universal truths and innocuous beauty... or maladjusted tools of the power elite for compulsory indoctrination of children to socialized norms? The answer, rather complicated and frighteningly situated with the latter, forms the analysis of Jack Zipes' Fairy Tales And The Art Of Subversion. Read more...
Canuck and Other StoriesEdited by Rhea Côté Robbins, 2006
Reviewed by Tanya Avakian Rhea Côté Robbins is the distinguished director of the Franco-American Women's Institute at the University of Maine (http://www.fawi.net). She has recently edited the translations of works of fiction and theater by three Québéçoise women in America: Camille Lessard Bissonette, Corinne Rocheleau Rouleau, and Alberte Gastonguay... Each work is addressed self-consciously to the Franco-American condition as experienced by women. Read more...
Into the Wild & Out of the WildSarah Beth Durst, 2007
Reviewed by Lynette Barnes In her two-book series Into the Wild and Out of the Wild, Sarah Beth Durst creates a twist on fairy tales and the time-honored tradition of "happily ever after." Into the Wild introduces Julie Marchen, who lives with her mother, Zel, (formerly Rapunzel of the Tower; she now runs a hair salon) in a small Massachusetts town. Read more...
The Neverending StoryMichael Ende, 1979
Reviewed by JoSelle Vanderhooft It was only in 2008 when revisiting Fantastica again that I realized something: Ende's book is not only an anodyne for isolated, bookish people, it is also — like most literary anodynes — a beautiful fairy tale. Read more...