08 January 2011

My Mother She Killed Me ~ Kate Bernheimer (ed)

“Forty new fairy tales by assorted authors”
Missing the magic!

My love of fairytales is not “Disneyfied”; I know they are dark with an underlying malevolence but there is a moral and and a magic to them that I felt was missing in so many of the stories in this anthology.

There were a few that I enjoyed but most of them bore little resemblance to the fairy tale they were meant to be “inspired” by. They were grim or bizarre or confused. There were many that were just plain “duds”.

Some excellent writers contributed to the collection (eg Jim Shepherd & Neil Gaiman ... no wonder the word “dark” comes to mind!!!). My favourite would be the version of “The Little Mermaid” - a creepy, well nuanced short story.

An “Alphie” favourite but not my cup of tea.