Review Bites: Fairy Tales

Disney and the hit series, Once Upon A Time, keep fairy tales at the forefront of current pop culture, yet these stories have been around since forever and many other storytellers have had their fun with them along the way.

Fearie Tales returns fairy tales to their roots, reminding us that these stories were originally not intended for children – unless you want to scare the crap out of them and make sure they don’t do as their told lest the monster in the closet eat their toes. Like the Brothers Grimm, this anthology collects fairy tales, specifically focusing on the darker aspects. The original stories are juxtaposed with variations by some of favourite authors including Garth Nix, Neil Gaiman, Michael Marshal Smith and more. I wouldn’t necessarily say the stories are as gruesome as the cover suggests. “Haunting” is a more effective word that describes some of my favourite tales, such as Open Your Window, Golden Hair by Tanith Lee, a disturbing take on the story of Rapunzel. When paired with the absolutely creepy illustrations by Alan Lee, I may have found myself checking under the bed once or twice while reading this…

With thanks to Jo Fletcher Books for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am a fan of Once Upon A Time, which inspired me to finally get on with reading Fables. For those who still believe that Once is a rip off of Fables, be sure to check out Bill Willingham’s interview with Bill Willingham to learn the error of your ways. There certainly are similarities, considering they are both pulling from the same source materials, but both stand quite well on their own.

Fables Volume 1: Legends in Exile takes place in New York, centuries after the fairy tale characters we know and love or hate have been run out of town by the Adversary. Those who look human remain within the city, while the others live in the more rural areas. There is an amnesty in place that has absolved everyone of past sins. Snow White more or less runs things, but when her sister, Rose Red, goes missing under violent circumstances, she is forced to team up with Bigby Wolf, resident detective, to find her sister and the culprit.

As an introductory story, the mystery allows the reader to meet many of the characters and discover how author Bill Willingham has made each of them adjust to this new life. The result is some really interesting characters and relationships and yes, I am already shipping Wolf and Snow. Whut? The mystery itself plays out like a good old fashioned ’80s murder mystery, complete with Wolf indulging in a big reveal at the end. It’s wonky, but I’ll give it a pass because I’m already impressed with the concept and the characters. And oh look, The Wolf Among Us game is available on Steam…

Grimm Fairy Tales is a great example of “don’t judge a book by its cover” even when the covers of these graphic novels make such an effort to ensure that you judge them. Scantily clad fairy tale ladies adorn each cover, posed provocatively, trapped in precarious situations, tormented by evils. How good could this comic really be? Based on these covers alone, I figured I was in for a laugh in reading this. I was pleasantly surprised to find just how deceptive the covers are.

Each story starts in the real world with a young woman facing a serious problem in her life, such as a boyfriend who shuns her for not putting out, a partner who wants her to abort a baby when she doesn’t. It even surprised me by focusing on a male protagonist who is smitten by a girl who is obviously using him. Each protagonist stumbles across a mysterious woman and or her mysterious book of fairy tales and turns to a page with a relevant story to help them come to a decision about their future. The tales follow the standard story, but then offer some intriguing twists that offer a moral punch.

Despite the covers, there are no buxom babes prancing around in corsets and fishnets in the stories. Other than the occasional cleavage, everyone is appropriately dressed and none of the women are taken advantage of beyond the constraints of their respective fairy tales.

I’d originally decided to read this along side Fables thinking it would prove to be an amusingly poor comparison, but I ended up discovering something surprisingly interesting that wasn’t as bad as it appeared to be.