Janet Yolen is one of the most prolific writers of our time and one of the things she handles best are fairy tales. In her new book How To Fracture a Fairy Tale, Yolen gathers fairy tales and changes them in ways that are often a bit on the dark side.
The stories sometimes deals with concepts like child abuse or the end of the world. Others are small pieces of pure joy. One even tells the tale of The Billy Goats Gruff from the perspective of the bridge itself. Like most short story collections, some are a delight to read and some are just a quick read until you get to the next. If you like unusual stories with a touch of the familiar, this book is highly enjoyable. A few of my favorites are “Snow in Summer” and “The Moon Ribbon.”
How to Fracture a Fairy Tale is now available from Tachyon Publications.
