This was a book I really wanted to like because I love fairy tales and this book came very highly recommended to me.But unfortunately, while there are some real gems and worthwhile stories in here there are also a lot of only okay pieces and some I plainly disliked. Either way it scored an overall solid 3/5 and the I would recommend you read this book based only on the real standouts, which shouldn't be missed.Like A Red, Red Rose by Susan Wade.Unique new fairy tale about a witch's daughter Blan...

Sigh... Aside from a few surprising gems, like Neil Gaiman's thing about a troll, and something else that I forget... this book is disappointing. The trouble with "modern fairy tales" is people think that the only way to make a fairy tale "adult" or "dark" is by involving lots and lots of rape and molestation of little girls, and while I suppose that sort of thing works for a while, there's a point at which I have to say, "I'm sorry, your deep inner meaning was lost in the ICK." Get a damn imagi...

This is a collection of fairy tales re-written for adults. It seems that when the authors, who are fabulous in their own right (i.e. Charles De Lint, Tanith Lee, Patricia McKillip), were asked to do work on this project they were just told to "make them for adults". This book reads like a contest to see how much sex, violence, and gore can be crammed into a beloved fairy tale. While one or two are engaging, most are filled with violence and sexual content. We cannot recommend this collection for...

I was a bit disappointed with some of my old favorite authors' offerings, but you know how it goes with anthologies. They have their ups and their downs.

These are mostly a little too nonconsensual for my taste. Too much stuff in here made me feel really icky, and not in a good, scary horror way. In a "this is practically child porn" kinda way. Not good. Skip it and read a different Datlow collection. The extra star is for the other stories, the ones that were very good and should've been put in a better collection.

A terrific collection of fairy tales told and retold in the fashion of the originals. Violent with adult themes of angst and sexuality. This is Snow White before Disney diluted the tales. A fun and exciting read.

[M]ost fairy tales were never initially intended for nursery duty. They have been put there, as J. R. R. Tolkien so evocatively expressed it, like old furniture fallen out of fashion that the grown-ups no longer want. And like furniture banished to the children’s playroom, the tales that have been banished from the mainstream of modern adult literature have suffered misuse as well as neglect.- Terri WindlingMany adults dismiss fairy tales as being too childish, too sweet and innocent, but fairy

It has been a long time since I sat down and read this book, and so I can barely remember a lot of my impressions and thoughts about it. However, it retains a place in my book case for several reasons.The first reason why it will never leave my bookcase is because it contains a story called A Sound, Like Angels Singing. This story, written by an author who I had not heard of at the time (Leonard Rysdyk), is pure genius. It is visceral, haunting, and touching -- and outshines every story in this

Very disappointing first installment, and that was a big negative surprise. In hindsight, it's turned out to be for the better that I got into these fairy tale anthologies picking the books out of order, because had I started with this, the sheer mediocrity of the stories would've probably thrown me off of reading further volumes, and it'd have been a great loss, for there's dozens of amazing stories in this collection's books.As positives: the short story "I Shall Do Thee Mischief in the Wood"

As a fan of fairy tales, I had great hopes for this collection of reinvented classics. Sadly, most of the stories in the collection were fairly lackluster, neither inspiring new depth to old stories, nor faithfully recreating them. There are some stunning exceptions, however, most notably the stories by Neil Gaiman, Leonard Rysdyk, and Patricia McKillip, offering their takes on the Billy Goats Gruff, the Pied Piper, and the Snow Queen, respectively."Troll Bridge" has a boy who promises his life

These are retellings of classic Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales that we're all familiar with with adult twists and turns put on them, some of them reworked in a modern setting, some not. Some of them are horror stories, some of them are suspense thrillers, all of them are at least mildly creepy. I enjoyed all of them, if only for seeing how all the tales I grew up with were subverted and twisted around. I also enjoyed learning that these tales are probably closer to the or...

This collection of short stories are re-tellings of fairy tales. Some are very recognizable, told from varying view points or told in a different time. Others are more subtle but still maintain the fairy tale theme. Most of the stories are good, though there are a few that are a bit hard to get through. Some are funny, most are sensual, and all have been re-done to appeal to adults. There are several books in this collection, this one being the first. Fairy tale fans should enjoy this collection...

The original, or older, or simply "non-Disney" versions of most fairy tales are highly disturbing. It seems that half the authors in this collection took that as a challenge to make modern fairy tales five times as disturbing as the disturbing originals. This does not mean the tales are bad. These are very good authors, with a highly developed sense of writing, of the magical, of imparting ideas without spelling out every minute detail, of leaving the audience with a good starting point for disc...

A very adult collection of fairy tale re-tellings. From Little Red Riding Hood to Snow White, these are not stories that I'd share with my child or any impressionable young mind.Fairy tales haven't always been exclusively for children as Terri Windling explains in the introduction: "..most fairy tales were never initially intended for nursery duty. They have been put there, as J.R.R. Tolkien so evocatively expressed it, like old furniture fallen out of fashion that grown-ups no longer want. And

Of the various fairy tale anthologies in this series that I've read, it is certainly the darkest and most unsettling. I really enjoyed Charles de Lint's story, The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep, and I liked Patrica McKillip's The Snow Queen, but other than that, I thought that a large number of the stories were too dark for my taste.Trigger warnings: Little Red contains implied seduction of a minor by a "wolf." In I Shall Do Thee Mischief in the Wood, it is implied that the narrator is intendin...

I was really looking forward to this book. I actually recognized a few of the authors (not something that happens much for me), one of which happened to be Neil Gaiman.Seeing this book went something like this: Wow, what a neat cover. Oh, fairy tale retellings? That sounds like it would be something I'd real- OMFG NEIL GAIMAN MUST BUY NOW Yea, that's basically how it went down in the store. Maybe a bit more fangirling and squealing, and clutching of the book. Maybe. I won't admit to it though....

I enjoyed a few of the stories in this anthology, though not quite as much as those later in the series. There's so much variety in "Snow White, Blood Red", though - the retold fairytales range from Scandinavian tales of changelings to The Frog Prince. I would have liked to see more fairytales from a wider variety of cultures, but I feel like this book is a product of its time (published 1993) and Datlow and Windling would no doubt make very different decisions if they were editing this series t...

I have a lot of thoughts about this book, but I'll try to condense it as much as possible.My theory is that fairy tales and the realm of fantasy adult literature has changed since Neil Gaiman has come to prominence. This book was collected before he came into his own, when Good Omens was his most famous work. Since then, I feel like his take on what an adult fairy tale should be has become the gold standard, so to say. He manages to find that perfect blend of magic, realism, moral storytelling a...

Maybe back in the early nineties when it was released this was shocking and horrific but it wasn't for me now. It was just gross and vaguely uncomfortable, and it dealt in topics like cannibalism and pedophilia for shock value only. I'm not a huge fan of short stories on a good day with a good anthology, and this wasn't a good anthology. Some stories were better than others but none of them blew my mind. And a lot of them used a weird sexualization of innocence that isn't shocking these days but...

I read this anthology a few years ago, but it stays in my mind pretty well. I thought a few of the stories were really creative retellings. Leonard Rysdy’s “A Sound, Like Angels Singing” was especially unique and interesting, even though it was not one of my favorites. Patricia A. McKillip’s “Snow Queen” and Lisa Goldstein’s “Breadcrumbs and Stones” were great stories that also had interesting premises. For the most part I didn’t like the other works in this book very much. It isn’t that I mind