This collection is not so much a retelling of old fairy tales as a way of using them as inspiration since the connection is often pretty tenuous and in one case very unclear ('Black as Ink', a story of ennui among the better off classes which has the presence of a swan at one point so might be a swan princess story, but really doesn't come across as a fairy tale at all).

One theme becomes rather repetitive: the "woman as Satan worshipper" trope. I also found the notes on the contents page, which attempt to pin the stories to particular geographical locations and centuries, rather redundant since as most of them come across as being able to be set anywhere and very vaguely as to time.

However, I did like a couple of them more than others: 'Wolfland' was elevated above the rest of the collection in having actual characters as opposed to cardboard archetypes, and 'Beauty', a science fiction story taking Beauty and the Beast as a jumping off point. So on the whole I would rate this at 3 stars. ( )

I've come back to this collection of short stories a couple of times after first reading them in middle school. I've always been an avid reader of fairy tale retellings. My sheltered middle school self was shocked by the depictions of the Black Arts and Satanism that Lee incorporates into each of these retellings, and I remember coming away from it admiring Lee's writing but not what she did to the tales.

After taking note as an adult, however, that each tale is set in a different century, I can see now how Lee has molded these tales into an endless battle between "light" and "dark" spirituality (neither of those descriptors really indicating a good or bad side) that culminates in the cathartic spiritual convergence of the last story, "Beauty." The effect is really quite spellbinding and leads you to read one tale immediately after another.

As with any short story collection, some of these stories struck a chord with me more than others, but I admire Lee's immense creativity and how she structures it. This is a collection not to be missed by fairy tale fans.

*I purchased the new e-book edition of this title (with the horrible witch chick-lit cover) that includes an extra tale, "The Waters of Sorrow." I believe it's a retelling of "Rusalka" or "Giselle" that Lee wrote many years after this collection was published. It's also quite good and I'm glad it was included in this new edition. ( )

Some of the stories are good and a few didn't keep my interest. I loved Wolflans the best. ( )

LMAO, I really liked all of these.

It should probably be renamed "Princesses Behaving Badly by Dabbling in the Dark Arts and Worshiping Satan". ( )

This review and others posted over at my blog.

If you hadn’t already gathered this from the title, this is a collection of fairy tales from Tanith. Many were familiar spins on classic tales, though there were a couple whose source I didn’t recognize. The table of contents does have the country and time period during which each tale is set.

As I usually do with shorts collections, I’m just going to highlight the standouts:

Red as Blood – the title story; this is a spin on Snow White with a mild Biblical touch. It switches up who the “villain” is too.

Thorns – I’m not sure if I really understood this one, but it was an interesting interpretation of Sleeping Beauty. The end left me a little puzzled, but I liked the atmosphere.

When the Clock Strikes – my notes just say “satanic Cinderella with a vengeance” and I’m just going to leave you with that!

The Princess and her Future – this was a creepy and rather grim take on the Frog Prince tale. It definitely didn’t end the way I expected.

Beauty – after getting partway through this, I realized I’ve read it before. I think it’s in more than one collection, or maybe I’ve actually read this entire collection and forgot everything – either is possible! Anyway, this is a sci-fi spin on Beauty and the Beast about aliens who summon humans to come live with them by sending down a rose. I really loved it.

Also, I’d forgotten that Tanith has illustrated a few of her books and this is one of them! ( )