Title: The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold
Author: Francesca Lia Block
Date of Publication: August 7th, 2001
Goodreads Summary:
With language that is both lyrical and distinctly her own, Francesca Lia Block turns nine fairy tales inside out.
Escaping the poisoned apple, Snow frees herself from possession to find the truth of love in an unexpected place.
A club girl from L.A., awakening from a long sleep to the memories of her past, finally finds release from its curse.
And Beauty learns that Beasts can understand more than men.
Within these singular, timeless landscapes, the brutal and the magical collide, and the heroine triumphs because of the strength she finds in a pen, a paintbrush, a lover, a friend, a mother, and finally, in herself.
My Review:
I’m not the biggest fan of short story anthologies, but I find when they are written by the same person vs a collection of authors, I’ve enjoyed them better. So I wasn’t sure what I was going to get, but the author totally owned all these stories! Loved the dark vibes!
This book has some of my favorite fairy tales—Little Red Riding Hood, Thumbelina, Snow White, etc. And let me just say, not all of them are going to have a happy ending and some will end rather uniquely.
The writing was beautiful and not overly lyrical where I didn’t understand what was going on—it was perfect. This collection goes right into my favorite short story collection right next to Leigh Bardugo’s Language of Thorns!
What’s your favorite fairy tale?