How delightful then to find this lovely first novel inspired by a Russian folk tale. (My, what big sales you have!) But it’s a difficult act of wizardry: One wrong spell and you’re cast out of the kingdom of literary fiction or, worse, left suspended between YA and adult fiction, too hot for one group, too cold for the other. Byatt and Margaret Atwood to Aimee Bender and Neil Gaiman. Children, of course, know this, even as they’re gently redirected into the sanitized happily ever after.įortunately, there are still fine writers willing to venture into the dark forest of fairy tales, from A.S. Those authentic stories scratch anxieties and longings deep within us. Long before Julia Roberts made prostitution look so romantic and Disney sauteed the Little Mermaid in marshmallow fluff, fairy tales were full of unsettling transformations and traumatic bargains. Only the tragically misinformed would ever sigh over the night’s first star and wish for a real fairy-tale ending.
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