3.25

This is a collection of fairy tale retellings that are set in the worlds of the novels of these authors. I think its a really cool concept and can kind of give you a taste of their writing and encourage you to pick up the books and series for more.

Just like any anthology, your mileage is going to vary and its going to be very hit or miss. Some stories will resonate more than others. I did write reviews for each of the stories and while I nearly never have spoilers in my reviews, if you want to go in knowing nothing, I will just quickly list my ratings per story and then have the in depth reviews afterwards.

Red in the Woods by K.R.S. McEntire - 2.5 ⭐
Shadow and Song by Montrez - 1.5 ⭐
Circuits and Nerve by Alicia Ellis - 4.5 ⭐
A Bloodstained Sun by E.M. Lacey - 3 ⭐
These Sapphire Walls by Krystina Coles - 5 ⭐
Waking Up by R.L. Medina - 2.25 ⭐

I averaged up my ratings to get the overall rating for the story collection. Longer reviews below.

Red in the Woods by K.R.S. McEntire - 2.5 ⭐

This was fine. The writing is very run-of-the-mill, basic YA dystopian, which I think falls short in getting you invested in the characters in such a short story.

The story itself isn't anything original beyond how it twists the Red Riding Hood fairytale. I liked how it puts the role of the big bad wolf on the Wardens, but it still kept the whole grandmother-wolf thing just in a different way. It was a very fine reading experience, but nothing special.

I think if you're interested in the whole sci-fi dystopian mutant thing, it might be worth picking up the authors novels that this story is related to, as the writing wasn't bad and the world dynamics, while not entirely original, were interesting enough.

Shadow and Song by Montrez - 1.5 ⭐

This was such an awkward length for a story. I would almost say I would have wanted it to be longer but also I didn't really like it very much to begin with, so…. Hey, maybe with a little extra time to develop things I would've ended up liking it, who knows.

We do have a typical chosen one trope thing going on here, which was fine. I mean, don't fix what ain't broken I suppose. I do enjoy the whole music thing. I like the concept of someone using music to defeat an evil but that person also has stage fright. I think that could be a very interesting character arc to follow if it was given the proper weight and time. The anxiety scenes are… I guess basic? They're convincing enough that we get the idea that Lyric has anxiety around singing, but I feel like the scenes where she's experiencing that anxiety could have been written in a way that would have provided greater impact and deeper character development and thus relatability.

This story is lightly inspired by the story of Peter Pan, and I do mean lightly. Other than the name of a character, shadows, a reference to lost boys (which are foster cats in this story how cute is that) and a quick mention that our guy Peter knows friends who tinker with instruments, you aren't getting much Peter Pan here. I think we could've leaned in a bit more, but also I don't know how that would work. Maybe I just want more cats idk.

The shadows that Lyric needs to defeat with her singing are also pretty much directly stated to be representative of depression. This does lead to some important and somewhat touching lines at the end of the story, which were nice but again, didn't carry the kind of emotional weight that they could have had with more time to develop.

This story is linked to one of the author’s other books/series, so there is a very good chance that these themes are explored and developed more in depth there, but as I am reading and reviewing these as individual stories, I feel like the experience here was very lacking. There was potential here but between the very short length and unremarkable (but not bad) writing, I just didn't feel like I got anything from it.

Circuits and Nerve by Alicia Ellis - 4.5 ⭐

I would absolutely pick up the connected series to this one. I'm not even a sci-fi kind of reader, but I am so interested in what this author could do with more time to world build because this was actually really good.

While the writing style wasn't anything special, it felt right at home in the genre of the story. There are small bits of world building that hint at a much larger more expansive world, but since we are following a sibling duo we are only let in to what is necessary to their experiences. The pacing also felt great.

Due to the length of the story, there is sort of a mix of showing and telling when it comes to the characters. I think it's a tricky line to tow, but the characters were always consistent and the author managed to craft clear motivations and personalities in such a short period of time and I think that's pretty impressive. The only character that wasn't really developed was the Web Witch, but it also felt like that was perhaps a character that is more related to the connected series and in the grand scheme of things it isn't THAT important for Web Witch to have full character development in this particular story. I got to the end and actually had an emotional reaction cause I found myself actively wanting the best for our siblings and their father.

This was based on Hansel and Gretel and I think the author does the original fairy tale justice. It would've been so easy to retell the story using a fantasy setting, but leaning into the hard sci-fi meant the author had to get creative and I think she managed to pull it off really well. Is it a perfect retelling? No, but it reimagines and utilizes the most important story beats from the original fairy tale in a way that did not disappoint.

A Bloodstained Sun by E.M. Lacey - 3 ⭐

This felt like such a sharp turn from the stories before it. It definitely leans more into the dark and gritty.

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this one. I enjoyed the overall story, but there were a lot of moments where things got a little messy and confusing and I couldn't entirely tell what was going on. It also is based in Aztec mythology which I know pretty much nothing about so that was probably contributing to the confusion. The glossary was also not helping much there if I'm being honest.

This was inspired by Snow White. It's an interpretation of the story that works and you can see bits here and there that you can directly connect to the original fairy tale, but other aspects are twisted and stretched thin to make them fit. I don't think there's anything really wrong with that here, though, as it is stated before it starts that this is an origin story for a character that appears in one of the author’s other books, so some creative liberties likely had to be taken to make it make sense.

I don't think I'm all that interested in picking up the connected series for this one, but I would be interested in what this author does down the line cause there were moments of really compelling writing and storytelling, there were just also an equal amount of moments that felt really disorienting and confusing in a way that didn't feel intentional.

These Sapphire Walls by Krystina Coles - 5 ⭐

I am so into whatever this was. It was delightfully atmospheric. The writing was stunning and I found myself highlighting so many passages that I thought were absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure how I'd feel about a whole novel in this style cause it might get to be a little too much, but I am absolutely going to pick up the connected book.

The descriptions and atmosphere were very much the focus, but I didn't find the characterization lacking and what world building we did get had me wanting to know more.

I unfortunately am not all too familiar with the fairy tale that this is inspired by. I do vaguely have an idea and based on that I think this is a pretty faithful retelling but idk I may be completely wrong about that.

Waking Up by R.L. Medina - 2.25 ⭐

I don't have too much to say about this one honestly. It was meh.

It started out with some odd writing choices that I think were supposed to convey panic and desperation but really mostly served as a barrier for me actually getting into the story. Once you get past that it's fine though. I think it does rely a little TOO heavily on the shadows and toothy grins and whatnot when there are other ways to get that same feeling across. I don't think it would be too much of a problem normally but with such a short story you tend to notice when things are being used a lot.

This is another situation where the length gets in the way of effective character building. I think it takes a really rare type of writer to get you to care about characters fully in under 50 pages, so that isn't exactly a knock on the author, but there was a moment that I think was supposed to be emotionally impactful and I just didn't know the characters well enough to care about it so it didn't do it for me.

This is based on Sleeping Beauty mostly, though it doesn't tell you that beforehand like the other stories in the collection do. I figured from the title it would be Sleeping Beauty, but part of me was also feeling like there might have been light Rumpelstiltskin inspo as well so I wasn't sure.