The Fables universe branches out into Japanese folklore as it tackles Rapunzel's history. This had a lot more horrific/grotesque moments than a lot of the Fables series, but then that fits in really well with the yōkai of Japanese folklore.

I rather liked Rapunzel's dark past. There's some really interesting things done with how she had to survive, and it was neat to see a much darker side to the usual "good" Fables. This felt like a much stronger entry than the first volume as she felt much more fleshed-out than Briar Rose did.