Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Magic for Unlucky Girls, by A.A. Balaskovits. SFWP, 2017





This is a book of 14 mostly reimagined fairy tales- not Disney fairy tales, but grimmer than the brothers Grimm. Think Angela Carter’s “Bloody Chamber” or Emma Donahue’s “Kissing the Witch”. These stories are feminist in a way; they explore the horrible ways in which women and girls are suppressed and abused, but they don’t always offer hope. Girls turn on other girls in one and feed off the bodies of others in another. In “Eden”, the one person with kindness in his heart is ripped apart by the women of the town.

These aren’t pretty stories at all. Most are moving, though, and there is a beauty to the prose even as it describes horrible things. It turned out to be not my cup of tea, but I think it’s very good. Four stars. 



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