Oh, the so many things that finally begun to fall out as plotlines. The dichotomy of the two worlds and how they are run, the antagonism of Blue Beard, the whole undercurrent riding of Bisgby n' Snow.

The art had much settled out here, and the storyline was beginning to ratchet itself up slowly. ( )

Better stories than the first two volumes and the characters are finally starting to flesh out. Ratcheted up the sex and gore quite a bit which is never bad. ( )

[b:Fables, Vol. 3: Storybook Love|21329|Fables, Vol. 3 Storybook Love|Bill Willingham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1363682851l/21329._SY75_.jpg|1138856]. I never would have expected extortion and a heist story!

The first chapter is a short that doesn't really bear on the rest, with one of teh age old tales of tricking the Devil, capturing Death--and the problems inheriant in that. It's a great stand alone, but a bit jarring that it doesn't fit with the rest. I guess that's part of the collected format.

The rest--well, it seems that the Fables haven't done a perfect job of keeping their secret and one of the Mundys is on their case. The entire story revolves around dealing with that situation in the most Fairy Tale way possible: by weaponizing Briar Rose and her sleeping curse. Because of course.

It's a fairly limited/self contained tale even compared to the previous two, but still well worth the read.

Pretty pretty (for some definitions of the word) spoilers:



Of course it's the Devil.



Oh Jack.



... Wow these are an adult sort of story. That is far more bloody than I expected to see.



So. Briar Rose's curse resets whenever she's kissed. That's exactly the sort of world building twist that I was looking for.



VAMPIRES! Which totally makes sense for the reporter to think! And hilarious.



... that's awesome. A lateral thinking way of it.



Oooh man that relationship is expected and complicated and creepy and awesome. And so that's why Bigby smokes even now. Although can Fables even get cancer?



Bigby's awesome. Esepcially the mixing of various Fables into shared characters.



Oooooh God. She's alive. After all that. Just like Snow White only far more terrifying. I have a feeling that somehow this isn't the last we'll see of Goldilocks... ( )

Including one of my very favorite throw-away reveals ever. ( )

I didn't like this quite as much as the first two collections - the "heist" story feels weirdly mean spirited for Fables and the "Bigby and Snow White in the woods" story is kind of rough too. The other stories in the collection are a great showcase for the team's talents, though. ( )