Deirdre Sullivan (2)

Oh this is dark dark stuff, I found it enthralling, but it's a book to have something happy and light lined up afterwards. This is not your light, easy read, this stuff is grim and it takes a twist on the Grimm tales and amps up the agency for the female characters.

The illustrations by Karen Vaughan reminded me of Aubrey Bearsley or Harry Clarke with a modern more sparse twist and I was very impressed by them.

These are not your average fairy tale but they're damned good.

Do not be fooled by the tame cover- this is a horror fantasy novel that would give S. King a run for his money!
Twins Maddy and Caitlin have just moved into a castle in a country town in Ireland after their mother has married its owner. They are told that the village of Ballyfrann and the people who live there are different but how different is what they are yet to discover. Also living in the castle with them is Mamo - a great aunt to the owner who seems to be a natural herbalist but she is show more up all night and wanders the castle grounds popping up when you least expect it.
Maddy and Caitlin attend the local school and one day at lunchtime Caitlin befriends a local 20-something called Von who works at the local pub. She is soon besotted by him and Maddy can only watch from the sidelines as he seems to take control of her twin sister.
Meanwhile in the background there is the question of who murdered 5 girls from that area in the last 20 years? Maddy can't help but think that maybe Von is involved.

Be prepared: this has a very gory ending with certain characters having to get over ( or perform) some terrible activities. For those who like their witchcraft and horror very dark and bloody. I suspect that this is the first in a series. I just wish the cover had hinted at how dark the book really is. show less

Tangleweed and Brine is a collection of short stories by Irish YA author Deirdre Sullivan that reimagines fairy tales from a feminist perspective. It is divided into two parts: Tangleweed, which includes stories primarily set in forests, and Brine, in which the tales are set near the water. The table of contents lists each story’s title as well as the fairy tale that it is based upon. Some will be immediately familiar like Cinderella, Snow White, and Beauty and the Beast. Others, such as show more Fair, Brown, and Trembling and Donkeyskin, are based on European fairy tales and may be less familiar to American readers. Each tale has an accompanying black and white illustration depicting a scene from the story.

These stories are well written, but they are not for the faint of heart. The author makes some interesting choices with point of view, often telling the story from the second-person point of view (thus casting the reader as the main character) and in the present tense, which makes the tales all the more unsettling for their immediacy. These stories are dark, visceral, and gory at times, and there are no happily ever afters. The world of fairy tales (like the real world) often treats girls as if they are less than human, and these stories put that tendency on full display.

Most students who come to the library looking for fairy tale retellings have something lighter in mind and are more likely to want a novel than a short story collection. I know the original tales are often very dark, but teens tend to be more familiar with the Disney or childhood storybook versions. In a high school setting, I could see using one or two of these stories in a literature class; they would make for great discussion and analysis especially as a counterpoint to the original tales or other retellings. show less

A quite charming story about a girl, her rat (Roderick), her best friend (male, and not like that), and the changes moving to secondary school brings, along with the issues of having recently lost her mum and having to move in with her father, who has been mostly missing most of her life. It's told from the point of view of undated kinda diary entries with scarcasm and wit and with enough tinges of pathos to make it very real.

Very well written, quite enjoyable and would be invaluable for a show more teen who has recently experienced loss, or even for their friends so they could empathise. show less