Amanda C. Davis

My favorite of the collection was "Questing for Princesses" by Davis. It did what I like retellings to do: show me the other side of a fairy tale, and either be dark or really funny. Different POVs, backstory, fractured viewpoints, whatever - I like to explore multiple versions, all the angles. In this story, the other side was a prince who thought it ridiculous to do all that just to snag a bride. That being fight dragons, treat a monster with TLC, search an entire kingdom for an anonymous show more chick who dropped her shoe, and so on.

The poem "A Shining Spindle Can Still Be Poisoned" by Davis explained why Sleeping Beauty was never a prince, and I might have to agree. *wink*

"A Mouth to Speak the Coming Home" by Engelhardt was a mash-up of Hansel and Gretel and other folklore, and the one story I wanted more of. I immediately fell into Maryn's world and wished the story was longer!

The collection felt whole; it read like stories meant to be collected and presented together. I thought it quite clever to include side-by-side versions of the same original. So yeah, I'd definitely read more by either of these authors.

(And how cool is it that they're sisters?!)

4 stars show less

This work is Angela Carter reincarnated. The prose is dark and rich. The poetry is at times bright, at times pensive. I couldn't put it down, and, once it was finished, I read half of it over again.

(Note: I received a free copy of this ebook for review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.)

I was impressed with the creativity of these stories: Journey to the West in the Dust Bowl, Cinderella meets The Great Gatsby in a detective noir, and many other historical and cultural mashups that are at the bare minimum very creative and at their best so clever that they made me a little envious as a writer! Parrish did an excellent job curating and organizing this collection; the show more opening stories are particularly strong, but they all work well.

My full review can be found at: http://missmacross.com/2019/08/27/review-grimm-grit-and-gasoline/ show less

The time of “Dieselpunk’ and “Decopunk” runs from the start of WW 1 to the end of WW 2. Like Steampunk, they refer to an alternate world history, one in which the mechanics of the world are futuristic- ray guns, robots (sometimes sentient ones), rockets, and, sometimes, magic. Some of the tales I think I’d call noir punk. This collection takes fairy tales and sets them in this D-punk world, mostly with good effect. Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio. Rapunzel, the Little Mermaid, and more. show more I was happy to see many female heroes, and pretty good queer representation. All the authors were new to me, but there were NO duds in this anthology- which I find unusual; most times, I don’t like half the stories in an anthology. Five stars! show less