Little Red Riding Hood in the Big Bad City

Some of the worst short stories I've read in a long, long time. Trite, cliched, badly told...ugh. I finally gave up after Russel Davis's "The Last Day of the Rest of her Life." It is a retelling of The Little Matchseller in which the main character is a young girl named Angel, who runs away from her abusive father (who is addicted to "matchsticks," a new drug that look like their namesake but give dreams of happier times). Of course she tries the matchsticks, and of course she freezes to death. "The girl's face, blue and frozen--and should it have been that small?--was marked with faded bruises, but her expression was almost angelic. A faint smile showed on her lips." Her dad finds her, is all, "oh noes! what have I done!" and goes show more inside and shoots himself. The passing policeman who witnesses all this says to himself, "Whatever troubles they'd had were over and they'd gone to their final home. Maybe it was as close to a fresh start as anyone ever really got." Seriously, a fifteen year old gawth chick could have written this with more style. SO BAD. show less

This is another collection of retold fairy tales, set to largely have a modern, big city theme. I'm not modern, nor am I into the big city, so, although I am always excited to read retellings of fairy tales, this one did not strike a particular chord with me. How much I liked the stories varied, but the ones that come to mind are actually those I didn't like.

*Mallificent by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
http://ofearna.us/books/hoffman.html
*The Last Day of the Rest of Her Life by Russell Davis
*Jack and the B.S. by Tanya Huff
http://ofearna.us/books/huff.html
*Panhandler by Alan Dean Foster
http://ofearna.us/books/foster.html
*Trading Fours with the Moldy Figs by Jean Rabe
*Signs Are Hazy, Ask Again Later by Fiana Patton
*Puss in D.C. by Pamela Sargent
*A Faust Films Production by Janeen Webb
*Brownie Points by ElizaBeth Gilligan
*After the Flowering by Janet Berliner
*Little Red in the ’Hood by Irene Radford
*Exterminary by Patricia Lee Macomber
*The Nightingale by Dena Bain Taylor
*Meet Mr. Hamlin by Bill Willingham
*If You Only Knew My Name by David Niall Wilson
*Keeping It Real by Jody Lynn Nye
*The Rose show more Garden by Michelle West show less