Every Heart A Doorway by Seanan McGuire
Jonathan Thornton
Every Heart A Doorway is an ambitious mixture of genres. It plays tribute to every portal fantasy you can think of, from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland through to Narnia and…
fairy tales
HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
“This is all it takes for people to plunge into insanity: one night alone with themselves and what they fear most.” Witches have a long history running through folklore, myth…
Monthly Short Story Winner: Fairy Tales
Xiagan
Some are funny and silly. Some are dark and strange. But all of them have a morale, a (more or less fixed) narrative, and rules. This month’s short story contest…
Split Worlds Series by Emma Newman – Review of the First Three Books
Eric Christensen
Spoiler Warning! I’m reviewing the first three books of the Split Worlds series. Consequently, when describing the plot of book three, it’s darn near impossible not to say things that…
Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner
What songs do you sing to them in Elfland? There, where all songs are true, and all stories history… I have seen lovers walking in those glades, with gentle hands…
Rags & Bones – New Twists on Timeless Tales edited by Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt
Rebekah Loper
This is a humble little book, appearance-wise, but it holds a lot of wonder. The list of contributors to this anthology are just the start of it, many of them…
Suffrage or Just Plain Suffering? The Princess Problem in Fantasy
Rowan Bridgwood
It’ll never be easy to create a Cinderella who isn’t a victim. This has clearly been a challenge for Disney, whose live action version of the classic fairy tale opened…
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
Sonia Grace
If you’ve ever read anything by Holly Black you will know that when it comes to fairy tales, she does not mess around. She takes every trope you’ve ever heard…
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Lucy Hounsom
A word of warning before we begin: As soon as I finished this book, it went straight into my top five all-time favourites, so be prepared for raving. I’ve reviewed…
Maleficent – Movie Review
Karl Wolfenden
Maleficent shows us how far the modern fantasy genre has come, and not just in terms of the subject matter and frequency of adaptations either, but also in terms of…
The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell: a partnership fated to succeed from the start. Gaiman’s modest, restless prose teamed with the trademark art of Riddell results in a frank and glorious…
The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains: A Tale of Travel and Darkness with Pictures of All Kinds by Neil Gaiman
Aleksandra Kesek
This is a review of the book and the performance which took place on 6th July 2014 in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. When I was a little girl I…