1. Peter Pan - pan is selfish and loses interest in Wendy. Who falls in love with a pirate with heart of gold. She continues to grow up and live a double life. And then she gives birth and the he pirate comes back to bring them to neverland. She doesn’t have any magic left and the fairy dust is no longer working on her. He takes the baby and raises it in neverland. 
2. The little mermaid - basically the witch, unnamed, Ursula, and the mermaid, Ariel, talk it out, and Ursula convinces her that she doesn’t really know what she’s asking for and is making you stupid mistakes to want legs for the prince. 
3. Cinderella - follows the regular plot line except Cinderella is not the princess true love it is a girl named Magdalena. And really the friendship love between Magdalena and Cinderella is the one that endures. There is a funny moment where the prince behold, both of them, and for a short moment, they are a happy threesome, except Magdalena and Cinderella like each other more than the prince.
4. Bluebeard - instead of wives, blue beard likes to take little boys. The greatest game mission for the master, and a clever boy, who harnesses the power of his fallen brothers, to outsmart the evil master.
5. Beauty and the beast - be careful to look and not see [your love]. You might end up stabbing him while looking for him. 
6. Hansel and gretel - it’s a moral story for the mothers who don’t love and take care of their children. And a sad remembrance tie in for husbands who let their wife go, to save their argument. 
7. Jack and the beanstalk - he lives with a miserable mother and it follows the trope except the boy wanted his father and got that and love as his final winning. Followed the storyline otherwise. 
8. Red riding hood - wolf is wolves and a beautiful maiden is given in tribute but red changes that and rescues the girls after her in a wolfy clan of her own 
9. Snow White - she’s black and has a baby and doesn’t complete the orphaned daughter prey for evil stepmother cycle 
10. Sleeping beauty - she’s a he and he’s gay for a rose spirit(?) and they end up happily ever after (killing the evil wife to the he) 
11. Rapunzel - the witch is an old man gardener who smothers the rabbit. Rapunzel is a viney plant and she doesn’t want to leave with the prince, just want kisses
12. Rumplestiltskin is basically the same story, but with the statement that there is no man to rescue her like in fairytales, if she is to beat the devil, she must be her own prince

Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani

Is dangerously spellbinding

This story was shocking and perfectly written. Even if you know every title of each short story (Cinderella, Snow White, Peter Pan) you never knew, or even had the faintest clue where the story would lead. Who was the baddie and who was the prince(ss).

The best thing about this book is the queerness intersected with a great understanding of otherness. From the first few stories I thought the tales were drenched in feminist theory. And that the book was designed to be lessons for women of the dangers of men that present as lions but are really hawks. But then we switched to gay stories, and the use of beauty, even of a child’s beauty, as a prize rather than viewing the person behind the beauty as the prize. Which expanded the critique on real life. Like all great fairy tales, it told us that there is evil, how to look for it, how to escape it, or when to use it.

In fact the only thing that really seems to connect the stories is the underlying message of people using others for their own benefit. No wolf or dragon or even witch is as scary as realizing your safe place/ person does not love you.

It’s rather timely reading as TikTok contemplates “would you want your daughter alone in the woods with a bear or a man.” These stories really flesh out this question. Would you be happy on land with no voice? Or would you trade a tower for a castle when all you want is rain in the woods? Or once you survive the attack do you really return to the family that did not expect/ want you to survive?

Nothing was graphic or particularly adult. But different ages will read it differently which makes it a fascinating read for all ages.

This book is for anyone who enjoys fairytales, short stories, queer narratives. The audio book is highly recommended if you want to escape into a world of voices.

Fairy tales have at their foundation, the female protagonists, whose goal is to find true love through sacrificing something important, namely their voices or souls. However, Beasts and Beauty comes to break this tradition, and it tells us that sometimes we do not get our happy ending or accept the fact that we are better off alone.
From a cunny red riding hood, who masterfully defeated the bad wolf, to a male dark version of Sleeping beauty, whose blood is drained while he is sleeping, Beasts and Beauty will surprise its readers and leaving them wanting for some more.

This book has al my favorite takes on fairytales, it does not end like the classic storys do and I love it. It's another binge worthy book that I would recomend to anyone looking for a break from reality.