Red Riding Hood - 5 stars. WHAT A PHENOMENAL RETELLING! Loved it!
Snow White - 5 stars. I have never been a fan of the Snow White fairytale, but this was such a smart retelling that I enjoyed immensely!
Sleeping Beauty - 4 stars. It took me a while to get into this one, but it was still great and a very interesting take on the original fairytale.
Rapunzel - 5 stars. Loved! So empowering!
Jack and the Beanstalk - 3 stars. Meh.
Hansel and Gretel - 3 stars. Another Meh.
Beauty and the Beast - 5 stars. WOW. WOW. WOW. To be completely transparent, Beauty and the Beast has always been my favorite fairy tale, so when a retelling is published, I have extremely high expectations. This retelling surpassed those expectations. The twist literally destroyed my heart and had me crying my eyes out. Best of the batch so far.
Bluebeard - 4 stars. This was an unexpected surprise. I have never read the original fairytale, so I had no idea what to expect, but I very much enjoyed this one.
Cinderella - 5 stars. To be honest, I was not looking forward to reading this seeing as I'm not the biggest fan of the Cinderella story and it has been retold to death. However, this retelling was phenomenal and the twist was so smart and I loved it!
The Little Mermaid - 5 stars. This was a very interesting twist on the story as well that I enjoyed. I really liked that it had an open ending.
Rumpelstiltskin - 5 stars. This short story collection just keeps getting better and better. This was a very solid story.
Peter Pan - 5 stars. THIS.WAS.THE.BEST.ONE.OF.THE.BUNCH. What a fabulous story to end an extremely strong collection.

I admit this might have had a higher rating if the stories were organised in a different way, but the last three felt very underwhelming and spoiled the rest of an otherwise enjoyable collection for me.

Una preciosidad de libro. Pero no en plan encantador. Es duro, y lleno de verdades como puños. Me ha llegado a la patata.

some were definitely stronger than others… peter pan had to be my favorite

Dark and dangerous fairytale retellings ✨

- Red Riding Hood
- Snow White
- Sleeping Beauty
- Rapunzel
- Jack and the Beanstalk
- Hansel and Gretel (MY FAVORITE)
- Beauty and the Beast
- Bluebeard
- Cinderella
- The Little Mermaid
- Rumpelstilskin
- Peter Pan

I LOVED THE ILLUSTRATIONS!

A different and usually darker take on 12 generally well-known fairy tales: Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Jack and the Beanstalk, Hansel and Gretel, Beauty and the Beast, Bluebeard, Cinderella, The Little Mermaid, Rumpelstiltskin, and Peter Pan.

What I liked:
- most stories were adapted to include different cultures and races, and all touched on addressing cultural norms either from the original stories or as reflected in our current societies today.
- all were well-written as far as flow. The diction was consistently beautiful.
- many were unexpectedly different. Chainani did a nice mix of adjusted aspects to the original storyline, new epilogues, or what I can only describe as an alternate universe version of the story. The Little Mermaid was more of a single conversation between the Little Mermaid character and the Witch and completely shifted the story you knew had happened and would follow. That was interesting and kept me guessing for each story.

Why I couldn't rate it higher:
- sometimes I wasn't really clear by the end on what had happened. Some endings fell a bit flat while others went out with a bang. This feels like a normal results of a collection of short stories, but it still affected my interest and feeling like it was worth the read.

I never felt fully engaged for some reason, and I wish I could figure out why. I can devour books in a single sitting and frequently do, but I must have stopped and picked this one back up again 20 times despite its short length and even shorter stories within. Despite my admiration for the creativity of the tales, I merely liked it, but I also would have been fine not finishing it.

Fairy tale retellings that are from different perspectives, sometimes understated, often surprising.

I loved every story in this book, but the last one twisted my heart the most