FAIRY TALES
The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction by Neil Gaiman
The Neil Gaiman Reader showcases Gaiman’s range as an author. Gaiman moves between genres and tones like no other. From funny fairy-talesque stories to more ambiguous narratives with dystopian or horror elements. While I have read most of his novels and a few of his novellas I hadn’t really ‘sunk’ my teeth in his short […]
MoreThe Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen
Once upon a time…The Magic Fish is quite possibly one of the most beautiful, poignant, and awe-inspiring graphic novels I have ever read. The story takes places in 90s America and we follow Tiến, a young boy, who loves reading fairy tales with his parents. Tiến’s parents are refugees from Vietnam and cannot speak English […]
MoreHow the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black
“I am nothing,” Cardan said, “if not dramatic.” Holly Black’s prose is as tantalising as ever.The tales collected in How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories focus on Cardan. We learn more of his childhood and get to see certain scenes and events from The Cruel Prince through his perspective.Stories are at the […]
MoreFlyaway by Kathleen Jennings — book review
While Kathleen Jennings is an undeniably wonderful illustrator, I’m afraid that I wasn’t particularly impressed by her novella. What first struck me as somewhat discordant in Flyaway was the prose itself. At times the writing was clunky and there were passages that seemed as if they were trying to echo someone else’s style. The way […]
MoreCome Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire — book review
Although occasionally entertaining, Come Tumbling Down struck me as a rather unnecessary and insubstantial addition to the Wayward Children series. “Once a wayward child, always a wayward child.” Don’t get me wrong: Seanan McGuire’s writing style is as lush as ever. Her prose, with its use rhythm and repetition, echoes that of fairy-tale, lending a […]
MoreHowl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones — book review
“I’m dying of boredom,” Howl said pathetically. “Or maybe just dying.” Like many, I fell in love with Studio Ghibli’s adaptation of this novel. I consider it a personal favourite and have watched it many times. So once I learnt that it was ‘loosely’ based on a book, I was eager to get my hands […]
MoreStrange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor — book review
Strange the Dreamer is a wonderfully imaginative novel. Meditations and discussions on storytelling, dreams, and myths are not only embedded in the narrative but shape the very way in which the two main characters view their world and themselves. “Lazlo owned nothing, not one single thing, but from the first, the stories felt like his […]
MoreThe Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern — book review
secret libraries + magical doors + stories within stories within stories = my kind of book “A boy at the beginning of a story has no way of knowing that the story has begun.” This is the type of book that readers will either love or hater. Its playful style and recursive storytelling are definitely […]
MoreThe Queen of Nothing by Holly Black – book review
Court intrigue ahoy! “We have lived in our armor for so long, you and I. And now I am not sure if either of us knows how to remove it.” Holly Black’s sensual and lush writing style perfectly complements the menacing world her heroine inhabits. Black’s silvery prose brims with lavish descriptions: she renders the […]
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