How did Snow White’s mother become so vain? What if Cinderella didn’t go to the ball? When does the Beauty become the Beast?

Inspired by familiar fairy tales, author Tish Black’s debut short story collection takes the tales in new directions and rewrites history: Little Red hunts wolves, Gretel helps the witch, and Bluebeard’s wife gets revenge. These transgressive stories challenge readers’ ideas of what the tales could mean to them. There’s more to learn from fairy tale heroines than how to be eaten, rescued, or married.

These unconventional heroines fight the patriarchy with no time for romance; instead, readers will find tales of revenge, sisterhood, political revolt, and independence. In the lead story, a beautiful woman with hair as black as ebony is given to a king with blood-red lips, but it’s with her chambermaid that she finds true love. When tragedy strikes, her values change. Exploring why Snow White’s mother chose beauty over her daughter, “Ebony” leads to her decision to send the huntsman. In “Thistle,” a princess cursed to sleep lives a lonely life until the witch who cursed her reveals the true story of what her parents have done to them both. Rapunzel escapes the tower on her own in “Plum” and then joins a radical group trying to take down a misogynist monarchy.

Conveying the radical feminism of Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and the defiance of Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch, Black’s collection of thirteen tales redefines the fairy tale heroine.

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