Snow White, Blood Red

_Snow White, Blood Red_ was the first of Datlow and Windling's adult fairy tale anthologies, and I think that's part of the problem with it. The authors of the short stories herein were just beginning to try the fairy tale form, and a lot of them weren't quite sure what to do with it. "Hmmm," I can almost hear them saying, "they want me to adapt fairy tales for big folks? Well, a liberal helping of sex and gore should do it!"
Most of the stories in this collection are filled with visceral violence, and nauseated me. There is also a lot of sex. Now, normally I don't mind sex in books. But this isn't erotic sex, it tends to be twisted and sadistic sex and/or rape. It doesn't feel "sexy" at all; it just seems to be a further extension of the violence. Most of the stories don't bother being subtle or evocative when they can be gross and shocking instead.
A few exceptions: (1) The wonderful "The Moon is Drowning While I Sleep", by Charles de Lint, about a young woman having a serial dream where she has to rescue the Moon from some nasty faeries, while her waking self doesn't know whether to take these nightly adventures seriously. (2) "Like a Red, Red Rose", which does have some blood, but is also a compelling Gothic story that reminds me of Hawthorne somehow. The heroine is a witch's daughter unaware of a family curse. (3) "The Princess in the Tower", a comedic Rapunzel variation set in Italy.
I think the de Lint story is the only one that will truly stay with me, and while it's very good, it's not worth buying SWBR. De Lint has several short story collections out--I don't remember which one "The Moon..." is in, but it shouldn't be hard to find. Other than that, this book is ultimately forgettable, not nearly as good as later volumes in the series.

Even as children, I think, in the back of our minds we always knew that the fairy-tales we read were a little darker than we were led to believe. The wicked stepmother, for example, was probably the real mother; it was probably more than a kiss which awakened Sleeping Beauty; and the hungry wolf--with the drool running down his lips--was probably hungry for other than just food. It was with some curiosity then, that I picked up this anthology, the stories of which are, for the most part, modern-day reworkings of these classic fairy-tales.

And for the first half of the book I was quite entertained. It was interesting to see how the authors would rework these things to more adult, modern sensibilities. Rapunzel's mother kept her daughter locked in a tower because she hated men--her father raped her when she was a child. The wolf of the Little Red Riding Hood story is redone here--twice--as a stalking, predatory child-molester. And Jack, of Beanstalk fame, is lured to the giant's cloudy castle by the giant's lusty wife, a wench in search of an earthling to tryst with.

About half way through the thing, though, I began to notice a certain similarity in these tales: all of the men were horrid, selfish beasts. Worse, they were horrid, selfish, ONE-DIMENSIONAL beasts. Boring. And then I got to the story called The Snow Queen. This is the one story in the anthology which is based on a fairy-tale with which I was unfamiliar. Without the underlying subtext, I was forced to rely on more traditional ways of understanding. You know, like plot, structure, and character development. Those sorts of things. And lo and behold, the story fell flat on its face. The characterizations were either woefully simple or bizarre and unbelievable; the setting was unrecognizable; and the plotting was of the weird, scratch-your-head variety. Of course, if I had read the fairy-tale, it might have made more sense. But I hadn't, and it didn't.

And therein lies the problem with the whole thing. Unless you know the stories--and admittedly most of us do--you'll find that these new reworkings are mostly stale. All are thematically empty, and in retrospect this was to be expected: the goal, after all, was only to artificially recreate fairy-tales. Even in the better stories, this is exactly as far as they were able to go.

I adore anything that even comes close to being a retelling of one of my beloved fairytales. Silly, sentimental...I don't care I just love fairytales. I eagerly picked this book up at the library for a little light reading between exams and papers. Boy, was I disappointed! I felt horrid reading this stuff. I just could not finish it. I'm sorry, but I do not find it entertaining in the least to read about adults lusting after children...a theme found in several of the stories. Sleeping with the mother while attempting to seduce the young daughter. Feeling up a child who is clinging to you because she is afraid of the woods. Raping children!!!! This book makes me sad. I only gave it one star because I had to.

The idea of fairy tales for adults sounded interesting to me. I had always loved fairy tales and I've read other renditions of it, including Robin McKinley's "Beauty" and the collection of politically correct fairy tales. If I were to compare, even the latter farce is more entertaining and delightful to read than Snow White, Blood Red.
There are some dark and edgy touches in the collection. Occassionally they work, e.g. in Little Red, the portrayal of the dark thoughts of the "wolf" which is in this case a man, but in others, it fails. I guess their creativity could have been hampered in terms of plot, for it is a re-working of the good old fairy tales that we are so familiar with, but the characters are flat. Absolutely, totally, 2-dimensionally flat. There seem to be little or no development in the stories and it gives me the impression that to these writers, "adult" purely means sex and violence.
I think there could have been more than that, as seen in "Beauty" and "The Outlaws of Sherwood" by Robin McKinley. For anyone interested in an adult rendition of familiar fairy tales and legends that is more than blatant violence and sex, that has plot development, full-fletched 3-dimensional characters, I would recommend McKinley anytime but not "Snow White, Blood Red".

I love that people think because of Disney and the Brothers Grimm think that fairy tales are for children.

Sorry, Ding thank you for playing.

The original tales..Loooong before Disney and the Brothers Grimm were brutal and nasty tales told to adults in most cases. And when they were told to children we are not talking modern children who live in nice safe comfy condos and apartments but children who lived in cottages with wild woods and forests near by. Where the world was totally different place. Where girls became women much sooner than we do today.Read the original Arabian Nights that will show you some of what I mean.

Why do I go on about this? Because these anthologies take what was raw and frightening about the orignal tales and attempt to bring that feeling back in the only way modern minds can comprehend.

Do they succeed? Not always, but many many of these tale are beautiful. I've collected these antholgies since they began and I love them for the way they do not hold back. Much like the single shot novels that have been coming out by many of these writers they are trying for something new and old in the same pages.

Yes Disney is fun but to say these books have destroyed your childhood memories or complain that they wanted their classic tales unsullied..sorry gang, your classic tales are not the originals and honestly when I want the "classic" versions I read those..why repeat something already done?

This book and the other antholigies are brilliant, alive, dark, distrubing and not always successful but when they are they are simply breathtaking!

I totally agree with Illana's review of this book:we, readers, don't get a deeper retelling of these traditional tales, but a veneer of sex and violence that gives them an "adult" appearance. While I found the sex and violence were totally superficial and unnecessary, and they didn't manage to move my profounder feelings, I felt deceived in my intention of going deeply into these beloved stories. I think that good fantasy writers often succeed in a deeper view on folk tales without announcing their intentions to the readers, but subtly letting them find similitudes in theme and characterization. Maybe this is because good fantasy writers let themselves be carried away by the powerful archetypal potential latent in everybody's mind and explored since the dawn of time through folk tales.

The Fairy Tales that we know and love today are a far cry from the original dark tales of twisted love and magical horror. This compilation (and the others in the series) is a look back at how Fairy Tales used to be. Written by modern authors, these tales lack the handsome princes and the innocent princesses. Instead you find infidelity, betrayal, greed, and the lesson learned is as painful as death itself. A reflection upon our darkest times and human weaknesses, these stories will amaze you with their macabre tone. No cartoon characters here, my friends. Only blood and tears.

When I first started reading this book, I thought the premise of giving new twists to old fairy tale was such an awesome idea. But the more I read, the more the stories felt contrived. It was if the authors were trying to come up with something really edgy and hip, and they didn't quite make it. After you read a few stories, you begin to see that all of the authors use sex and violence as a way of "re-telling" the tale. Consequently, all of the stories begin to feel the same. The book is supposed to be new and innovative, but after a few stories it just the same old thing over and over again. I suggest you skip this book.

I really wanted to read this book because it was a collection of retold and twisted fairy tales and I'm obsessed with books like that! I felt like that would be no different, that I'd love the stories in this book, but I ended up feeling like most of them were mediocre at best.

I did like how some of the stories focused on the less well-known fairy tales, so even if I didn't know the specifics of those stories I could always see the fairy tale feel of the writing. Yet a lot of it didn't click for me. I felt like most of the tales were supposed to have a darker feel than what actually came off for me and that didn't really sit well with me. I wanted more, something that most of the writing in this anthology didn't give me. Some of the parts that were intended to be shocking thus ended up being bland.

One distraction that I had during this book were the amount of mistakes and typos in it! Several times in each story I noticed misspellings or bad punctuation. In a finished copy of a book like this, when it isn't even the first edition published, shouldn't have that many errors.

I think that if you're looking for good fairy tale retellings, even of the darker sort, you can skip this anthology and look elsewhere for something better and more worth your time. I do think that people would enjoy some of the books in this collection so perhaps that might draw more people to this anthology even if all of the stories didn't meet my expectations.

I am dissapointed but not surprised at the bad reviews for this book and for the all the fairy tale collections compiled by Ellen Datlow. These are not fairy tales with "fairies". If you're expecting a dirty version of Cinderella look elsewhere. Many of these stories are about present times, real people, and current situations. Child abuse, molestation, rape, obesity, murder, slavery. These are the things the Ellen Datlow collections are comprised of. Most of these stories are not "light fare". They are deep and sometimes bloody, even when there is no blood to be seen. They are indeed fairytales though because the exist in the half-light time where horror exist simultaneously with beauty. The part of the car crash that is like a flower in bloom. If you like "The Bloody Chamber" you'll like these. If your looking for fairies, rent Disney.