I hope you had a great weekend! Here is your first review of the week!
Customary warning: This is a reminder that these are my personal opinions. My thoughts and feelings are not your thoughts and feelings. I may not always be the target audience for a book; sometimes I am. If I do not like a book, that doesn’t mean you’ll dislike it. If I love a book or simply like a book, you may hate it. Take everything I say with this knowledge. If it sounds interesting to you despite what I’ve said, then go ahead and read it. You’ll only know you like something if you read it yourself.
That being said… Spoilers ahead.
Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill
Synopsis From The Book
Traditional fairytales are rife with cliches and gender stereotypes: beautiful, silent princesses; ugly, jealous, and bitter villainesses; girls who need rescuing; and men who take all the glory.
But in this rousing new prose and poetry collection, Nikita Gill gives Once Upon a Time a much-needed modern makeover. Through her gorgeous reimagining of fairytale classics and spellbinding original tales, she dismantles the old-fashioned tropes that have been ingrained in our minds. In this book, gone are the docile women and male saviors. Instead, lines blur between heroes and villains. You will meet fearless princesses, a new kind of wolf lurking in the concrete jungle, and an independent Gretel who can bring down monsters on her own.
Complete with beautifully hand-drawn illustrations by Gill herself, Fierce Fairytales is an empowering collection of poems and stories for a new generation.
Other – Poetry and Short Stories | E – PW |Abandonment | Disillusionment, Personal Power, Self Love
Initial Thoughts Before Reading:
I knew, picking this up, that this was a collection of short stories. I was surprised that it also is supposed to have poetry. With how much I have been reading lately, I thought that it would be nice, for once, to read something more free. I find poetry and short stories fun and short reads so I really hope that this one is a nice collection.
Initial Thoughts After Reading:
WOW. There was so much of this that is so good. HAHA Def on my recommended list of reevaluating Fairytales and the stories of them. This book does a great job of that. It is a quick read too.
What I Liked:
The combination of stories and poetry; Throughout we get a wonderful mix of it as it flows from one to the other.
Use of characters; We get analysis of villains and troupes told in different ways. Characters like Wendy, Alice, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella’s Step mother, Captain Hook, etc.
The use of Poetry not linked to specific characters; I liked these, because they helped tie in the themes of empowerment.
The art was amazing.
Formatting and progression was so much fun.
What I Would Have Liked or Changed:
Art placement; A few of the images were cut by the spine of the book which gave the otherwise lovely art, a very distorted feel. Perhaps it was intended, but I did not think it was.
Rating: 5/5
Notable Quotes:
“You are the universe’s fairytale come true.” – pg2
“Which is to say that our bones could have been fragmented together from the ashes of the library of Alexandria.” pg 11
“And even the darkest things can be defeated / once their names are spoken out loud.” – pg 15
Other Notable: Once Upon a Time II, The Miller’s Daughter, Boy Lost, The Hatter, Waking Beauty, The Moon Daughter, The Trolls, Difficult Damsels, Phoenix Blood
Marlena Marie 
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