Name: How to Fracture
ISBN: 9781616963064

Jane Yolen

"This collection is Jane Yolen at her best. This is magic."--Patricia C. Wrede, author of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles Fantasy icon Jane Yolen (The Devil's Arithmetic, Briar Rose, Sister Emily's Lightship) is adored by generations of readers of all ages. Now she triumphantly returns with this inspired gathering of fractured fairy tales and legends. Yolen breaks open the classics to reveal their crystalline secrets: a philosophical bridge that misses its troll, a spinner of straw as a falsely accused moneylender, the villainous wolf adjusting poorly to retirement. Each of these offerings features a new author note and original poem, illuminating tales that are old, new, and brilliantly refined.

How to Fracture

Jana Jenkinns 

Finished this over the weekend; another relatively quick read. Thoroughly enjoyed it and suggest it for anyone who wants a quick read between books in a series, or a quick stand-alone.

Alexia Cambaling

I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Netgalley and Tachyon Publications.

When I started high school, I used to be this really awkward kid. Like I was very socially inept and I found it difficult to talk to people or make friends. I was in a new school and I found it difficult to adjust. My refuge then was the library. There, I spent hours scouring bookshelves and borrowing books. One of my great loves then were fairy tales. I read and re-read anthologies and collections of fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. I must have re-read those countless times and had known the stories by heart then. I've forgotten a lot of them by now, but the love remains.

Eventually, I found my way towards twisted re-tellings of fairy tales and the love rekindled. I read short stories and even novels, marveling at the way various authors took the stories I loved and modernized them or made them darker. There were of course, some I liked, and some I didn't.

This short story collection is no exception. There are a lot of stories here, some I'm familiar with and some that I'm not. The stories are beautifully written with a whimsical writing style for some, and something more modern and utilitarian (?) for others. I don't know how to describe it, but there are some changes between writing styles I picked up in different stories. There are some which are more lyrical and poetic, and those which are not. There are also notes on how the author "fractured" the various fairy tales, which I really liked.

I'd say it's kind of a mixed bag. I have some that I loved here, and some that I felt meh about. I didn't really encounter anything that I hated and most stories I didn't feel strongly about are just okay to me.

I do have my favorites though and those are:

Happy Dens or A Day in the Old Wolves Home- As the title says, this takes place in a retirement home for wolves. I loved it because it involves the wolves telling their new nurse their sides of famous stories where they were the villains. I thought it was rather humorous and interesting.

Granny Rumple- This one is pretty dark. It re-imagines the story of Rumpelstiltskin and features Jewish moneylenders. Again, it's dark and also shows a lot of anti-semitism. It has a rather sad ending but the story is good, if tragic. Avoid reading this story if you don't want to see the anti-semitism.

The Faery Flag- A shorter story about an actual faery flag that exists in a castle in Scotland. Lyrical and poetic, it is about a Scottish lord who falls in love with a faery.

Sleeping Ugly- Re-imagines the Sleeping Beauty story featuring a princess with a bad attitude and a plain common girl with a heart of gold. Kind of short, maybe a little abrupt but I enjoyed the twist on the classic tale.

Great-Grandfather Dragon’s Tale- The myth of St. George basically. It talks about why the dragons and humans live separately and the boy (St. George) who negotiated between them. I liked how it re-imagined St. George and the dragons.

Overall, How To Fracture A Fairy Tale is a pretty good short story collection if you're a fan of twisted fairy tales. I highly recommend it for fairy tale fans, and even if you're not, I still think there's something here for everybody.

This review is also on  The Bookworm Daydreamer

Becca Futrell

Note: I received a copy of How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

I am an absolute sucker for a retelling (as noted, in the fact that I participated in #retellathon this year). So, it should go without saying that I jumped at the chance to get an ARC of How to Fracture a Fairy Tale by Jane Yolen.

Jane Yolen's name sounded familiar to me, but I'm unaware of any of her works & I'd have to admit that this short-story collection was a fantastic introduction to her writing.

Jane Yolen’s writing is beyond fantastic in each of these fairy tale retellings & with each story, her voice seamlessly changes to blend into the next fairy tale. Some are read in a more modern tone, while others read like the fairy tales that we are familiar with. I’ve also noticed that some of these retellings were based on stories I couldn’t quite place; thankfully, the afterwords dives deep into each story. Jane Yolen’s collection expands from Chinese Folklore to Greek Mythology.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale definitely takes creative license. For example, we get a retelling of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, but instead of hearing it as the troll is the villain, whilst the goats are the victims — we get the bridge’s point of view. Yes, what we might consider as an inanimate object, is actually telling us this story. & plot twist! Those darn goats are the bad guys here.

As Jane Yolen is Jewish, there is quite a bit of Jewish representation here. Although I’m not #ownvoices when it comes to being Jewish, I absolutely adored that this was something that How to Fracture a Fairy Tale contained.

How to Fracture a Fairy Tale consists of several stories that stood out, but unfortunately, there were some that hung back in the shadows. My favorites include: Once a Good Man, Cinder Elephant, The Bridge’s Complaint, Happy Dens, and Stepping Sides through Eternity.

Although I’m only rating this book THREE STARS, I definitely understand how this collection can be well loved by others.

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Southern Today Gone Tomorrow

** spoiler alert **
           Written by Jane Yolen, this is a collection of common/traditional/not so common fairy tales that have twists. And these twists were delightful.

Some are a few stories, some are a single, some are a theme in tales, some aren't. But they are all well written, each stands on its own, and they are all interesting.

This is a great book for anyone who likes TRADITIONAL, you know, not small child approved today, fairy tales. Very, very good. If you are a fan of urban fantasy or any kind of fantasy, I think you should give this collection a try. You might not like all of it, but there is likely at least one you will enjoy.