I love the concept that these women all became celebrities because of their experiences and have lived in the public eye ever since. This is barely scratching the surface of fairytale retellings, and all of this is really just to say that writing in this arena comes with a fair amount of baggage and expectations.Īdelmann's take on the trope centers on a therapy group attended by Ruby (a girl who once had a disturbing encounter with a wolf), Bernice (whose husband told her not to go into his secret room), Gretel (who can't quite remember the truth of her childhood kidnapping), Ashlee (the winner of a reality dating TV show), and Raina (who once had help from a man to spin garbage into gold).Įxploring the aftereffects of the intense and inevitable trauma of situations found in fairytales is a genius idea. My personal interest in fractured fairytales was jumpstarted when a librarian read my class The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, which I still highly recommend, and was more recently revived by Her Body and Other Parties: Stories, a more modern iteration that is also interested in the feminist underpinnings Carter made so famous. The obvious foremother here is Angela Carter and her inimitable The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, which I'd be remiss not to mention since How to Be Eaten takes on some of the same source material. I love the shared knowledge that starts us all on the same level as the story, and then the magic comes when that veneer is lifted away and something entirely new is spun out of the expected.
What really brought them here? What secrets will they reveal? And is it too late for them to rescue each other?ĭark, edgy, and wickedly funny, this debut for readers of Carmen Maria Machado, Kristen Arnett, and Kelly Link takes our coziest, most beloved childhood stories, exposes them as anti-feminist nightmares, and transforms them into a new kind of myth for grown-up women."įairytale retellings always feel like a comfortable and cozy venture to me. Though the women start out wary of one another, judging each other’s stories, gradually they begin to realize that they may have more in common than they supposed. And Raina's love story will shock them all. Ashlee, the winner of a Bachelor-esque dating show, wonders if she really got her promised fairy tale ending.
Gretel questions her memory of being held captive in a house made of candy. Ruby, once devoured by a wolf, now wears him as a coat. Bernice grapples with the fallout of dating a psychopathic, blue-bearded billionaire. In present-day New York City, five women meet in a basement support group to process their traumas. "This darkly funny and provocative novel reimagines classic fairy tale characters as modern women in a support group for trauma.
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