My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me

Series: None

Editor: Kate Bernheimer

Genre: Fantasy, short story

Publisher: Penguin books

Pages: 543 (paperback)

Swift Synopsis:

This is an anthology of fairy tales with 40 different authors submitting 40 different unique, fairy tale-inspired short stories. It was editedby Kate Bernheimer and features authors such as Neil Gaiman, Joyce Carol Oates, Hiromi Ito and many more.

Review:

My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me. An awesome title for a pretty awesome anthology. This is another fairy tale retelling, like Red as Blood, but from 40 different authors. And, this anthology gathers fairy tales from 14 different countries, spanning the continents of North America, South America, Europe and Asia, meaning it’s a part of our diverse books read-a-thon.

https://bookburningdragons.blogspot.com.au/2016/12/red-as-blood-by-tanith-lee-series-none.html                            

As there are so many stories and authors, it’s hard to put the book in a nutshell but we’ll try 😁😁😁

One of the highlights of the book that is after every short story, there’s an author note in which the author gives some insight into why he/she wrote the story and the inspiration behind it. You don’t see this a lot so it’s great to see something different from the usual anthologies. However, some of these author comments are really pretentious - the author is trying way too hard to sound sophisticated and cultured.

Although this anthology won a World Fantasy Award in 2011 for Best Anthology, a lot of these fairy tales don’t have a fantastical or magical vibe. In a lot of them, the stories are set in a real city and the characters have nothing unreal in their lives. We were expecting this book to go crazy with the magic but it didn’t. We know lots of people love fairytales with realism but it strikes us as boring.

Favourite Quote:

                                         

And with any anthology, there are hits and misses. Our favourite stories are definitely:

1. Baba Iaga and the Pelican Child by Joy Williams
2. Halfway People by Karen Joy Fowler
3. The Color Master by Aimee Bender
4. A Case Study of Emergency Room Procedure and Risk Management by Hospital Staff Members in the Urban Facility by Stacey Richter
5. Orange by Neil Gaiman
6. The Story of the Mosquito by Lily Hoang

These stories stand out because of the fairytale being told in a different character’s point of view (The Colour Master), having a wicked format (Orange) or just simply beautiful writing and storytelling (The Story of the Mosquito).

Most stories have a modern twist on the well-known fairy tales, but it's enjoyable because we never feel cheated. Our favourite aspect of this book is its lyrical writing and originality of ideas.

So if you’re looking for a diverse range of quite macabre fairy tales, then look no further!!

Rating!! (Out of 5 stars)