Black Swan, White Raven is a collection of ‘dark’ fairy tale retellings, and I didn’t enjoy a single story in the collection. I adore fairy tale collections, I have always devoured them, but this one was a pain to get through.
I’m not sure there’s really a summary to be put in here, I’m sure you’re already familiar with the concept of fairy tale retellings. This book covered a wide variety, from Sleeping Beauty to Thumbelina. The book was originally published in 1997, but was reformatted and republished in for ebooks in 2014.
I wonder if it’s the fact that most of these stories are 20 years old and the age is starting to show some. While fairy tales may be timeless, retellings tend to reflect the age in which they are told and so may not age as well as the base stories themselves. I don’t think that’s quite the problem though as there are retold fairy tales that I treasure though they are aging, both of Robin McKinley’s retelling of Beauty and The Beast for example.
It is possible that I’ve read these stories before, or an edition of this book before. A phrasing in one of the books caught my eye as being extremely familiar, and yet none of the stories themselves (including the one containing said phrasing) felt any more familiar then “oh those words, put together that way, trigger something in my memory. Even considering that this collection might be a re-read to me doesn’t quite explain why reading this collection felt like slogging through mud.
My main complaint with the collection is that they felt too much like they were ‘dark’ for the sake of edginess. As though the writers had all recently discovered that fairy tales were more then Disney and were excited to see how far they could push the boundaries. I doubt very much that this is the case, but it is what I thought multiple times while reading the various stories. I’m especially disappointed in Jane Yolen’s tale, as she is someone who I can generally count on to offer fantastic stories,
On the other hand, it’s entirely possible I’m cranky and going through a bit of a book slump at the moment. I can’t say I recommend this particular book, but I suppose that if you’re interested in retold fairytales you could certainly give it a try.