Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales

Beasts and Beauty is a collection of short stories that are fairy tales retold. All of the stories are fantastic reimaginings! One example is the story of Red Riding Hood. In the retelling, the wolves from the forest surrounding an otherwise idyllic village eat the prettiest girl once a year, on the first day of spring. The girl who is chosen tells the wolves that there is a prettier girl than her across the river. She gives the wolves long directions to her grandmother’s house, while she takes a more direct route. She is able to trick one wolf into coming to eat her inside the house, where she kills him.

I enjoyed this book because it is very empowering to females. In traditional fairy tales, the female characters are often taken advantage of or helplessly wait around to be rescued by a male. In this collection, the female characters take their fates in their own hands and control their destinies. In general, I enjoy fairy tales reimagined because they take stories that are familiar to us and make them exciting and new. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for dark, unusual, and captivating stories!