kareila (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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kareila_books2018-02-19 01:45 pm
kareila) wrote in kareila_books2018-02-19 01:45 pm
#7: Leigh Bardugo, The Language of Thorns
"Love speaks in flowers. Truth requires thorns."
This is a dark and delightful collection of short stories set in the author's Grishaverse but echoing fairy tales familiar from our own world - Scheherazade, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, the Nutcracker, the Little Mermaid - viewed through a lens that elevates victims and villains, portrays heroic monsters and monstrous heroes, and isn't afraid of unhappy endings.
Six stories in all, three of which were previously published online, but collected here with wonderful illustrations and a charming invocation hidden at the bottom of the copyright page: "In fairy tales, clever thieves are rewarded for their ingenuity, but purloin this book and be hounded forever by a gingerbread golem who will hide your keys and spoil all your dinner parties by talking about the boring dream she had last night."
Honestly, I would buy a copy just for that, even if I didn't already love everything Bardugo has ever published.
This is a dark and delightful collection of short stories set in the author's Grishaverse but echoing fairy tales familiar from our own world - Scheherazade, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, the Nutcracker, the Little Mermaid - viewed through a lens that elevates victims and villains, portrays heroic monsters and monstrous heroes, and isn't afraid of unhappy endings.
Six stories in all, three of which were previously published online, but collected here with wonderful illustrations and a charming invocation hidden at the bottom of the copyright page: "In fairy tales, clever thieves are rewarded for their ingenuity, but purloin this book and be hounded forever by a gingerbread golem who will hide your keys and spoil all your dinner parties by talking about the boring dream she had last night."
Honestly, I would buy a copy just for that, even if I didn't already love everything Bardugo has ever published.