short stories
fairy tale inspired
read some, they ranged from good and interesting to terrible, confusing, etc. ( )

Again with the books I wanted to like and just couldn't get into. There are some gems of story in here, but it's pretty slow going to get to them. I found that most of the stories were either slavish retellings of original stories, or wild philosophical ramblings that were difficult to follow. In both instances, they were tedious in the extreme. The exceptions were tremendous, but were almost always from writers who don't forget that tale implies storytelling. ( )

This is essential reading for any admirer of the fairy tale. There are a few duds scattered throughout, but on the whole it's the best collection of modern re-imaginings of fairy tales that I've ever read, and I've read quite a few. I know I'll be coming back to this one in the future to re-read my favorites. ( )

I only read half of the book because I got bored with it. A few of the stories stood out (Gaiman's and a few others) but a lot of the stories weren't as good as the synopsis promised or seemed to end up in a different place than the author's stated intention. ( )

An eclectic collection of re-imagined tales by some well-known and respected authors, primarily hailing from the fantasy/science fiction section. As in most anthologies, there is variation in the quality of the stories-hence the three-star rating. Some were pretty experimental, while others more closely aligned themselves to the conventions of traditional fairy tales. Judging the degree of success is a bit subjective, so it would be recommended that a reader skim through the forty and select whichever ones seem to appeal to them the most. Bernheimer also released a second collection in 2013, this time geared toward re-telling of myths entitled: xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths. ( )