Rating: 3.5 starsThis book is a case study in why I need to ignore book reviews. Because one of the book blogs I follow gave it a rave review so I was super excited and expecting something that was The Orphan's Tales levels of good and that really was just setting myself up for disappointment. I wish I could remember who posted that review so I could make a mental note to take their recommendations with a grain of salt. :/ It's sad because I think I probably would've liked it alot more if I'd ju...

I have been dipping in an out of this collection of short stories based on some well-known and not so well known folk and fairy-tales for a few weeks now. The reason for this is that I wanted to prolong my reading pleasure because, believe me, it would be too easy to sit down and read all of these in one sitting. Slatter is one of the most gifted writers I have read. Her ability to craft a tale using haunting, languid prose is, in my humble opinion, among the best. She lures you into tale and af...

This was a birthday gift from my sister. I started it Wednesday and finished it Thursday. It's a really quick read. If I didn't have work Thursday and needed sleep I would have probably finished it Wednesday. Angela Slatter rewrote a lot of fairy tales or folk tales in this book and made them very visceral. The words she uses are unapologetic and sometimes crude, but in the context, the bluntness works. The characters' motives aren't prettied up and we can see how some of them try to justify the...

The Girl with No Hands or Fairy Tales for Very Grown Up Girls, as I would call it - and I absolutely loved it. Retellings of well known fairy tales and also some original stuff by Angela Slatter was indeed dark and not much optimistic in a traditional "and they lived happily ever after" way, but I liked it this way. She's really inventive and you never know what to expect from her heroines, even if they are classical fairy tale characters, be it Russian or European ones. I enjoyed much how she p...

I've been a fan of Angela Slatter ever since I read her novella, Of Sorrow and Such, several years ago, and I think I may have read one or two other free short stories online somewhere.This is a short collection of mostly retold fairy tales (she has an Afterword with story notes if you don't catch the retelling, thankfully--I'm very unfamiliar with anything beyond the most popular fairy tales), and I enjoyed nearly every one of them--but they are relatively dark and creepy.

A short story collection that includes retold fairy tale, original fantasies and, for some reason, a zombie romance. Angela Slatter is clearly influenced by her namesake, Angela Carter, whose lush prose and feminist-deconstructionist approach to fairy tales and archetypes echoes through these stories. But Slatter's straightforward fairy-tale re-tellings often feel a little stale, and bring little that's new to the well-trodden path of the fractured fairy tale. Little Red Riding-hood as a sexy we...

[4 1/2 stars] A very fine short story collection, primarily retelling fairy tales or using fairy tale fragments in interesting new contexts. They're delicate, quicksilver, and delightfully swift reads that nevertheless linger in the mind afterwards. The prose is clear and lucid; the tales themselves are often dark, erotic and violent (as is much of the source material, of course). There's a strong focus on the female side of things, these are re-imaginings that restore female agency, or at least...

I've only discovered Angela Slatter's work recently; her short story "The Coffin-Maker's Daughter" was one of my favorites in A BOOK OF HORRORS (edited by Stephen Jones) and I knew immediately I had to seek out more of her work. And much like Brian Hodge - another standout contemporary dark fiction writer (whose story "Roots and All" also appears in the aforementioned anthology) - Slatter has yet to disappoint me.THE GIRL WITH NO HANDS is made up of sixteen short stories, all told in the style o...

Angela Slatter gives us a book of faerie tales. Some are short, some are a bit longer. All are great. Some you may know Some are brand new. All are wonderful. Some are a re-telling. Some are original. All are awe inspiring.Contents:13 - Caressing With Razors By Jack Dann23 - Bluebeard35 - The Living Book43 - The Jacaranda Wife55 - Red Skein65 - The Chrysanthemum Bride77 - Frozen85 - The Hummingbird Heart93 - Words101 - The Little Match Girl107 - The Juniper Tree119 - Skin125 - The Bone Mother139...

Angela Slatter wowed me recently with Of Sorrow and Such - making me hungry for more of her brand of dark, fairytale like writing. Female characters are Slatter's specialty and she certainly shines in this, a collection of short stories; some fairytale retellings, others original fantasy - all presenting the reader with a great array of female (and a few male) protagonists, antagonists, as well those who sit in between. My particular favourites were the anthologies titular tale, The Girl With No...

Having now read three anthologies by this author, I can see now where comparisons with the other Angela are coming from and can form my own opinion. And I tend to mostly disagree, whilst still maintaining that the comparison isn't entirely undeserved. Because, whilst Miss Slatter lacks the exquisite sensuality and lulling prose of Angela Carter, what with her style being more workman-like, cruder, more crass and overtly sexual with little sophistication at times, the very opposite of Carter's po...

I picked up this book after Slatter was nominated (again) for an Aurealis award for one of her speculative short stories. I'm a big fan of fairy tales and being a writer, I enjoy reading short stories if only to better hone my craft. Of course, I loved this book! The stories are a mixed bag of retelling and original works. My favourite is The Jacaranda Wife - a perfect blend of European sensibility in the Australian bush. The Chrysanthemum Bride is a bit of a stand out as well - if only for the

I am a huge fan of Angela Slatter's writing. She is a beautiful, lyrical writer, and if I had to choose one word to describe her writing, it'd be "sumptuous". Although many of her stories are quite sad, even horrific, her writing has a richness that brings out the beauty in every story she writes.This story collection features some work I was already familiar with alongside some new pieces. A personal favourite that I was glad to find in this collection is The Jacaranda Wife, a uniquely Australi...

In Angela Slater’s ‘The Girl With No Hands’ we are given sixteen short stories (some less than two pages long) that re-image familiar myths and legends, and in turn, give us something new to think about. Most of these short stories are about women in different stages of their life, under different difficulties or blessings, and Slatter makes the reader care for each and every one of them, despite what she makes them do (and some of them really do some terrible things.) We see jealous stepmothers...

Some myths become fairy tales with the passage of time. As a result, they become more sophisticated and dignified (even Disney-fied)— befitting changing social expectations. In the process they lose their raw power and female voice.Authors have been trying to restore that raw power and female, non-conformist voice into the popular tales for a long time. Angela Carter and Tanith Lee's name is uttered with great respect in this regard.Perhaps it would be appropriate to add Angela Slatter's name in...

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend. Just when it seemed classic fairy tales couldn't be any more disturbing, along comes Angela Slatter with a short story collection of fairy tales from around the world, re-imagined to be more gruesome, more carnal, and more seductively written than one ever fathomed. Her hair is spun like golden sugar, her eyebrows so light they may as well not be there, her lashes so contrastingly black that they must b...

The Girl with No Hands & Other TalesAngela SlatterTiconderoga Publications Few writers have burst across the Speculative Fiction scene in Australia with as much fanfare as Angela Slatter. Six or so years ago, Slatter began publishing a series of stories that garnered her immediate attention. She seemed to emerge fully formed, a writer instantly at the peak of her powers, offering lyrical, ingenious stories that seemed like a collection of so many rich chocolates. This ‘sudden emergence’ was of c...

I have few words for how beautiful this collection is. Just go and read it. Slatter weaves magic with her words.

Four-and-a-half stars for this dark and haunting collection of feminist fairy stories. The very talented Ms Slatter makes her mark on this genre.

There are those writers who you read and find yourself inspired by. And then there are the ones who make you wonder why you bother, as you'll never be as good as them.The Girl With No Hands And Other Tales by Angela Slatter is a beautiful collection from Ticonderoga Books, both in presentation and content. Slatter's stories, many of which are retellings of traditional fairy tales, are deceptively simple, a bit like origami, fragile and exquisite, sometimes very dark, othertimes a ray of sunshine...