Jeremy Hochhalter

This is a book that I originally backed on Kickstarter (and I'm glad I did as the Kickstarter exclusive cover is far superior to the general release cover). I mostly backed it because it has stories by Mary SanGiovanni and J. F. Gonzalez, who are (or were in Gonzalez's case) two of my favorite horror writers, and stories by William Meikle and Brett Talley, who I haven't read as much of, but have enjoyed. On top of that the premise was interesting: a mashup of The Brothers Grimm and H. P. Lovecraft.

It didn't quite turn out like that. Not all of the fairy tales are from the Grimms. One is a retelling of the story of Cú Chulainn, a mythological Irish hero. One is a Winnie-the-Poo/Lovecraft mashup (and is probably my favorite story in the anthology, so I won't complain). There are several others that I couldn't figure out what fairy tales they're based off of assuming they weren't just written in a fairy tale style.

Even the stories with Brothers Grimm fairy tale origins had a varying connection to their originals. The first story, "The Arkham Town Musicians," by Christine Morgan, is pretty much a straight up retelling of "The Bremen Town Musicians," only set in Lovecraft's New England and with the animal characters having otherworldly ancestry. The first "Little Red Riding Hood" mash-up (there are two of them), is "Ginger Snap," by Michael Wentela, and other than the fact that one of the characters is a girl with a red hoodie who jokingly refers to the protagonist as the big bad wolf, there is nothing of the original tale in the mash-up.

That said, if you have an interest in Lovecraftian fiction, this is well worth getting. I really enjoyed the the stories, even the ones that didn't have much to do with fairy tales.… (mais)