Pentapod reviewed Toad Words and Other Stories by T. Kingfisher
Review of 'Toad Words and Other Stories' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Since discovering T. Kingfisher's "Clockwork Boys" novels I've been slowly tracking down everything she's written because I love her writing so much - warm, wry, seemingly familiar fantasy settings but always with a self-aware humour and a bit of a twist. This is a collection of short fairy tale retellings that I finally managed to find as an ebook and devoured in a day. I've always loved fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, and the titular story "Toad Words" was my very favourite of the collection although they're all great. Taking the old fairy tale where one sister is blessed so that gold and gems fall from her mouth when she speaks and the other cursed to produce frogs and toads, the author takes the viewpoint of the frogs-and-toads sister and gives the story a complete twist into the modern world and a very unique way of finding a silver …
Since discovering T. Kingfisher's "Clockwork Boys" novels I've been slowly tracking down everything she's written because I love her writing so much - warm, wry, seemingly familiar fantasy settings but always with a self-aware humour and a bit of a twist. This is a collection of short fairy tale retellings that I finally managed to find as an ebook and devoured in a day. I've always loved fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, and the titular story "Toad Words" was my very favourite of the collection although they're all great. Taking the old fairy tale where one sister is blessed so that gold and gems fall from her mouth when she speaks and the other cursed to produce frogs and toads, the author takes the viewpoint of the frogs-and-toads sister and gives the story a complete twist into the modern world and a very unique way of finding a silver lining.
Other fairy tale versions include Red Riding Hood (in which perhaps it's not the wolf that's the bad guy), Peter Pan (creepy in every way), Snow White (with wild hogs rather than dwarves), Bluebeard, and more. Highly recommended if fairy tales are your thing.
