You can use your St. Louis County Library card to borrow titles from these partner libraries:
1 of 1 copy available
Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers—characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.
In “The White Cat’s Divorce,” an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which child will become his heir. In “The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear,” a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In “Skinder’s Veil,” a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers—or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche.
Twisting and turning in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable—these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the realm of short fiction.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
March 28, 2023 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593677377
- File size: 225709 KB
- Duration: 07:50:13
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Starred review from January 9, 2023
Link (Get in Trouble) refashions classic fairy tales, myths, and adventure sagas for contemporary settings in her wondrous collection. In “The White Cat’s Divorce,” a wealthy father sends his three sons on a series of quests to decide who will win his estate. Along the way, the sons wind up under the spell of an enterprising feline who runs a weed dispensary. A company of traveling actors finds peril in a curiously vacant Virginia town in “The White Road.” In “Prince Hat Underground,” a hapless man undertakes an epic journey to rescue his missing husband from the Queen of Hell. Hansel and Gretel get the sci-fi treatment on a planet of vampires in “The Game of Smash and Recovery.” And in “Skinder’s Veil,” a house-sitter is visited by figures out of storybooks. Link delivers the kind of off-the-cuff oddness her readers expect, and her reworkings take the clockwork of familiar stories and give them bloody, beating hearts. She makes great leaps in her prose, too, often framing her tales with time-hardened lines like “All of this happened a very long time ago,” before fashioning a startling new simile, as with the sensation of one character’s attention on others feeling like “sunlight coming through a magnifying glass.” This is enchanting. Agent: Renee Zuckerbrot, Renee Zuckerbrot Literary Agency. -
Seven narrators recount seven stories in this collection of fairy-tale reimaginings. Standouts include "The White Cat's Divorce," narrated by Rebecca Lowman; "Prince Hat Underground," narrated by Dan Stevens; and "The Lady and the Fox," narrated by Tanya Cubric. Lowman's narration highlights the emotional growth of an unnamed youngest son as he comes to understand that his happiness is not tied to his father's in a cannabis-infused retelling of "The White Cat." Stevens's narration focuses on the intense desire the unnamed narrator has to retrieve his beloved, and somewhat feckless, Prince Hat from Hell in a retelling of EAST OF THE SUN & WEST OF THE MOON. Cubric's narration captures the many complexities and varied types of love in the heartbreakingly poignant retelling of "Tam Lin." K.M.P. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine -
June 10, 2024
Master short story writer Link (Get in Trouble) offers a collection of seven reinvented fairy tales for the modern age. In "The White Cat's Divorce," a man is rescued by a talking cat who runs a marijuana farm. In another story, "Prince Hat Underground," Gary must travel to Hell to recover the man he loves. In "The Lady and the Fox," a girl falls in love with a man who appears only when it is snowing. Each story features a fantastical element of surprise. The collection is read by a full cast, including Rebecca Lowman, Dan Stevens, Dominic Hoffman, Kristin Sieh, Ish Klein, Tanya Cubric, and Patton Oswalt. The talented ensemble provides a varied and multilayered listening experience; each narrator is perfectly paired with the story they narrate. Although all of the readings are excellent, Stevens ("Prince Hat Underground") and Cubric ("The Lady and the Fox") provide especially compelling performances. VERDICT Patrons who enjoy the bizarre and fantastical will be enchanted. Share with fans of Christina Henry's Into the Forest or A.A. Balaskovits's Strange Folk You'll Never Meet.--Danielle Arpin
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-