Tangleweed and Brine Audiobook By Deirdre Sullivan cover art

Tangleweed and Brine

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Tangleweed and Brine

By: Deirdre Sullivan
Narrated by: Aoife McMahon
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Winner of the Book of the Year Award at the Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2018.

Winner of Young Adult Book of the Year Award at the Irish Book Awards 2017.

Winner of the Irish Times Ticket Readers’ Choice for Best Young Adult Fiction 2017.

A collection of 13 dark, feminist retellings of traditional fairy tales that follow in the tradition of Angela Carter; stories from Cinderella to Rumpelstiltskin, tales of mermaids and monsters, are given a unique witchy makeover.

©2018 Deirdre Sullivan (P)2019 Audible, Ltd Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Magic
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I like my fairy tales happy. This book is not for me. I could tell just by flipping through its pages in the copy my roommate had that it wasn’t a book for me. But because I’m about to meet the author, I felt a pressure to read it anyway. Luckily Audible was having a sale for the audiobook to be only $1.50, and I’m glad I didn’t spend any more than that on this book.

The only story I really liked was the one based on Bluebeard. I didn’t even finish the last three. The last two specifically were the worst, with literal demonic activity and sexual content where one character hadn’t necessarily given her consent.

I doubt I’d ever read anything else from this author nor would I recommend this audiobook.

Vile, Depressing, and Sometimes Demonic

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“There is no end of hurts that can be visited upon the powerless.”
I got this because I love narrator McMahon’s lyrical voice and figured it’d be perfect for “dark, feminist” twists on fairy tales, as promised in the summary, However, the shorts aren’t long enough or different enough to provide anything beyond a mood.

These shorts are ghoulish, with a tone like Grimm’s fairy tales, except that each short hates on men.
The formula is (a) take a fairy tale, (b) spend 10-20 minutes putting you in the POV of the downtrodden girl using second person (“you find yourself in a cold house, you are hungry, you are hurt…”), and then
(c) in the last minute twist the tale to empower the girl, but only in a way that separates the girl from men (she flees, kills, transforms into a monster…).

It’s unfortunate the author equates feminism with man-hating and walking away from society; I would have preferred strong girls and strong bonds of friendship, family or community. Still, some of the shorts delivered a spine tingling listen. My favorite was the shortest (No 9, riffing on The Frog Prince).

1. Slippershod (Cinderella) Why wait for a ball, or a prince?
2. Woodcutter’s Bride (Red Riding Hood) From prey to hunter ⭐️
3. Come Live Here and Be Loved (Rapunzel) Desperate for a babe
4. You Shall Not Suffer (Hansel & Gretel) From prey to hunter
5. Meet the Nameless Thing and Call It Friend (Rumpelstiltskin) Men who trade off women
6. Sister Fair (Fair, Brown & Tembling) choosing favorites
7. Ash Pale (Snow White) Valued only as chattel
8. Consume or Be Consumed (Little Mermaid) Is it really better on land with man?
9. Doing Well (Frog Prince) Obedient bride; pretend you like it ⭐️
10. The Tender Weight (Blue Beard) Marriage means sharing his fate
11. Riverbed (Donkey Skin) A father’s unhealthy attention
12. The Little Gift (The Goose Girl) expectations of class and gender ⭐️
13. Beauty and the Board (Beauty & the Beast) because a true feminist is both beauty and beast? ⭐️
14. Epilogue (Sleeping Beauty) closes out by switching to the man’s POV,
because thirteen shorts apparently wasn’t enough to portray the dismal lot in life for women

For a better collection of Grimm-style fairy tales with strong women,
I recommend Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo.

Apparently, feminist = turning on men

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