Death to the Brothers Grimm
By Emory Pueschal and Kate Jonez
Publisher: Omnium Gatherum Media
Published In: Los Angeles, CA, USA
Date: 2012
Pgs: 202

Summary:
Undisneified fairy tales taken back toward their darker roots in this anthology of short stories.

Red by M. L. Roos **
Jerry and His Stupid Little Trains by Garrett Cook *
The Little Glass Soul by Jeremy C. Shipp *
The Housewife and the Ascarid Nematode by Kirk Jones *
On the Wall by Crysa Leflar *
Skiddoo, Skedaddle, Muscatel, and Gummo by Eckhard Gerdes *
Master Marvel’s Midway by Jessica McHugh *
At the Shoe Shop of Madness by Lee Widener *
The Non-Duality of Elanoir by John Edward Lawson *
Kruppstahl by Jess Gulbranson ****

Genre:
fiction, fairy tales

Why this book:
came to me as a review copy

This Story is About:
Monsters hiding in human, wolf, or postapocalyptic jellyfish humanoid form. Direction is important. Sexual awakening in a postsexual environment can be dangerous. Rebellion. Death.

Favorite Character:
The wolf comes across as a honorable character in Red.
Master Marvel is one scary dude.
The Killer in Kruppstahl comes across very interesting. Can’t decide whether he’s the bad guy or the good guy though. He is Pinocchio turned assassin in service to the Fairy cause. But, then, he seems to be facing off with Cthulhu’s church and a Silver Surfer type character. Shrug.

relatable, hateable

Least Favorite Character:
Lauren’s Sex and the City-ish friends. Way too judgmental. But the characters serve their purpose in the story to feed Lauren’s curiosity about Jerry and his train hobby.

Character I Most Identified With:
N/A

The Feel:
Red is full of the creepy. Jerry is very Stepford, but jerky and uneven. The Housewife is a fast story but it left me with a smirk. Shoe Shop has a great, wonderful creepy vibe.

Favorite Scene:
When Ash calls her whatever he is forth from the cinders in Glass Soul. When Shumacher gets his realization of what he’s done in Shoe Shop.

Settings:
the woods, basements, fairy tale kingdoms, houses in the woods, the circus, villages

Pacing:
The pacing on Jerry seems out of phase like it was written over a period of time and not rewritten in a consistent voice. The Housewife is too fast. Though it may have needed to be a get in, get out kind of story so that it didn’t lose its distinctiveness amidst a forest of twisted fairy tales. Skiddoo is well paced. Shoe Shop is the best paced of the lot so far. The pacing on Elainor is good, but the story is so weird even by twisted fairy tale standards. The best pacing of any of the stories comes in Kruppstahl.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
What happened to the carriage at midnight in Glass Soul? Even with the hole, it is still the best of the selection so far. Wish we were given an idea of the world after the closing scene of Shoe Shop.

Last Page Sound:
Red - wish it was longer and a bit of disappointment in the denouement
Glass Soul - OMG! That is the weirdest Cinderella story I’ve ever read.
The Housewife - A good smirk.
Skiddoo - Uhm...let’s go with noncommittal.
Shoe Shop - Damn.
Elainor - WTF! I kept thinking this was going to make more sense to me or at least let me figure out which fairy tale it was based on. It’s a unique story and I read all of it and, I guess, I enjoyed it. But it has left me in an odd place mentally.
Kruppstahl - Awww. Not the ending I wanted, but good. Best story in the lot.

Author Assessment:
Some good. Some bad. Not going to hang a judgment on an author for a single short.

Editorial Assessment:
Jerry feels like it’s a little bit of everywhere. Too much imagery, if that’s truly possible, mixed with the necessary character exposition.

Disposition of Book:
e-Book

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
Glass Soul could make a movie. Shoe Shop would make a nice little, grim, horror filled nightmare of a movie.

Casting call:
In Glass Soul, I could see Rachel Nichols from Continuum in the role of Ash and would love to see Fairuza Balk from The Craft as one of the stepsisters.
In Master Marvel, the titular role seems tailor made for Jim Carrey.

Would recommend to:
Would love to say fans of fairy tales or Disney movie fans or horror fans, but I’m just not feeling it. ( )

*disclaimer: I received a free copy of this ebook from the member giveaway group on librarything*

The premise is good. rewrite the tales of the brothers grimm, modernizing them and injecting the horror and gore of the originals back into the whitewashed disnified versions we all know. The result was disappointing. I almost always like fairy tales. almost is key here. this book didn't inject the missing horror and fear as toss anything that *wasn't* horror, fear, blood, gore... shock value. ok i get it. but there has to be something *else* there. you can't just revel in the blood and throw around some guts and have your characters throw away their souls and kill all the animals in the forest out of glee.... it's like expecting a grown up disney - maybe the fairy tale theater version - and getting battle royale in princess costumes. ugh.

I read the first three stories. I couldn't continue. Not my style, i guess. maybe for the hardcore horror types? ( )

Death to the Brothers Grimm
By Emory Pueschel, ++

PLEASE keep in mind, this review is written by my “taste in books”/my opinion. Check out my library ratings of other books to see if your tastes are the same as mine before judging this book by my review.

The book consisted of a collection of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales with a few "adjustments". Overall the book was entertaining but some of the stories need more polishing. Not much more to say...

Overall the book is worth a look if priced right and you like twisted fairy tales.
OVERALL: 2 stars ( )

Death to the Brothers Grimm wasn't my cup of tea. Some stories were entertaining, but I found most to be a bit dull. One of my favorite stories is 'The Little Glass Soul' by Jeremy C. Shipp- quite entertaining in it's dark and malicious ways. ( )

Some of the stories, like "Red," are very good. I am a huge fan of fairy tale adaptations, but this collection wasn't for me (not because each story is dark, but some just aren't that well written). Sorry!

LT Member Giveaway
[book:Death to the Brothers Grimm|16006147]
[author:Emory B. Pueschel|6526315] ( )