Reviewer Comments: Have you ever thought of fairy tales as being erotic? If you have, then you will want to check out Jean Johnson’s newest collection of tales to see how similar your versions are to hers. If you have never thought of the fairy tales as erotic, then Jean Johnson’s collection of eight stories will cause you to reconsider.
Jean Johnson has written her version of eight different fairy tales and given each one not just an erotic spin, but also altered the genre just enough to make the adult tales work. These stories are not the same ones we heard as children. In “The Frog Prince”, the princess loses a golden phallus in the pond and not a golden ball which leads to some interesting conversations between her and the frog. In “The Courtship of Wali Daad”, the gifts exchanged become more and more erotic as the tale unfolds. In “The Princess on the Glass Hill”, a scientist is rescued from her laboratory where she has been isolated from everyone else. In “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, the dwarves aren’t what you expect. In “Sleeping Beauty”, Ms. Johnson creates a virtual reality world in which the fantasy is played out. In “Beauty and the Beast”, the beast is a genetically engineered human which leads to discussions of breeding programs and racism. In “Puss in Boots”, the main character is a cat trying to enact revenge for her family’s murder. In “The King Who Heard a Joke”, a woman finds she enjoys the punishment her husband gives her for asking him questions.
Each tale is so unique and different and yet they all work as a whole in this collection. Each story references the one that follows it so that they are all tied together. Some of the stories were not ones that I am familiar with in their original form so knowing how well Ms. Johnson reinterpreted them was difficult. The stories such as Sleeping Beauty that I am familiar with were nicely done. The core of the stories remains while being given different twists to make them more modern and enjoyable.
I am not a fan of short stories because they always feel as though the story is just getting started when they end. They are never long enough for me to feel as though I really know the characters and have bought into the story they are telling. These were no exception. Everything happens so fast and I wanted the tales to be extended. I wanted to know what happened next to the characters and if their lives really did end up as happily ever after as they promised. I know that the nature of short stories doesn’t allow the authors to tell us everything and that the action in the stories has to happen fairly quickly given the short amount of space.
That being said, this is a great book to read if you are interrupted and can’t sit to read a longer full-length novel. The stories are short and quick to read. Each one is enjoyable and the amount of variety insures that everyone will find a personal favorite within these pages.
