About Sleeping Beauty, Indeed

Written by Joselle Vanderhooft
95 pages / 42000 words
ISBN: 1-933389-71-0
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc

Fairy Tales intrigue us from childhood. They're the first stories we remember, and they resonate within us as adults. In Sleeping Beauty, Indeed, editor Joselle Vanderhooft offers us a new take on an ancient theme. Fairy Tales from a lesbian perspective.

From Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty, from original myths by talented authors to classics retold with a deft hand, these tales are by turn erotic and sensuous, loving and wicked. Take a bite of the magic apple and make this anthology your bedtime story tonight.

Review

This collection brings together ten retold fairytales by such talented authors as Julia Talbot, Catherynne Valente and Erzebet YellowBoy. Each one offers a new take on old favorites like The Pied Piper of Hamlin and Cinderella, all redone with a lesbian twist. The Little Mermaid and Cinderella find each other, leaving Prince Charming to his own devices. Sleeping Beauty finds a new true love and the tale a new Beauty. A princess in a tower is rescued by a mysterious horseman who is more than he seems.

Not all the stories are romantic. Death and violence appear, just like they did in the original tales. The haunting and disturbing ''Bones Like Black Sugar'' has Gretel fleeing her boorish brother to return to the witch's house and dream her alive. ''Voce'' gives us two young women separated by abuse and jealousy, one blessed with gold with every word she utters, the other cursed with toads whenever she speaks.

But despite the obstacles, each heroine finds her voice and her way, and often, her true love. Sleeping Beauty, Indeed is a must read for everyone who ever rewrote the old stories in her head, searching for nuance and subtext. It is long past time that we had fairytales written about and for ourselves.

Sample

''Well, I say we must do something! It has become an infestation. A plague, I vow.'' The Mayor of Camden, Colorado finished his oration with a stabbing finger motion that made his starched shirtfront flap up into his red face. He smoothed it down and hooked his thumbs into his suspenders, surveying the assembled citizens at the town meeting and pursing his lips. ''What say you?'' he added.

Virginia Harrow wanted to say that with his round face and bald head he looked like nothing so much as a colicky baby, but she hid that thought and her smile, one gloved hand rising to cover her mouth, and turn her laugh into a cough. Even when the occasion was dire, as this one was, Mayor Brady amused her to no end.

''We've tried traps and poison, too,'' Chuck Weaver said, standing up, hat in his hands. Chuck ran the barbershop, which sat only two doors down from Ginny's newspaper office. ''But they just keep coming.''

''They'' were coyotes. Wiley creatures, those dog-like coyotes, with their yellow eyes and their sly-smile muzzles. A whole passel of them had descended on Camden, swooping down on the outskirts of town and killing sheep, cattle, and the occasional guard dog. Nothing the town had tried had even made a dent in the coyote population.

''Yeah.'' This from Nate Garrison, who owned the general store. ''One of them even got into my stores out at the barn and ate half a month's provisions. What are we to do?''

Ginny had an idea, one that she'd hesitated to mention ere now, knowing it would be unpopular at best, jeered at the worst. Still, Camden seemed in desperate straits. Why, just last night a large yellow mongrel had tried to steal the widow Freemont's daughter, right off their back porch.

She rose, smoothing her skirts and petticoats before clearing her throat. ''Gentleman. If I may?''

Mayor Brady's face screwed up like he'd sucked on a pickle. ''Yes, Miss Harrow?''

Damn the man for insisting on emphasizing the Miss. He always did, reminding her of her spinster status. Indeed, of her bluestocking status.

''How about Coyote Kate?''