A Wild Swan: And Other Tales by Michael CunninghamMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I bought this in hardcover so I could enjoy the beautiful illustrations by Yuko Shimizu, which were very beautiful. The bonus was the cover, which looks rather boring in the graphic online but in hand, the black fuzzy letters turn out to be Rapunzel's braids and there is an embossed swan that doesn't show up in the picture at all. It makes it all into a lovely book that could be a companion to any fairy tale collection. The stories themselves, I keep vacillating between 3 and 4 stars. They are small elaborations on well-known tales...some extending the story past 'happily ever after', some providing motivations and/or updates to the classic characters, some tweaking the story a bit to explore 'what if'? Obviously some are more successful than others. I enjoyed "Poisoned", the extension of Sleeping Beauty, about how perhaps the most appealing thing about our true love is the idea of them before they become a reality. "Beasts" has a great twist. "Steadfast; Tin" questions how much fate is our choice. And it end with "Ever/After" which is an uplifting tale to end the whole experiment. A fun, interesting read.
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