Initially I was going to stop at Gainman’s classic child horror tale, Coraline, but I saw that he has several fairytale adaptations in his repatoire so I felt I had to read them to complete my fairytale TBR pile.

Let’s get to it!

The Sleeper and the Spindle was the only “high school” level book which it really isn’t too high-school because of the same-sex kiss. Quelle horror. I mean the kiss was completely platonic too but I digress. It was my favorite one as he cleverly ties the tales of Snow White (now a queen on her wedding day) who decides she must complete one last mission and save the neighboring kingdom from its sleeping plague and wall of thorns. Aka Sleeping Beauty. Sure, no one is explicitly named, even the dwarfs, as it comments within the text, but you can tell.

However, it’s not just a cool mash-up but an insidious twist, touching on Snow’s own traumatic past and her desire to be a good leader. Just the best of the bunch.

Snow, Glass, Apples, is definately for adults if one couldn’t tell by the first page spread of erotic. I mean it’s tastefully done as Doran it mimics the style of stained glass art (the whole book does) but it gives you an impression of the atmosphere of the book. Daark, sexy and grimm in turns as this Snow White is a eerie beautiful vampire whose lies founded the tale we know but the Queen is here to tell us the truth in her final moments.

Also a really good book with how it manipulates the elements we know, the dwarfs, the apples, and the sorcery with bits from older tales like necrophilic princes and iron-forged shoes. This was just a masterclass in creatively twisting a tale, and I changed my mind this is my favorite one.

Hansel and Gretel is a pretty straight retelling with no twists except for the woodcut-like illustrations by Lorenzo Mattotti. I guess it’s a good primer but didn’t see much creative input that makes this distinctly Gainman. Which I would define as darkly whimsical. Like Tim Burton! It’s what made the Coraline movie so good. I highly recommend the first two novels and maybe next year, I’ll dive into some of his classic works like Good Omens.