Red as Blood

Red as Blood answers the burning question: What if the Disney Princesses were all Satanists?

That's probably not fair. Especially since this book was written before Disney Princesses became a thing. But it retells a bunch of fairy-tales and twists them around so that the good guys become bad guys, and the bad guys become misunderstood underdogs. Mostly by making the princesses worship Satan.

Like most short story collections, this was a bit of a mixed bag. There were a couple that I really liked. Anyone who makes Snow White a vampire has my heart forever. And the Beauty and the Beast tale was fun, even if it didn't seem like it belonged in the book. It's a science-fiction romp about falling in love with an alien, rather than a more traditional creepy fairy tale. But it was fun.

Some of them never quite came together. The Sleeping Beauty story was so ambiguous that I was just confused. And the Red Riding Hood tale, which admittedly had a great idea (Grandma is a werewolf), dragged on a bit. The problem was that most of these tales dealt in broad strokes. The more familiar I was with the story, the better this version of it worked. I liked the new twists on the tales I already loved. But if I didn't immediately recognize the inspiration, I ended up skipping the story entirely.

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