Book Review: The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

November 22, 2017November 22, 2017 ~ aentee @ read at midnight ~ 16 Comments

36453128

Title: The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night

Author: Jen Campbell

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Series? No

Goodreads

Book Depository // Dymocks // Booktopia

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Hachette Australia in exchange for an honest review.

As a self-professed lover of fairy tales, their origins, and their reinvention, I was primed to love the whimsical and beautifully written collection of stories. Within these short stories readers will find tales imbued with the ghost of familiar fairy tales, intertwined in with historical facts that are stranger than fiction. The stories within this collection are driven by voices of the outcast, weaving the border between reality and fantasy, yet it remains consistently enchanting due to the beautiful imageries the writing conjures. The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night is a testament to the enduring power of fairy tales and their ability to withstand the test of time.

The Beginning of the World In the Middle of the Night

I’ll be reviewing some of my favourite stories within the collection below:

ANIMALS

First Lines: “These days, you can find anything you need at the click of a button.

That’s why I bought her heart online.”

The collection is off to a powerful and haunting start with Animals, a story set in a world where fickle and impermanent human hearts can be exchanged for hearts of a different kind – ones made of glass, or hearts which once beat in the chest of another animal. Fixated on finding the perfect heart for his girlfriend, the narrator of this story orders the heart of a swan. What follows is a tale that examines love and possession, intermingled with passages about hearts and animals from both myth and history. It’s fairy tale retelling meets Frankenstein: raw and visceral, dark yet beautiful, filled with human thirst – in short, it’s the perfect way to begin this collection. Continue reading “Book Review: The Beginning of the World in the Middle of the Night” →

Book Review: Girls Made of Snow and Glass

November 17, 2017November 17, 2017 ~ aentee @ read at midnight ~ 12 Comments

32768509

Title: Girls Made of Snow and Glass

Author: Melissa Bashardoust

Rating: 5/5 Stars

Series? No

Goodreads

Book Depository // Dymocks // Booktopia // Audible

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Pan Macmillan Australia in exchange for an honest review.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass is an exquisite retelling of Snow White, reinventing a tale about jealous queens and helpless maidens into a story of female empowerment. The familiar tale is dissected with precision and carefully imbued with new layers of complexities. The final result is a gorgeously rendered story about a glass queen and a snow princess, both working to defy the roles the men in their lives have forced upon them.

Girls Made of Snow and Glass

“If they love you for anything, it will be for your beauty.”

Mina first heard the phrase above when she was sixteen, in the same moment she learned she has a heart of glass – incapable of beating, and purportedly also unable to comprehend human love. Her father, Gregory, the power-obsessed magician who created the glass heart, is utterly convinced Mina is devoid of the potential for love. Instead, he persuades Mina that only her beauty can pave her way to any semblance of happiness. His words haunt Mina’s steps for several years, even as she becomes queen of the northern territories of Whitespring. As Mina ages, she can feel her youth and beauty slip from her. She becomes keenly aware of her precarious position in court as her stepdaughter, Lynet, blossom into the very image of her long-dead mother – the beloved queen Amelia. Continue reading “Book Review: Girls Made of Snow and Glass” →

Pre-Release Thoughts: The Bear and the Nightingale

October 26, 2016October 26, 2016 ~ aentee @ read at midnight ~ 37 Comments

bear-and-nightingale

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden is not released until January 2017, but I already know that it will be amongst my top ten list of next year. I adore immersive, dark, and atmospheric folklore retelling. This book dishes all of these elements up and more, here’s a sneak peek as to why you should pre-order this beautiful book.

Summary: In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, a stranger with piercing blue eyes presents a new father with a gift – a precious jewel on a delicate chain, intended for his young daughter. Uncertain of its meaning, Pytor hides the gift away and Vasya grows up a wild, willful girl, to the chagrin of her family. But when mysterious forces threaten the happiness of their village, Vasya discovers that, armed only with the necklace, she may be the only one who can keep the darkness at bay.

Preorder Via: Book Depository || Amazon || Booktopia || Bookworld Continue reading “Pre-Release Thoughts: The Bear and the Nightingale” →

Potterhead July: Tales of Beedle the Bard and the Power of Stories

July 28, 2016 ~ aentee @ read at midnight ~ 13 Comments

PotterheadJuly-Power-of-Stories

First of all, I would like to thank you to every single person who has contributed a post or commented on a Potterhead July post – you’ve made July truly magical. We have less than a week left until the release of The Cursed Child, and I hope we will all love it as much as we loved the adventures of Harry Potter.

Here’s my own entry for the Potterhead July festival, admittedly several weeks late because I am horribly disorganized and got consumed by Pokemon GO. I also wanted to chance to finish rereading The Tales of Beedle the Bard before I completed this post because I wanted it to be a truly informed and comprehensive discussion on the function of fictional works – both within our real lives and within the world of Harry Potter.

I remember my initial excitement over The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and how it made me felt closer to Harry Potter’s fantastical world. It felt right that young witches and wizards would also fall asleep to bedtime stories, and that these repeated stories should be more powerful than they seem. After all, isn’t this exactly what happens in real life? I have always loved books about stories, especially the ones that hid truths in plain sight or became more powerful with each telling. The Tale of the Three Brothers will eventually go on to become a fine example of this fact.

The wizarding’s world lack of fictional books prior to the reveal of Beedle the Bard have always struck me as odd. Here was a group of people living amongst the magic we Muggles could only dream of, yet they seemed utterly devoid of fictional imagination. Where was their equivalent for Tolkien, or Jane Austen, or J. K. Rowling? Entire generations of children grew up to be obsessed over Quidditch and love potion, where people poured over gossips penned by Rita Skeeter, yet where were the people in love with fictional universes? Hermione Granger, our resident bookworm, mentions only non-fictional biography or textbooks. Even Gilderoy Lockhart’s wildly fictitious accounts were based on the real life and works of other witches and wizards.

Naturally, the lack of fictional works in the world of Harry Potter had a very obvious explanation: it’s a gap in JKR’s immense world-building. To an avid fantasy reader like myself (and like most readers of Harry Potter), it’s an absence that made the wizarding world less believable – simply because I think a civilisation cannot exist in the absence of stories. Do wizarding folks simply not need fantasy because their life is literally magic? Do they not need grand legend and tales because, for them, Merlin and the philosopher’s stone are real? Somehow, I doubted this. When Tales of Beedle the Bard arrived, it saved me from a wizarding world identity crisis. It’s OK, everyone, they also grew up with stories, they also know of their power. Continue reading “Potterhead July: Tales of Beedle the Bard and the Power of Stories” →

Top Ten Tuesday: Must-Reads for Fairy Tale Enthusiasts

April 12, 2016 ~ aentee @ read at midnight ~ 39 Comments

I love doing Top Ten Tuesdays, I just wish I could be more consistent about it. This week’s theme is a semi-freebie, you’re meant to give your recommendation to a particular subset of people. I decided to target those who, like myself, adore fairy tales. I won’t be covering fairy tale retellings, because I’ve done that before. Instead, I want to recommend stories which follows fairy-tale narratives and possess the same timeless quality.

TTT-Faerytales-01

1. In The Night Garden by Catherynne Valente: Regulars of this blog will know that I mention this book in basically 80% of my recommendation posts. It’s my favourite of all time – and I plan to reread and review it on the blog this year to hassle you all into reading it (again). This is very loosely based on 1001 nights. Valente accomplishes the extraordinary feat of writing an expansive and immersive tale – spanning several lives and a multitude of stories. It’s multifaceted, subversive, and powerful. Continue reading “Top Ten Tuesday: Must-Reads for Fairy Tale Enthusiasts” →

Top Ten Tuesday: Fairy Tale Retellings

August 4, 2015 ~ aentee @ read at midnight ~ 78 Comments

As mentioned multiple times on this blog, fairy tale retellings are my favourite ever. So this Top Ten Tuesday made me jump in glee. As always it is hosted by The Broke and The Bookish!

The first fives are some of my all time most beloved books. Catherynne Valente and Juliet Marillier appears twice each because they are literary goddesses, for whom I am not worthy.

1. Heart’s Blood by Juliet Marillier is my favourite Beauty and the Beast retelling ever, and I have encountered them in numerous iterations. From the setting, to the complex characters, to the intense, passionate romance – every part of this book is perfect.

2. Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier is the book that made me converted from a fan to blind adoration and worship. Based off The Six Swans, this is a heartbreaking, intense, ultimately rewarding tale about the world’s best sister and her struggle to save her brother. Also the romance? Swoon.

3. In The Night Gardens + The City of Coins & Spices by Catherynne Valente is the 1001 Nights retelling everyone should be reading. I reread this series once a year, I will never shut up about it, I will also never stop being amazed at the sheer genius and mastery of language and plot in this story. There are literal hundreds of tales being tied together seamlessly. All the characters defy expectations, and amazing female characters bursting at the seams. Omg, read it, read it. I must review it when I reread it this year.

4. Deathless by Catherynne Valente gave me the world’s worst book hangover. This is a retelling of the Russian fairy tale Koschei the Deathless. At first a fairy tale, then a devastating tale of war, ultimately a dark story about love and finding one’s identity and omg feels. I want to reread this one, but the last time I read it I literally could not pick up another book for a whole week.

5. Fables by Bill Willingham is so fun, subversive, unexpected, and with amazingly beautiful art. I don’t often read graphic novels but I go gaga for this one. If you like Once Upon A Time TV show, you should be throwing yourself at these books because they are amazing and possibly better.

6. The Child Thief by Gerald Brom, I always knew Peter Pan was kind of an asshole (all kids are :P) so I am totally all for a dark retelling of it.

7. Speakeasy: 12 Dancing Princesses (possibly the world’s cutest fairy tale), the Roaring 20s, and CATHERYNNE VALENTE. I must have it.

8. The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness I’ve read and really enjoyed though it’d decidedly different from all his other novels (all his novels are different from one another, that’s why I love him). Plus it’s based on an Asian fairy tale not often portrayed at all in fiction (the only other instance I can think of is the manga Ceres).

9. The Darkest Part of the Forest in Holly Black sounds like a very interesting retelling of Snow White, plus it has good reviews from sources I trust. I am intrigued!

10. The Sleeper and The Spindle: Neil Gaiman, some princesses that saves themselves, and gorgeous illustrations. How do I not already own this? *goes off to bookdepository*

For more fairy tale retellings check out my two lists HERE & HERE.

What are your favourite retellings? THOUGH LBR I AM STALKING ALL YOUR TTT POSTS AS SOON AS I WAKE UP.