Beyond the Woods: Fairy Tales Retold by Paula Guran (Edited by)

Here's an interesting mix of fairy tales with horror and dread sprinkled through the stories.  You won't think of your fondest fairy tales without remembering what these authors thought up!

Night Shade Books and Edelweiss gave me the opportunity to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published July 5th.

This book is 536 pages so you get lots of stories.  Many of the authors are well established and well read.  I prefer fantasy to horror, but some of these stories still stuck with me.

Here's the list of contents:

• Tanith Lee – “Red as Blood”
• Gene Wolfe – “In the House of Gingerbread”
• Angela Slatter – “The Bone Mother”
• Elizabeth Bear – “Follow Me Light”
• Yoon Ha Lee – “Coin of Hearts Desire”
• Nalo Hopkinson – “The Glass Bottle Trick”
• Catherynne M. Valente – “The Maiden Tree”
• Holly Black – “Coat of Stars”
• Caitlín R. Kiernan – “Road of Needles”
• Kelly Link – “Travels with the Snow Queen”
• Karen Joy Fowler – “Halfway People”
• Margo Lanagan – “Catastrophic Disruption of the Head”
• Shveta Thakrar – “Lavanya and Deepika”
• Theodora Goss – “Princess Lucinda and the Hound of the Moon”
• Gardner Dozois – “Fairy Tale”
• Peter S. Beagle – “The Queen Who Could Not Walk”
• Priya Sharma – “Lebkuchen”
• Neil Gaiman – “Diamonds and Pearls: A Fairy Tale”
• Richard Bowes – “The Queen and the Cambion”
• Octavia Cade – “The Mussel Eater”
• Jane Yolen – “Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn”
• Steve Duffy – “Bears: A Fairy Tale of 1958”
• Charles de Lint –“The Moon Is Drowning While I Sleep”
• Veronica Schanoes – “Rats”
• Rachel Swirsky – “Beyond the Naked Eye”
• Ken Liu – “Good Hunting”
• Kirstyn McDermott – “The Moon’s Good Grace”
• Peter Straub – “The Juniper Tree”
• Jeff VanderMeer – “Greensleeves”
• Tanith Lee – “Beauty” 

My favorites were Peter S Beagle's "The Queen Who Could Not Walk" and Jane Yolen's "Memoirs of a Bottle Djinn."

Give this anthology a read and then let me know which stories you liked best!