Review: An entirely unique collection of fairytales told from the inside out
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 1, 2013
In her first collection of fairytale adaptations, Views from the Tower, author Jessica Grey experimented with short flash-fiction retellings of classic fairytales. The collection revealed a talented storyteller with a unique perspective on some of our most familiar stories.Now Grey has done it again, but in a longer format. Views from the Depths is entirely unique storytelling. Grey takes four beloved fairytales -- The Little Mermaid, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and Beauty and the Beast -- and works them from the inside out. Each tale gets told in four ways from four of the characters inside the story. And each perspective reveals some of the depths that we miss out on if we only believe the Disney-fied version. Grey has found humanity deep in the heart of these tales of magic and magical beings. While this collection is not always the happy singing and dancing we might be used to, it's an interesting and thought-provoking way of looking at the fairytales that have become a part of how we see ourselves.I highly recommend this short collection of stories.