Very creepy tales, thanks to Raincoast Books for an e-ARC! I learned very quickly that this is not a great one to read before bed! So creepy! This collection serves as some context for Albert’s The Hazel Wood series but as someone who hasn’t read the series, there were no difficulties in reading it as a standalone (and this comes from someone who has no idea what the series is about). Some stories have overlapping characters or hints from previous stories, but for the most part they’re each standalone and only connected by their setting, the Hinterland.

If you’ve read any traditional fairytales, Albert follows the same, very creepy style here — many warnings and lessons, few happy endings. And while some stories feel reminiscent of old tales, the author still finds lots of ways to creatively spin familiar stories and imagine up entirely unique worlds to give us more fodder for nightmares. Many stories of families here but hopefully nothing resembling your own relationships with family members.

I did enjoy the collection but something was just a little off for me, perhaps too creepy for my liking. But I did love how Albert reimagined old tales with an outspoken feminist spin, giving voice to women in these tales who are often paired with harsh men or given away by their families. It’s a bit of a revenge tale in some ways for them, especially her story, “The Skinned Maiden” which is likely drawn from the Swan Maiden.

My least favourites, “Alice-Three-Times” and “Death and the Woodwife” felt like there was too little going on and far too much, respectively. One wasn’t informational enough for my liking and the other was information overload, feeling like it could’ve been several stories in one. But I did have favourites as well: “Hansa the Traveler”, the first story that gave me a sense happy endings were few and far between in this collection, “Isla Waits”, a back-and-forth contest between a stubborn girl and Death, “The Mother and the Dagger”, the most immersive of the stories with a 2nd-person perspective, and “Twice-Killed Katherine”, following a magician, his daughter, and a spell that backfires.