Alice Austin

A solid anthology. As usual, there are some stories one likes better than the others. Some are much darker than others, but come to think of it, yes, they all have certain dark aspects. I wasn't the biggest fan of the two classic fairy-tale re-tellings included - I think that apart from the twist to them they were just not new enough to me. The two stories "Gifts and curses" and "Crimson sails" contained quite some spelling and punctuation errors, which was a nuisance.
I love the cover - it looks so freaking good! - and I love that it wasn't just stories from the "usual suspects" like Celtic and Norse mythology (much as I love them) but there was also a story from Thailand (or South-East Asia) included. It was also cool that some of the stories were told in an old-fashioned manner and some like modern urban fantasies. The story of the Moddey Dhoo and "Sealskin" were my favourites. The book was a diverting read and sometimes pretty creepy. I'd love to own this as a physical edition, too.
I received this book from LibraryThing (with my old account Yuki_Onna) - Thank you, LT! - in exchange for an honest review.… (meer)

Folklore is a quick, enjoyable read, well written and put together in the form of short stories that allow the reader to take as much of a bite as they're inclined to at any given time. I read it over the course of a few evenings, one or two stories at a time.

The stories are apparently all re-tellings of existing folklore tales. I say "apparently" because there are several which I had not previously heard of. One criticism I have is that there is no mention of the origin of the original tales. This would be useful for readers such as myself who may not have encountered the stories previously.

Other than that, and the (very) occasional typo, I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a blend of horror and folk tales. Very enjoyable!

I received the ebook as an early reviewers edition.… (meer)