Daniel M. Lavery

A delightful and delighted book. Reading this felt really intuitive and also like someone was rearranging the furniture in my brain. It is such a desperately good and theologically insightful book that's so, so incisive and kind (sometimes I try to explain my enjoyment of Danny Lavery's work by saying, "He's the best possible outcome of being raised extremely Protestant."). It is also extremely funny. Not every essay/piece bowled me over completely, but the ones that did--boy oh boy will I be thinking about them for a long, long time.… (meer)

3.5 *

Horror isn't my cup of tea, but Lavery (formerly Ortberg) is really good at leaving weird spaces that play with your assumptions and creating an atmosphere of dread.

I think my favorite was "The Thankless Child," vaguely sketched sci fi dystopia with lots of intriguing detail, about salt and a godmother. Wish it ended differently, but, horror. My second favorite was "The Daughter Cells," because of the worldbuilding but also, honestly, because Lavery really captures the archetype of The Prince in fairy stories, and he sucks.

Loved the strong current of genderfuckery running throughout the book---male daughters who owe the world their beauty, brothers named Sylvia and sisters named Paul, the discussion in the salt/stepmother story about who should be the husband and who the wife.… (meer)

What a delightfully weird batch of fairy tales. Ortberg takes the familiar Grimm/Hans Christian Anderson tales we know and points out the somewhat sinister, creeping shadows lurking within. Sentences are lyrically crafted, and in the AM I shall edit the review for each short story, hopefully (granted, most times when I say "I will edit this later" I uh, usually don't. But we'll see. edit: I did it!) Right off the bat, though, the story that made the biggest impression on me is still probably the first, "The Daughter Cells" and probably the inspiration for the cover art, a horrifying but true-to-the-tale take on The Little Mermaid (despite what Disney would have you believe, she ends in seafoam. Ortberg's version puts the power in the mermaid's hands.)

The Daughter Cells
What an opener! I knew that Ortberg was going to play some with gender and roles, but honestly, I'm surprised I hadn't read a take on mermaids that's like "Hey, the ocean is full of weird things why do we assume they're like us" (though I'm sure they exist). Again, I really love the ending and how self-satisfied the youngest daughter is with her voices.

The Thankless Child
Cinderella for seemingly a dystopian feudal society, with definite religious influences. I appreciated the pastor's son asking if he should take on the husband or the wife role.

Fear Not: An Incident Log
The least "fairytale" in tone, almost felt more like a sci-fi approach to angels.

The Six Boy-Coffins
There's so many Grimm tales that also involve transmogrification into birds... so why not combine two? I was familiar with neither, but it makes sense to mash them up, and give the siblings happy endings.

The Rabbit
Truly, what does it mean to be Real, and what are you willing to do for it? I am curious about exactly how the Rabbit seemingly sucked the life out of his boy, but it's very fantastic to let that remain a mystery.

The Merry Spinster
The titular tale, Beauty and the Beast but somehow in modern-ish times, based on the mother being an executive, and references to flashy cars and things that her two younger children wanted? It was okay, but I find myself wondering why this was chosen for the title and the Daughter Cells as the cover art.

The Wedding Party
I'm not familiar with the sources (and couldn't pinpoint where the Earl of Mar's Daughter came in, unless I missed a bird reference... I did skim this, a little). Poor David.

Some of Us Have Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad
I haven't read Some of Us Have Been Threatening Our Friend Colby before, but oooh. I remember reading The Wind in The Willows back in sixth grade thinking, "Huh, this is pretty grim, sending the protagonist to Hell". What if that was a recurring thing?

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters
Selkie tale plus Christianity! Also, a shitty grandma~!

The Frog's Princess
This was brief, and felt like it ended abruptly (re: the Frog Princess, it ends with the frog nestled in bed from the first night, though it implies this is now how his life will be). Some pronoun bending.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
It's been a while since I've read Frog and Toad are friends (though the influence here is the argumentative housemates). I'm surprised that neither died (I think).… (meer)

I've never laughed out loud while reading a book, until now. The chapter on Oliver Twist got me, with its hyperbolic descriptions of the misery of a British orphan's life, all written in neat text snippets, each one more absurd and (to me anyway) hilarious than the last. Not all the "conversations" in this book were such comedy gold however, but the ones that stood out were truly a joy to read (not to mention others might find humor in sections I didn't quite get). I'd recommend this book to anyone who's read some of the "Classics" as a light, witty, and surprisingly illuminating read.… (meer)