Wow. This is my first time experiencing Christina Sng's writing voice, but it certainly won't be my last. She has such an incredible way with words, weaving together dark fantasy and horror, fairytales and social commentary — needless to say, I enjoyed this quite a lot. I don't think this leans as heavily on the “horror poetry” side as I expected it to, but I enjoyed the SFF and speculative elements to it all the same and found it a nice mixture of genres and themes.
Most of all, I loved the section of fairytale retellings and, without going into too much detail and risking spoilers, the way many of those stories blended into one another seamlessly. I tend to view most fairytales as singular beings separate from one another, and to view them as all being connected like this was such a fascinating take on the presentation that I really enjoyed.
Though this wasn't what I expected, I'm truly so happy I had the chance to pick it up because Sng's writing just blew me away. It made me desperately want to pick up more of her collections, starting with this one's predecessor, A Collection of Nightmares, which I have no doubt will be another instantly beloved piece of work for me.
Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this review copy in exchange for an honest review!
