Sunday, October 13, 2013

Review & Giveaway: Rags & Bones by Melissa Marr & Others

Rags & Bones: New Twists on Timeless TalesRags & Bones by Melissa Marr & Others
Publisher: Little Brown Books for Young Readers
Release Date: October 22, 2013
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble
The best writers of our generation retell the classics.

Literature is filled with sexy, deadly, and downright twisted tales. In this collection, award-winning and bestselling authors reimagine their favorite classic stories, ones that have inspired, awed, and enraged them; ones that have become ingrained in modern culture; and ones that have been too long overlooked. They take these stories and boil them down to their bones, and then reassemble them for a new generation of readers.

My Thoughts:
I am usually not a huge fan of anthologies or short stories, but when I saw that the line up included in Rags & Bones I just had to get my hands on a copy!  I am so thankful that I did give this one chance because it was truly amazing.

Every story in this book was awesome and no I am not kidding.  Most short stories leave me feeling very unsatisfied and some tend to make me feel like I have stepped into the middle of a story, but the wonderful authors in this one had everything times perfectly and I can't honestly think of one bad thing to say about any of the stories.

Since I loved every story I thought I would just review my top 3 favorites.  Melissa Marr, Holly Black, and Carrie Ryan had in my opinion the strongest stories.  That does not mean that the rest weren't amazing, these three women just caught my attention a little bit more than the rest.

Melissa Marr gives us a look into the dark mind of a human who catches a selchie woman.  This story was deeply disturbing but also heart breaking.  What if you hurt everybody you knew and the only way for you to truly have someone in your life was if you had spellbinding rules that kept you from hurting them.  We get to find out what Leo does with this decision when he captures Eden.  I really fell into this story and Marr's writing like I always do when I read her words.  It was definitely my favorite and I only wish that one day we might see a selchie novel from her.

Carrie Ryan's story was just as fantastic as Marr's but very very different.  In this one we get to see what happens when mankind has to retreat to the Underground and live among the Machine.  The Machine is a place that isolates all humans, but gives them everything they could possibly need at the push of a button.  Food, bath, bed everything is included.  Tavil finds himself thrown into this strange world and after many years he has to decide whether to stay inside the technology filled walls or brave the Surface from which he is from.  I won't tell you what he decides, but I will say it is quite interesting to read his tale.  I think we as a community are so technology driven that it makes me really think about what would happen if this were reality.  I really loved that this story made me think!

And last but not least is Ms. Holly Black.  I love Black and her creepiness and her story was brilliant.  It showed what one will do to keep love at all costs.  I don't want to say too much about this one since it does have a surprise element to it that I loved, so I will just say that you won't be disappointed in this short story.  It is short but it packs an awesome punch that stays true to Ms. Blacks style!

I loved that this anthology was a collection of works inspired by other fairy tales.  It was very interesting to read the authors notes and why they chose what they did to write about.  This book will go on my favorites shelf and I foresee lots of rereading in my furture!

5 snowflakes

Thanks to the wonderful people at Little Brown we are able to offer one lucky reader their very own copy of Rage & Bones!  Just fill out the form below to enter!
Good luck!
Open to US only.

 

1 comment:

  1. I really want to read this book because of the great line-up. I love Carrie Ryan's other work, so I'm looking forward to her short story. I'm happy they all worked for you, since I always have trouble with anthologies. This sounds promising!

    Mel@thedailyprophecy.

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