The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror

by Mallory Ortberg

From Mallory Ortberg comes a collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. Adapted from the beloved "Children's Stories Made Horrific" series, "The Merry Spinster" takes up the trademark wit that endeared Ortberg to readers of both The Toast and the best-selling debut Texts From Jane Eyre. The feature has become among the most popular on the site, with each entry bringing in tens of thousands of views, as the stories proved a perfect vehicle for Ortberg's eye for deconstruction and destabilization. Sinister and inviting, familiar and alien all at the same time, The Merry Spinster updates traditional children's stories and fairy tales with elements of psychological horror, emotional clarity, and a keen sense of feminist mischief.

Readers of The Toast will instantly recognize Ortberg's boisterous good humor and uber-nerd swagger: those new to Ortberg's oeuvre will delight in this collection's unique spin on fiction, where something a bit mischievous and unsettling is always at work just beneath the surface.

Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently, alarming emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves, and each other, as we tuck ourselves in for the night.

Bed time will never be the same.

• ISBN13: 9781250113429
• Publish Date: 9 April 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: St Martin's Press
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 208
• Language: English

Reviews

[leahrosereads]

The Daughter Cells - 3/5 - I wish it was longer and filled with more gore and horror. I'd love to see this story explored as a full-length novel.

The Thankless Child - 2/5 - I may not have the necessary smarts to really get this story, but I found it boring and not all that horrific. There are elements of it, but this definitely needed to be a couple more pages to really flesh it out fully.

Fear Not: An Incident Log - 1/5 - Religious retellings are usually not my cuppa tea to begin with, but I always try keeping an open mind. I read recently on Twitter to avoid using "boring" to describe books, so I'll try to explain why I disliked this so much outside of that word. I didn't feel like there was any depth to the narrator, and since this is called Tales of Everyday Horror, this story is probably the most lacking in horror. It wasn't horrific. It wasn't depressing. It didn't make me think. It just left me unimpressed.

The Six Boy-Coffins - 5/5 - The Merry Spinster may be the catchier title, but this IS the book. It's got the horror, it's got great characters, awesome narrative, and it's all in all some fantastic storytelling. This is the story I wish all the others were like.

The Rabbit - 5/5 - Easily the second best story in this collection, following The Six Boy-Coffins. Oh, the rabbit is one of the creepiest characters I've met in books/short stories/movies/what have you.

The Merry Spinster - 3/5 - A bland retelling that once again needed more pages to develop fully, and it needed probably better placement in the collection. It followed to fantastic stories, and it was completely lackluster compared to them.

The Wedding Party - 1/5 - I can't remember this story, and that's not a good thing. Most unremarkable story in this collection.

Some of Us Had Been Threatening Our Friend Mr. Toad - 3/5 - I don't know the original story/inspiration for this, but it was OK.

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters - 4/5 - The characters, mainly the mother, absolutely made this story. The plot and whatnot isn't great, but she's fantastic.

The Frog's Princess - 2/5 - Very disturbing, and I don't normally have issues with stories like this, but this one bothered me a bit. I'd say it could even be triggering for some people. Without spoiling anything, if you want to know, I can talk about it in DMs.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors - 3/5 - Another meh, not so horror-y story.

I really wish this wasn't labeled as Horror, because it's what I was expecting going into it. Ortberg can tell tales, but not always that convincing.

[lovelybookshelf]

I read this in one day, pretty much straight through! I couldn't get enough and wish the collection were longer. Daniel Mallory Ortberg took the darkest little threads found within fairy tales, sacred writings, and children's classics and let those themes bloom in all their horrific glory, packaged in stunningly beautiful writing. The Velveteen Rabbit retelling was my favorite, but every one of these stories was a winner. A twisted and imaginative collection.