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Book cover of The Merry Spinster

The Merry Spinster

Tales of everyday horror

Daniel Mallory Ortberg

13
Coup de coeur
Coup de coeur (Sci-Fi/ Fantasy/Horror), by David M
The Merry Spinster is a terrifically twisted tongue-in-cheek retelling of an assortment of well-loved fairy stories, lesser known fables and the odd children's classic, ranging from The Little Mermaid to The Frog Prince, via The Wind in the Willows and The Velveteen Rabbit. Doused in wit, sass and genuine creepiness, The Merry Spinster is a dark, dry and deliciously unexpected treasury for our curious and tumultuous times.

'Dark and dreadful and persistently clever. Ortberg bloodily turns familiar tales inside out.' Rainbow Rowell

'A collection of stories delectable, formidable, and nimble. As a fantasist and short story writer, Ortberg is without peer.' Kelly Link

'Ortberg has a voracious appetite for poison apples, and a genius for finding the places in fairyland where all the bodies are buried. The Merry Spinster will ruin your most-loved fables, in the best possible way.' Charlie Jane Anders

'Ortberg has the sloe gin wit of Dorothy Parker and the soul of a Classics nerd. It's like both of them sat next to each other in The Merry Spinster and gossiped away. The result is an absolute delight.' John Scalzi

'Ortberg has created a Frankenstein's monster of familiar narratives . . . [that swings] between Terry Pratchett's satirical jocularity and Angela Carter's sinister, shrewd storytelling, and the result is gorgeous, unsettling, splenic, cruel, and wickedly smart. I've never read anything quite like them, and I bet, Dear Reader, that you haven't either.' Carmen Maria Machado


A collection of darkly mischievous stories based on classic fairy tales. 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.

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.

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Binding: Paperback
Publication date: 03 Oct 2019
Dimensions: 126 x 198 x 16 mm
ISBN: 9781472154125