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Red as Blood and White as Bone by Theodora Goss is a dark fantasy about a kitchen girl obsessed with fairy tales, who upon discovering a ragged woman outside the castle during a storm, takes her in--certain she’s a princess in disguise.
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63 Reviews
3.5
Rachel Green
Created 30 days agoShare
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“"I regarded fairy tales as infallible guides to life, so I did not complain at the hard work I was given, because perhaps someday I would meet an old woman in the forest, and she would tell me that I was a princess in disguise. Perhaps."
This tale joins the young protagonist in the pre-WWII region of Sylvania, serving as the maid for a baron who risks being disgraced and sent back to the nunnery for a mysterious raven-haired woman. The "princess" shows up in the midst of a rainstorm and Karla offers her shelter in her meager lodgings, hoping her superiors won't react poorly to her letting a stranger in the house while nobility visits to celebrate the engagement of the baron's son. I loved the detail the author teased the reader with in the story about how one of a hunting pair of wolves had been shot by the prince- It’s bad luck to kill the black wolves of the Karhegy-while Karla obsessed over putting her princess in the path of the prince to meet and to fall in love. The detail was clever in the beginning with the dress, the necklace, and the comb of the wolf princess but it felt like a bit of an afterthought as we rushed toward the end. Those things served their purpose to teach the value of stories to our dear Karla, who found her purpose in her own tale of resisting the Nazis and then the State to find herself in the shoes of the Wolf Princess, bargaining with the Grandmother of the Forest to save the stories of her people.
Merged review:
"I regarded fairy tales as infallible guides to life, so I did not complain at the hard work I was given, because perhaps someday I would meet an old woman in the forest, and she would tell me that I was a princess in disguise. Perhaps."
This tale joins the young protagonist in the pre-WWII region of Sylvania, serving as the maid for a baron who risks being disgraced and sent back to the nunnery for a mysterious raven-haired woman. The "princess" shows up in the midst of a rainstorm and Karla offers her shelter in her meager lodgings, hoping her superiors won't react poorly to her letting a stranger in the house while nobility visits to celebrate the engagement of the baron's son. I loved the detail the author teased the reader with in the story about how one of a hunting pair of wolves had been shot by the prince- It’s bad luck to kill the black wolves of the Karhegy-while Karla obsessed over putting her princess in the path of the prince to meet and to fall in love. The detail was clever in the beginning with the dress, the necklace, and the comb of the wolf princess but it felt like a bit of an afterthought as we rushed toward the end. Those things served their purpose to teach the value of stories to our dear Karla, who found her purpose in her own tale of resisting the Nazis and then the State to find herself in the shoes of the Wolf Princess, bargaining with the Grandmother of the Forest to save the stories of her people.”
Dani Christine
Created 30 days agoShare
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Meredith
Created 4 months agoShare
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“- Felt rushed
- Predictable
- Ending came out of nowhere (and not in a good way)
- The mix of old and modern was confusing
- Main character was an idiot but knew them self that they were an idiot?
- Some descriptions were beautiful, some didn’t really make sense
- Story was both too short and too long”
thriftynymph
Created 7 months agoShare
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“I love the setup and find the thin veil between fairytale and real life to be an interesting concept.
The second half of the story was a bit rushed and cramped with information though.”
Easy to readFast-pacedMagical settingUnsatisfying ending
Raluca Lupei
Created 8 months agoShare
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About Theodora Goss
Theodora Goss's publications include the short story collection In the Forest of Forgetting; Interfictions, a short story anthology co-edited with Delia Sherman; Voices from Fairyland, a poetry anthology with critical essays and a selection of her own poems; The Thorn and the Blossom, a novella in a two-sided accordion format; and the poetry collection Songs for Ophelia. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, Seiun, and Mythopoeic Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List, and has won the World Fantasy Award. She teaches literature and writing at Boston University and in the Stonecoast MFA Program.
Other books by Theodora Goss
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