Gorgeous, cruel and almost wistful windows onto the dreamscapes and hard lessons of Bardugo's] alternate universe ... fairy tales with all the darkness intact." -- NPR Book Review When Water Sang Fire 3.5 stars, maybe? I don't know, I'm very conflicted on this one. It had the Darkling in it, so that makes me happy. And I really loved the ending and what Ulla went out and did. But I felt kind of queer baited? I didn't like how Signy and Ulla's relationship went about, and I definitely felt the ending was the most predictable of all the stories. Pretty much the whole scene with Roth/Signy/Ulla annoyed me, but I was here for what Ulla did after that. I don't know this one is hard for me, I loved bits of it and felt nothing for other bits of it. Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love. So shut the window tight and make sure the latch is fastened. Dark things have a way of slipping in through narrow spaces.” The Too-Clever Fox” is a very fable-like story about (logically enough) a fox. Not a cute fox, though: an impressively ugly one. But Koja the fox is clever, and smart is more important than looks. I was thoroughly charmed by this animal fable, right up until the point Bardugo slapped Koja ― and me ― upside the head for thinking we had everything all figured out.

Marvelous tales, as full of twists and delights and strangeness as anything found in the Grimm Brothers. Leigh Bardugo is a master." —Kelly Link, author of Get in Trouble

Also, I listened to this on audiobook so for anyone interested the audio is great! It reminded me alot of Every Heart a Doorway in the style and tone of the narration and there was a lot of emotion put into conveying the characters and their situations. Really recommend the audiobook! The best way to describe it is “beautiful.” Because the illustrations are, and the book itself is, and the stories and the characters are, and of course the world, the Grishaverse, is unrelentingly beautiful too.

And so I have,” said Ayama in her loud, clear voice that echoed like a horn of war over the listening crowd. “His heart is mine and mine is his.” ... I absolutely loved this book. Everything about it was lovely. I highly recommend this if you really are a fan of the Grishaverse or just like fairytales. Bardugo can create such magic with her beautiful writing! This was exactly what I needed to restore my love for Bardugo's writing after I was disappointed in Shadow and Bone. This book is a collection of six fairytale-like illustrated stories set in the Grishaverse. All of these stories take inspiration from classic fairy tales, but I wouldn’t really call them retellings (except maybe the last one - When Water Sang Fire). Bardugo tells brand new stories with nods to the classics, such as The Little Mermaid and Hansel and Gretel, often leaving us with a very different ending or message than what we would have expected.Lushly designed and wonderfully rendered...Bardugo doesn’t twist familiar tales so much as rip them open." — Booklist, starred review Words cannot even begin to describe how much I loved The Language of Thorns. I am trying to find the right words but I can't. The best way to express my love is through this gif. There's very little I can say without coming off as cheap or sentimental. The Language of Thorns is a work best experienced. AHH. I listened to this one through the audiobook and it was amazing! Holy Crud! A+++ Artwork yet again was amazing. If you like, you may have me as supper. I warn you, though, I am stringy and tough. Only my tongue holds savor. I make a bitter meal, but excellent company.”

This is the one with too much animal killing. I gave it three stars in my original review because it had some tales within tales This new collection will intrigue, awe, frighten, and inspire both stalwart fans and new readers looking for a heady spoonful of fantasy." --Hypable It wasn't even that the book itself was bad, because there is no way that I can fault the writing, or the eeriness these stories possessed. Just that it wasn't for me. Will you remain here with the father who tried to sell you, or the prince who hoped to buy you, or the man too weak to solve his riddles for himself? Or will you come with me and be bride to nothing but the shore? (c)

Did we miss something on diversity?

Now their laws are different. They know the land is a place of danger. Yet still they long for a taste of mortal life. This is the problem with making a thing forbidden. It does nothing but build an ache in the heart. (c) urn:oclc:record:1392412043 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier languageofthorns0000bard Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s26mvsmjpwn Invoice 1652 Isbn 9781250122520 Lccn bl2017038197 Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-1-g862e Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9375 Ocr_module_version 0.0.15 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-WL-1200091 Openlibrary_edition I really enjoyed that one even though it kind of reminded me of a combination of “The Beauty and the Beast” and “Arabian Nights”. Well, if the beauty would have been a plain girl instead of a beauty and if the stories wouldn’t have had an ending. *lol*

The young man left silently through the front door of the house and headed east along the road, toward the sun rising in the gray sky. This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, each of them lavishly illustrated and culminating in stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves. And only Leigh Bardugo could bring me to tears while reading the sentence “I hope you stir the pot.”

The coveted Fan-Voted Award goes to When Water Sang Fire from Fjerda. Not a spoiler, Bardugo mentioned on social media a known character would make an appearance and posted a fairly obvious excerpt. (No, I won't tell you who is) You don't need to have read any of the Grishaverse novels to enjoy the six fables in this collection, all of which borrow elements from familiar stories and serve them up with a twist. The stories are dark and chilling, exploring themes of female empowerment, loyalty and being careful what you wish for. As she notes in the afterword, many fairy tales feature characters completing impossible tasks to win love or acceptance, but this has always felt... wrong somehow. Much of Bardugo’s work here is guided by a sense of dissatisfaction with traditional fairy tales; a sense that maybe the villains were not who we first thought, and that maybe the love of a handsome prince isn’t everything.