My favorite of the collection is by far The Soldier Prince, dealing in an entirely delicious way with so diverse material as The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, a Tale of the Steel Hedgehog (which admittedly is probably entirely obscure to non-Polish-speaking readers), several tales of Hans Christian Andersen, Collodi’s Pinocchio and the psychological meanders of individual growth, the realization of one’s own needs, emancipation, independence, becoming one’s self. Again, Bardugo’s stories are in no way an eye-opening revelation, but they are beautifully written, sparsely as befits a fairy tale, and yet with a distinctly poetic flair. Difficult topics such as pedophilia, serial killing, or conspiracy of silence are dealt with with enviable subtlety and enough magic to sweeten but not overwhelm the harsh reality. I was reminded of the Altered Carbon children’s tale of Mad Mikola while reading it, and that’s actually a compliment ). Much more interesting to me were the Slavic-themed tales, The Too-Clever Fox, Little Knife and especially The Witch of Duva, which artfully deals with the horrific aspects of the tales of Hansel and Gretel and The Red Riding Hood. It’s a postmodern tale with all the expected twists and turns, and even if it’s not entirely convincing, the fault might lay in the eye of beholder – after all, writing a fable in our times is a difficult task, with many hidden traps, one of the trickiest of which is the Disney-shaped mould modern stories tend to gravitate towards.

Ayama and the Thorn Wood is an emancipatory tale which I’d restrain from calling feminist due to the general pervading theme of liberating the monstrous within and deconstructing the perceived monstrosity. The only exception is the first fable, a postmodern spin on traditional Grimm’s and Perrault’s tales with an added hint of Oriental tradition of storytelling from One Thousand and One Night.

Six tales gathered from different parts of the Grishaverse correspond roughly with our own world’s Slavic (mostly Russian and Ukrainian, and a bit Polish too, by the sound of the names), and Nordic cultures. Though it would certainly do better without the lengthy and slightly cheesy subtitle, I think I understand the sentiment, especially that this book is advertised to an audience slightly younger than me ). As a novice to Bardugo’s writing, without any reading experience in Grishaverse, but with rather better knowledge in the areas of myth, fairy tale and fable, I can conclude that Language of Thorns is an inventive, pleasurable read, which pleases the eye as much as the mind, owing that to wonderful illustrations by Sara Kipin. Title: The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous MagicĪ collection of fables set in Bardugo’s Grishaverse, The Language of Thorns first came to my attention through Trang’s review on Bookidote.

The language of thorns paperback